Elder Pickle

Ingredients

• a quart of good vinegar
• loz. of white pepper
• loz. of sliced ginger
• a little mace
• pimento to taste

Method

1. 1

   Boil the vinegar with white pepper, sliced ginger, mace, and pimento.

2. 2

   Pour over elder shoots and let stand by the fire for two hours, turning the jar often.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves (1902) by S. Beaty-Pownall, page 50. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a quart of good vinegar with loz. each of white pepper and sliced ginger, with a little mace and pimento to taste. French Beans, to pickle. — Choose young eveu-sized PICKLES AND PRESERVES 101 beans, wipe them in a clean cloth and lay them in strong brine for three days, stirring them daily; now put them into a pan covered with vine leaves, and till up with weak salt and water, and let them cook over a gentle fire till they turn green; then drain them, put them into jars, and pour boiling spiced vinegar over them. Mind it should cover them by quite two inches. Gherkins are excellent preserved in this way. Fruit, to pickle. — When the fruit trees require thinning in the spring, collect all the green fruit thus thinned out, such as apricots, apples (green and young), nectarines, peaches, plums, «fec., and throw them as gathered into a pan of cold vinegar ; then collect every sortof vegetable, such as gherkins, cucum- bers (cut in jin. rings, and the seeds removed), nas- turtiums, young carrots, turnip radishes, cauliflower broken into sprays, little onions, French beans, &c., and put these also into the cold vinegar. Let these all stand till September or October, when to a gallon of vinegar you. add 4oz. each of black and white pepper, ginger, and mixed spice (mace, allspice, cloves), |lb. yellow mustard seed, one nutmeg grated, two sticks of horseradish, 2oz. of salt, 5oz. of chillies, and 4oz. mustard flour, mixed to a smooth paste with a little of the vinegar. Boil this all up together, put it into jars and cover down when cold. Mind there is enough liquid to cover it all well. This is often called Piccalilli. Grapes, to pickle. — Choose the grapes when full grown but still unripe, and cut them into little bunches ; now put them into a stone jar with vine 102 PICKLES AND PRESERVES. leaves under and above each layer, and cover it all with some good brine ; lay vine leaves over the top, tie them down with a clean cloth, and then cover with a plate. Let them stand in this for twenty-four hours, then lift them out, lay them on a clean cloth, cover with another, and leave them till dry. Meanwhile, boil together two quarts of vinegar, one quart of spring water, and lib. of coarse sugar, and skim off all the scum as it rises ; then let it stand till cold. Now dry the first jar carefully, put in some fresh vine leaves, and lay in the grapes again with more vine leaves between each layer ; then pour the clear part of the pickle over the grapes, being careful that they are well covered by the vine- gar, and place a flannel -covered board on the top to keep the fruit well under the liquid ; then cork and cover down closely. Take them out with a wooden spoon only, and be very careful to cover down the jar each time, or they will certainly be spoiled. For the brine, dry and crush a pound of bay salt, and dissolve it in as much cold spring water as you want to cover the grapes, adding enough best salt to make a brine that will bear an egg. Let this all boil well together, carefully removing all the black scum, and when it has boiled for fifteen minutes, put it aside to cool and settle, pouring the clear part, when almost cold, over the grapes. Lemons, to pickle, — Wipe eight good lemons care- fully, then gash them equally four times, from stalk to crown, but without dividing them ; now stuff them with as much salt as you can make them hold, and lay them in a deep dish, in a sunny window, or a PICKLES AND PRESERVES. 103 warm place for a week or ten days, keeping them often turned and basted with their own liquor ; then rub them well with loz. or 2oz. of pale turmeric, and put them with their juice into a stone jar, with two or three cloves of garlic, peeled, and twelve small onions, each stuck with two cloves. Now in two quarts of white wine vinegar boil fib. of slightly bruised ginger, fib. mustard seed and 2oz. whole black peppers, and pour this all, straight off the fire, on to the lemons, cover the jar with a plate, let it stand till next day, then add to it six or seven capsicums or chillies, and cover. Limes make a delicious pickle in the same way, but should only lie in the salt four or five days, and all the salt (of which 2oz. will be required for every six limes), left unmelted must be put into the jar with them, before pouring in the vinegar, &c. Melons, to pickle. — Take a couple of melons before they are quite ripe, pare off the rinds, remove all the seeds, and slice the flesh about half an inch thick. Steep these in good white wine vinegar for a week or ten days, then cover them with cold fresh vinegar and simmer them very gently in this, till perfectly tender. Now drain them thoroughly on a reversed sieve, and when cold, stick each slice with a couple of cloves, put them into glass jars and cover with cold syrup made by boiling together a pint of water and lOoz. of sugar for twenty minutes. In a week, lift them out of this syrup, drain them a little, again put them into glass jars and pour over them sufficient white wine vinegar (previously scalded and allowed to get cool) to cover 104 PICKLES AND PRESERVES. them perfectly, and cover down. This is a German recipe, and is an excellent way of using up the last melons of the season, which will not ripen properly. The melons should be about three days or so of being ripe. Mushrooms, to piclcle. {Button.) — Take the tiny button mushrooms, and after well cleaning them with a flannel, lay them in cold white wine vinegar, and bring this very slowly to the boil, now drain them well, till cold, then put them in glasses and cover with white vinegar, previously scalded and left till cold. For this, choose the white meadow mush- rooms, freshly gathered ; cut the stems off close, and wipe the mushrooms well with a damp flannel dipped in fine salt, throwing them as done into lightly salted water ; when all are done, dry them carefully between dry clean cloths. (Unless this is attended to the quality of the pickle will be weakened.) Now to a quart of vinegar put If teaspoonfuls of salt, ^oz. of white pepper

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.