La cuisine creole

Prépare your cucumbers as usual by letting them stay a few days in brine, or if time is an object scald them in brine, and then proceed to pickle them. The same brine may be used many times, pouring it boiling hot on each mess of cucumbers. If you hâve no vinegar convenient drop your scalded cucumbers into a mixture of one part whiskey and three parts water. Secure them carefully from the air, and by Christmas they will be fine, firm, green pickles, and the whiskey and water will be excellent vinegar. Add spices after they are pickled. If you do not wish all your pickles spiced, keep a stone-pot of well-spiced vinegar by itself, and put in a few at a time as you want them. CUCUMBER AND ONION PICKLE. Take a dozen fine crisp cucumbers and four large onions. Cut both in thick slices, sprinkle sait and pepper on them, and let them stand. Next day drain them well and scald them in boiling vinegar; cover close after scalding. Next day scald again with a bag of mace, nutmeg and ginger, in the vinegar ; then place them in jars and cork close. If the vinegar seems to have lost its strength, replace with fresh, and put the bag of spices in again to keep the flavor. OLD-TIMB SV7EET PICKLED CUCUMBERS. Put your cucumbers in brine for eight days; slice them without soaking; let the slices be an inch thick. When cut, soak them until the sait is nearly ont, changing the water very often. Then put them in à kettle, with vine leaves laid between the layers; cover them well with leaves, and sprinkle pulverized alum ail through them, to harden and green them, then cover with vinegar, and set them on the back of the stove until they become green. Take the cucumbers out and boil them a little in ginger tea (half an hour will be enough). Make a syrup of one quart of strong vinegar, and one pint of water, three pounds of sugar to four pounds of cucumbers, with one ounce of cinna- mon, cloves, mace and whîte ginger to every ten pounds of fruit. Make this syrup hot, and put in the cucumbers and boil them until clear. When they are clear take them out and boil the syrup until it is thick enough to keep. Pour it over the cucumbers, which should hâve been placed in jars ready for the syrup. They are now ready to use, or seal up, as may be desired. If not convenient to pickle after eight days' sait brining, it does not hurt to let them remain a few days longer. PICKLED EGGS. When eggs are abundant and cheap, it is well to pickle some for a time of scarcity. Boil three or four dozen eggs for half an hour, let them cool, and then take off the shells, and place them in wide-mouthed jars, and pour over them scalding vinegar. Season the vinegar with whole pepper, cloves, or allspice, ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. When cold, they must be bunged down very close. Let them be well covered with the vinegar, and in a month they will be fit for use. The above pickle is by no means expensive, and as an accompaniment to cold méat is not to be surpassed for piquancy and goût. SWEET PICKLE OF FIGS. Put the figs in brine at night; in the morning, or after being in brine about twelve hours, take them out, wash ofif the sait, and put them in alum water for three hours. Then take them out and scald them in hot water until heated through. Make a syrup of a quart of vinegar, a pint of sugar with a tablespoonful of cinnamon, mace, and cloves each; boil half an hour, and pour on the figs boiling hot. Bepeat the boiling next day, and bottle up and seal for future use. SWBET PLUM PIOKLB.