PICKWICK PAPERS 



1662 



PICRIC ACID 



arc placed in a saucepan and boiled for five 

 minutes, and the resulting liquid is poured hot 

 over the pickles. Before the jars are sealed and 

 put away the pickles must be left in a warm 

 place for twenty-four hours, hot vinegar being 

 added now and then to make up for shrink- 

 age. If the vegetables used are naturally soft, 

 cold vinegar is preferred by some, as hot 

 vinegar tends to soften the pickle. After the 

 jars I it is a good idea to let the 



pickles stand for two months before serving 

 them. 



The careful housewife and the honest manu- 

 facturer will take pains not to use vessels made 

 of metal, either in making or storing pickles, 

 for the brine and vinegar are liable to form a 

 poisonous deposit by corroding on the metal, 

 and thus injure the pickle. Boiling vinegar in 

 copper vessels causes a green salt to form, a 

 poisonous substance which colors the pickles 

 green. Unscrupulous dealers sometimes pur- 

 posely color their product in this way. A harm- 

 It -s< though somewhat difficult method of col- 

 oring the pickles green consists in steeping 

 vine, cabbage, spinach or parsley leaves in the 

 vinegar. 



Indian pickle, or piccalilli, is a popular relish 

 consisting of a mixture of pickled cucumbers, 

 onions, cauliflower and spices, the vegetables 

 being finely chopped. Chowchow, similar to 

 it. consists of tomatoes, onions, green peppers, 

 cinnamon, allspice, cloves, peppercorn, mus- 

 tard, salt and horseradish. The popular dill 

 pickle is a cucumber pickle flavored with the 

 her!) known a.s dill. Excellent sweet pickles are 

 made from cherries, plums, peaches, pears, 

 apples and grapes, and from many vegetables. 

 The sugar used in making sweet pickles causes 

 them to have a duller shade of green than the 

 sour ones. 



Pickles are excellent for relieving the monot- 

 ony of a meal and for making more palatable 

 any insipid foods that may be served, but it is 

 worthy of emphasis that they must be eaten in 

 great moderation, for they are not easy to 

 digest. A pickle, however, is more digestible 

 than the raw vegetable from which it is made, 

 for vinegar tends to dissolve meat and vege- 

 table fibers. Pickles contain a high per cent 

 of water and a low per cent of protein, fat 

 and carbohydrates, and are stimulating rather 

 than nutritive (see FOOD, subhead Chemistry 

 of Foods). B.M.W. 



PICKWICK, pik'wik, PAPERS, or more cor- 

 rectly, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick 

 Club, a story by Charles. Dickens, published 



M-rially in 1836-1837. With the exception of 

 the brief Sk> tchrs by Boz, it was Dickens' first 

 work, and it is in some way> ln> best. It at- 

 tempts to tell no real story, and the original 

 idea of a club on its travels becomes but a 

 thread connecting scores of incidents, grotesque, 

 dramatic and pathetic. In no other work is 

 Dickens' humor so free and so riotous. Sam 

 Weller. Tony Weller. with his marital diilicul- 

 ties, Mrs. Bardell and her friends, Sergeant 



PlUClU 



POSTHUMOUS PAPERS 



PERAMBULATIONS. PERILS.TRAVELS, ADVENTURES 



LONDON; CHAPMAN & HALL. lae. STMWD 

 THE TITLE-PAGE 



The illustration is drawn from the title-page of 

 the original edition. On it appears the author's 

 autograph, which he wrote for his sister-in-law, 

 to whom the book was given. 



Buzfuz, the fat boy, are but a few of the 

 characters who are a permanent source of 

 amusement to all who have once made their 

 acquaintance. Perhaps there is no other char- 

 acter in all .of Dickens so well known as Sam 

 Weller, whose appearance in the fifth number 

 raised the Papers from comparative failure to 

 such popularity as no story before published 

 in England had ever attained. See DICKENS, 

 CHARLES. 



PICRIC, pik'rik, ACID, a substance formed 

 by combining carbolic acid and sulphuric acid 

 and adding nitric acid slowly to the mixture. 

 It appears in the form of yellow crystals. Pic- 



