Old-Time Sweet Pickled Cucumbers

Ingredients

• Put your cucumbers in brine for eight days
• let the slices be an inch thick
• three pounds of sugar
• four pounds of cucumbers
• one ounce of cinnamon
• one ounce of cloves
• one ounce of mace
• one ounce of white ginger
• one quart of strong vinegar
• one pint of water

Method

1. 1

   Slice cucumbers and soak in brine.

2. 2

   Boil with vinegar, sugar, and spices until clear.

3. 3

   Pack in jars with syrup.

As published

This recipe was extracted from La cuisine creole (1885) by Lafcadio Hearn, page 45. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

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 pînt of water, three pounds of sugar to four pounds of cucumbers, with one ounce of cinna- 110 LA CUISINE CREOLE. mou, 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 id 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 foui* 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, gin- ger, 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 sur- passed 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 LA CUISINE CREOLE. 111 quart of vinegar, a pint of sugar with a tablespoonf ul 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. T^e eight pounds of fruit, four pounds of sugar^ two quarts of vinegar, one ounce of cinnamon and one of cloves. Boil the vinegar, sugar and spîces to- gether; skim it carefully and pour it boiling on the fruit; pour it ofî, and skim and scald each day for three days; it will then be fit for use. If for putting away, scald it the fourth time and cork up tightly. Plums prepared in this way are superior to the old way, with sugar alone. GREEN TOMATO SWEET PICKLE. Slice tomatoes until you hâve seven pounds, sprinklè them with sait, and let them stand twenty-f our hours. Then soak them for the same length of time in fresh water to get the brîne from them. When drained oflf and ready, allow four and a half pounds of sugar, one ounce of cinnamon, one ounce of cloves

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