346 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
water goes in and restores the plumpness. Soaked 
pickles with their tissues full of water being put in- 
to vinegar readily become penetrated by that liq- 
uid. The question of salting pickles has nothing 
to do with flavor, as the finest pickles arc those 
from which the salt is most completely soaked. 
One of the most frequent questions is, "How can 
I make pickles like those put up at the factories ?" 
■ — We have answered this more than once, but will 
repeat, that the pickles referred to are put up in 
colorless vinegar made from whiskey. Diluted 
whiskey will make a vinegar which is almost 
colorless and of a pure sour taste. Cider makes 
a vinegar which has a color, it is true, but a 
most agreeable flavor. Home-made pickles should 
be prepared with regard to flavor rather than 
appearance. As a general rale, vegetables to 
be pickled are first put into brine, then soaked 
to "freshen them, and then placed in vinegar, 
which may be spiced or not, according to taste. 
One point is to be noticed: when freshened pickles 
are put into not very strong vinegar, the water 
wilh which their tissues are filled, so weakens the 
vinegar that the pickles are not only not sour 
enough to the taste, but not enough so to keep well. 
It is not necessarj' to enumerate the things that 
may be pickled, as there are but few fruits or vege- 
tables that may not be so treated — pickled peaches 
are delicious and pickled purslane is not to be de- 
spised — a wide range surely. Some good house- 
keepers have, besides the regular cucumber and 
other standard pickles, ajar of 
Mixed, or Indian Pickle. — The basis of this is 
usually sliced cabbage, and cauliflower broken into 
bits and put into brine. After these are ready, they 
are covered with spiced vinegar; and then such 
pickle materials, fruits, or vegetables as occur 
during the season, are added from time to time, 
taking care that the newly added things are cover- 
ed by the vinegar. At the close of the season the 
vinegar is drained off, heated to the boiling point, 
and poured over the pickles ; this is repeated two 
or three times, when the pickles are stored away for 
use, and are usually better the second year than the 
first. Iu the making of the spiced vinegar, proba- 
bly no two will agree. As a suggestion we give 
two recipes. The various directions differ greatly, 
the chief object seems to be to get in enough spice. 
In looking them over, we are reminded of the 
toper's directions for making punch, "too much of 
lemons, 6ugar and whiskey, and not enough wa- 
ter." — One recipe gives: Vinegar, G pints; salt, }4 
11).; bruised ginger root and whole mustard seed, 2 
oz. each; mace, 1 oz.; shallots, % lb.; Cayenne 
pepper, a dessert spoonful, and some sliced horse- 
radish. Simmer together for a few minutes, then 
put into a jar and cover close. Another, claimed 
to be " very superior," directs for each gallon of 
vinegar 6 cloves of garlic, 13 shallots, 2 sticks of 
sliced horseradish, 4 oz. bruised ginger, 3 oz. whole 
black pepper, 1 oz. allspice, 12 cloves, }£ oz. Cay- 
enne pepper, 3 oz. mustard seed, ^ lb. mustard 
(ground) and 1 oz. turmeric. All the above, except 
the mustard and turmeric, are put into the jar with 
cabbage, cauliflower, and other pickle vegetables, 
and the vinegar boiled and poured overthem. The 
ground mustard and turmeric are to be made into 
a paste, with cold vinegar added. 
A Farmer's Holiday. 
BT CONNECTICUT. 
We do not mean the fair when we speak of a 
farmer's holiday. They are good, and we ad- 
vise every farmer and his wife and children to 
go once a year and take their best products with 
them. But if yon take up your herd of sis best 
Ayrshires, and Joe takes the working cattle, and 
Ben takes the stallion, and your wifh takes the but- 
ter, and Susan takes the bread and the bedquilt, 
and the flowers, you will have a pretty busy time of 
it, and will fjel when night comes that the fair is 
so much like work, that you cannot call it play. 
A picnic will do. A Sabbath-school picnic if you 
please— if nobody has to make a formal speech— or 
to be bored with one. But a day of absolute rest 
we insist upon, as one of the best things that can 
befall a farming community. We work hard ; we 
are isolated ; we have too little social enjoyment ; 
and some of us have almost forgotten how it would 
seem to be turned into onr own green fields and 
forests with no care upon our minds. Now, to have 
a good time, we want some pleasant spot as the 
place of gathering — a lake with wooded banks, the 
sea shore, a grove, a hill or mountain with berries 
or nuts, or some amusement for the children and 
young folks. It should not be so far off or so ex- 
pensive to reach tint any will be deterred from 
going. Let every family take along its own pro- 
visions and make common stock at the gathering. 
