EXTENSION COURSE IN VEGETABLE FOODS. 61 



bacteria. Young cucumbers and other green vegetables often are 

 packed in salt as they are gathered and then kept until a convenient 

 time comes for their further preparation for pickles. Greens, string 

 beans, and similar vegetables used to be packed in salt like young 

 cucumbers. Thoroughly freshened in the winter, they afford an 

 agreeable variety. Now canned vegetables are more convenient. 



Smoking is very commonly combined with drying and salting as a 

 means of preserving foods, but almost exclusively with meats and fish. 



Sauerkraut, a German preparation of cabbage, is evidently the 

 survival of an ancient way of preserving the vegetable. The process 

 is somewhat akin to the ensiling of forage for animals. Domestic 

 methods vary more or less. According to one recipe, firm cabbage is 

 sliced, packed with alternate layers of salt (sometimes a few caraway 

 seeds are added), and the mass is pressed down solidly under a 

 weighted cover. After a little while fermentation takes place and 

 the liquor which rises to the top is poured off and more salt and water 

 added. According to another method, finely cut cabbage is mixed 

 with salt and packed solidly into a cask or other container. In about 

 six days scum will rise to the top of the liquor which collects on the 

 top of the sauerkraut, and should be removed. The cask or other 

 container should stand in a cool cellar. In about two weeks more the 

 kraut will be ready for use. Experienced housekeepers know that the 

 sauerkraut should be covered with a piece of board scrubbed until it 

 is clean, with a well-scrubbed stone on top of the board to weight it 

 down. The acid developed by the fermentation works upon the tough 

 fibers of the cabbage leaf, making them more tender. Sauerkraut 

 should be kept in a cool place, and when needed should be squeezed 

 as dry as may be and cooked like fresh cabbage. 



Cucumbers packed in salt will undergo fermentation, a fact taken 

 advantage of in home pickle making. The salted cucumbers can be 

 freshened from time to time in the winter and pickled in vinegar. 

 Dill pickles are made with cucumbers packed in a similar way and 

 flavored with dill, a seasoning herb which finds a place in many old- 

 fashioned gardens. 



From similar methods other types of pickles may have been 

 evolved. 



EXERCISE. LESSON XII. 



DRYING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Materials needed. — Frames covered with cheesecloth or white mosquito net- 

 ting ; these may be sections of boxes, even of heavy pasteboard. 



Exercises. — The essentials in drying vegetables are cleanliness, heat, and 

 circulation of air. The more rapid the process the less the danger of bacteria, 

 ferments, and molds. 



