Mazdaznan encyclopedia of dietetics and home cook book

After cleaning a number of the above mentioned well selected articles steep them in a strong brine composed of salt and filtered or distilled water. It is best to use stone or earthenware. Place all the articles desired for pickling into a large colander, set into a larger dish and pour over it all boiling hot salt brine. Draw off and repeat the treatment every five to ten minutes up to a half dozen times. Allow the contents to remain in the last poured on brine until cool. Draw off the brine. Bottle the selection, and cover with pickling sauce to the very top. Make pickling sauce of one part of reboiled cider vinegar and one part aged chianti or Nebiolo vinegar (claret vinegar will do, too), add to each pint three bay leaves, twelve each of allspice, whole black pepper, cloves, one teaspoonful mustard seeds, two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Bring to boiling point and pour on the selection. Another good way is to use one-half of the brine to one-half of vinegar. All vinegar must be thoroughly fermented and thrice reboiled before finally boiled for mixing. The remaining brine should not be discarded but prepared with spices and rinds of lemon and citron and bottled. The latter has been used to great advantage in heart troubles, malaria and fevers. Spiced condiments will be found of great remedial value in the spiritually or morally based. Used in small quantities with wholesome foods, particularly baked or broiled vegetables, free from additional water, will prove a surprisingly beneficial effect in disorders that our pharmacopoeal potions could not even phase. When well let spiced condiments alone. Should be used only when negative. But in cases of severe colds do not use pickled condiments. GHERKINS. Commercial gherkins are practically unfit for medicinal purposes. The proper way to prepare them is as follows : Select finger-thick green pickles ; wash them well ; place them in cold salt brine for eight hours. Take them out and dry them with a clean towel. Put them layer upon layer into glass jars, adding to each layer the desired quantities and kinds of spices and herbs, taking care not to use many cloves, if any. Now boil well strained vinegar, adding one tablespoonful of sugar to each pint of vinegar. (Cider vinegar or grape vinegar only should be used. The better way is to mix claret with vinegar, half and half, weeks beforehand and let it stand in a jug near the fireplace.) The vinegar should reach the boiling point over a quick fire and immediately be poured on the gherkins, making sure that the liquid covers the contents to the very top. Screw the tops on tight and immediately wax, placing jars in a dark, dry, cool place. May be used after six vv^eeks. Do not use ground mustard in your pickling. All seeds must be used whole. The physically based can use gherkins to a great advantage when under the weather and a little out of sorts. DILL PICKLES