EXTENSION COUKSE I1ST VEGETABLE FOODS. 69 



HERB VINEGARS. 



Herb vinegars are useful for the housekeeper's store closet, as by 

 their means a new flavor is easily added to a salad sauce. They may 

 be prepared either in Lesson X or here by steeping fresh or dried 

 herbs, such as tarragon tops, in cold or hot vinegar. Some of the 

 more delicate flavors may be lost by heating, but the cold process is 

 slower. 



PICKLES AND SAUCES. 



The word " pickle " is applied to the process of preserving foods, 

 either with salt or vinegar, or both. Thus meats are pickled in brine, 

 either a saturated solution of salt and water or the water which the 

 dry salt draws out of the foods themselves, which are often three- 

 quarters or more water. When the term is applied to vegetable 

 foods it is commonly understood to mean preservation with vinegar, 

 either with or without the addition of other materials, as salt, spices, 

 or sugar. In some cases, as in dill-pickle making, the acid is supplied 

 by the fermentation of the product itself and not by adding vinegar. 

 The number and variety of fruits and vegetables used in pickle mak- 

 ing is almost endless, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and green or un- 

 ripe fruits being most common. 



An old household name for pickles in which the flavor of vinegar, 

 predominates is " sour pickles." Those in which spices are particu- 

 larly noticeable are frequently spoken of as " spiced pickles " or 

 " spiced fruits," and those in which sugar predominates as " sweet 

 pickles." 



The transition is gradual from the acid fruits preserved with 

 sugar and spice to the sweet pickles where somewhat tasteless vege- 

 table tissue has been filled with vinegar instead of natural fruit acid 

 and spiced and sweetened. 



By using them for pickle making the thrifty housewives of earlier 

 times contrived to make attractive most unpromising food materials 

 as well as common fruits, etc., for instance, the rinds of the water- 

 melon, the unripe windfalls from the fruit tree, martynias, cucum- 

 bers, ripe tomatoes, and the green tomatoes remaining when frost had 

 killed the vines. Even young ears of corn 2 or 3 inches long are 

 used for pickles. Though the kernels have already formed, the cobs 

 are tender and will absorb the vinegar. 



Some materials are more satisfactory for pickle making if first 

 soaked in salt water to extract acrid flavors. Special treatment of 

 this sort is required with such materials as green melons, but with the 

 more common fruits and vegetables used in pickle making there 

 seems to be little difference in results, whether they are soaked over- 

 night in that fashion or whether they are parboiled in salt water. 



