1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



247 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



Making Pickles. 



This is the season for making pickles, «and we 

 are sure many of our female readers will thank 

 us for inserting the following extracts from Miss 

 Beecher's Receipt Book : 



Pickles. — Do not keep pickles in common 

 earthen ware, as the glazing contains lead, and 

 combines with the vinegar. 



Vinegar for pickling should be sharp, but not 

 the sharpest kind, as it injures the pickles. If 

 you use copper, bell metal, or brass vessels for 

 pickling, never allow the vinegar to cool in them, 

 as it then is poisonous. Add a table spoonful of 

 alum and a teacup of salt to each three gallons of 

 vinegar, and tie up a bag with pepper, ginger- 

 root, and spices with all sorts in it, and you have 

 vinegar prepared for any kind of common pick- 

 ling. 



Keep pickles only in wood or stone ware. — 

 Anything that has held grease will spoil pickles. 

 Stir pickles occasionally, and if there are soft 

 'Ones, take thers out and scald the. vinegar, and 

 pour it hot over the pickles. Keep enough vin- 

 egar to cover them well. If it be weak, take 

 fresh vinegar, and pour on hot. Do not boil 

 vinegar or spice over five minutes. 



To Pickle Tomatoes. — As you gather them, 

 throw them into cold vinegar. When you have 

 enough, take them out, and scald some spices 

 tied in a bag, in good vinegar, and j)0ur it hot 

 over them. 



Fine Pickled Cahhage. — Shred red and white 

 cabbage, spread it in layers in a stone jar, with 

 salt over each layer. Put two spoonsful of whole 

 black pepper, and the same quantity of allspice, 

 cloves and cinnamon, in a bag, and scald them 

 in two quarts of vinegar, and pour the vinegar 

 over the cabbage, and cover it tight. Use it in 

 two days after. 



To Pickle Caulifioioer or BrocoJi. — Keep 

 them twenty-four hours in strong brine, and then 

 take them out and heat the brine, and pour it on 

 scalding hot, and let them stand till next day. 

 Drain them, and throw them into spiced vinegar. 



To Pickle Onions. — Peel, and boil in milk 

 and water ten minutes, drain off the milk and 

 water, and poui' scalding spiced vinegar on to 

 them. 



To Pickle Gherkins. — Keep them in strong 

 brine till they are yellow ; then take tliem out 

 and turn on hot spiced vinegar, and keep them 

 in it in a warm place, till they turn green. Then 

 turn off the vinegar, and add a fresh supply of 

 hot, spiced vinegar. 



Mangoes. — Take the latest growth of young 

 muskmellons, take out a small bit from one side, 

 and empty them. Scrape the outside smooth, 



and soak them four days in strong salt and wa- 

 ter. If you wish to green them, put vine leaves 

 over and under, with bits of alum, and steam 

 them awhile. Then powder cloves, pepper, and 

 nutmeg in equal portions, and sprinkle on the 

 inside, and fill them with strips of horseradish, 

 small bitsof calamus J bitsof cinnamon and mace, 

 a clove or two, a very small onion, nasturtions, 

 and then American mustard seed to fill the crev- 

 ices. Put back the piece cut out, and sew it on 

 and then sew the mango in cotton cloth. Lay 

 all in a stone jar, the cut side upward. 



Boil sharp vinegar a few minutes, with half a 

 teacup of salt, and about a tablespoonful of alum 

 to three gallons of vinegar, and turn it on to the 

 mellons. Keep dried barberries for garnishes, 

 and when you use them turn a little of the above 

 vinegar of the mangoes heated boiling hot on to 

 them, and let them swell a kw hours. Sliced 

 and salted cabbage with this vinegar poured oa 

 hot is very good. 



An Improvement in Bread-making. — Per- 

 sons who are so unfortunate as to be poorly pro- 

 vided with those agents of mastication, good teeth, 

 -vill be glad to know that there is a method of 

 making bread which obviates the necessity of a 

 hard crust. The crust commonly attached to the 

 loaf is not only troublesome to such persons, but 

 is often the cause of much waste. The way to 

 be rid of it is as follows : When the loaves are 

 moulded, and before they are set down to 'rise,' 

 take a small quantity of clean lard, warm it, and 

 rub it lightly over the loaves. The result will 

 be a crust beautifully soft and tender throughout. 

 This is not guess-work. — Prairie Farmer. 



CoiiN Meal Cakes. — Excellent breakfast 

 cakes can be made in the following manner : 

 Mix two quarts of corn mesl, at night, with wa- 

 ter, and a little yeast and salt, and make it just 

 thin enough to stir easy. In the morning stir in 

 three or four eggs, a little saleratus, and a cup 

 of sour milk, so as to leave it thin enough to pour 

 out of a pan ; , bake three-quarters of an hour, 

 and you will have light, rich honeycomb cakes 

 — and with a good cup of coffee and sweet but- 

 ter at breakfast, one finds with Hamlet, "in- 

 crease of appetite to grow with what it feeds on. 



Frying Fish. — A writer in the Boston Cour- 

 ier says that fresh fish should never be put into 

 cold fat when they are to be fried. They thus ab- 

 sorb it, and become unfit to eat. The fat should 

 be plenty enough to prevent the fish sticking to 

 the pan, and boiling hot when the fish is put in. 

 It is thus cooked quickly, and is in fine eating 

 order when taken up. These rules will not ap- 

 ply to meats. 



The Pear leaf has 24,000 pores to the square 

 inch, on the under side. The Pink has about 

 38,500. Some plants have as many as 160,000. 