Then we want congenial society ; men and women 
of like tastes and sympathies, so that there shall 
be no worry about dress or grammar; no stiffness 
or stilted propriety; Then the less management 
the thing has, the better. Tou want some one or 
more to take the responsibility of appointing the 
time and the place, and of giving the invitations; 
and then let the amusements be determined by the 
tastes of the company. If you cannot trust the 
company to arrange this matter, you should not be 
of the party. An excursion by rail or steamer is a 
very good thing ; as then there are no horses to be 
fed at the place of gathering, and there is no care 
except for the picnic baskets. The entire change 
of scene, the ride or sail, is a great refreshment. 
But in this case the company will have to be much 
larger to make the thing pay, and the manager will 
have to take much more responsibility. We lately 
fell upon a party of this kind encamped for the day 
in a beautiful grove upon the shores of one of the 
lakes iu which New England abounds. The rail- 
road ears dropped the company at the grove which 
had been conveniently fitted up for such occasions. 
There was abundant shade, green grass, nice 
springs, flowers, and rustic seats and tables for a 
multitude. We hail the multiplication of these 
places of rural resort, away from cities and grog 
shops, as a good omen of our times. Let us have 
more of Nature and occasionally a day of rest. 
Domestic Wines. 
Here is quite a file of letters asking how to make 
wine of blackberries, elderberries, strawberries, and 
— of all things iu the world, tomatoes. We think 
that, taken as a whole, these compounds are more 
productive of evil than of good. All fruit juices, 
some with and some without the addition of sugar, 
will make alcoholic liquids, which arc by some used 
"medicinally," and by others in the exercise of 
hospitality. Many of our readers can recollect 
having swallowed vile compounds of this kind 
rather than offend the kind hostess who presented 
it saying, "it is only some blackberry wine that 
I made myself." — Of the medicinal value of these 
"wines" we have strong doubts. If alcohol is 
needed as a remedy, which it sometimes is, but less 
frequently than many suppose, a physician will pre- 
scribe pure whiskey in preference to any of these 
domestic productions. Alcohol is the same thing, 
no matter how produced, and whiskey contains a 
nearly constant proportion of this, while the home- 
made "wines" may be stronger or weaker, and be 
more or less qualified by a greater or less amount of 
sugar, and aromatic or other principles contained in 
the fruit from which it is made. There is a great 
deal of nonsense about the medicinal effects of 
blackberry, elderberry, and other "wines." We 
have noticed that when these things were known to 
be in the house, the complaints which they are sup- 
posed to cure were of more than ordinary occur- 
rence. That blackberry cordial, for we do not con- 
sider it a wine, may be sometimes useful we do not 
doubt ; but put the blackberries in a jug, and cover 
them with whiskey and call it "tincture of black- 
berry," and keep it as a medicine ; the sole virtue 
of which over and above the stimulating quality of 
the whiskey is due to a little astringency derived 
from the berries, and in this particular a handful of 
the blackberry root is worth a bushel of berries. 
So much for the medical view. As to the question 
of hospitality — at the present time it is the excep- 
tion where wines are offered to visitors. We be- 
lieve, with our present knowledge, that it is better 
not to offer them at all. We kaow that there are 
many who thiuk differently. There is scarcely an 
Agricultural Fair but that offers premiums for Cur- 
rant, Strawberry, Blackberry, Rhubarb, and other 
" wines." We never tasted one of these com- 
pounds that was not an abomination, and a desecra- 
tion of the fruit from which it was made. If the 
managers of our fairs would exclude all these things 
they would do well. They should not be made, 
encouraged, nor offered to one's friends. We think 
that hospitality can be manifested without present- 
ing wines or liquors to one's guests. Did we hold 
the opposite view, we should say that the only pre- 
seutable things were pure whiskey, pure grape wine, 
and pure cider. Not that we advocate fhem, but 
one offered these, knows exactly what he is taking. 
About the Egg-Plant. 
C. Mathers writes that we speak in praise of the 
Egg-Plant, but do not givctlirections for cultivating 
or cooking it. It is rather late now to talk about 
its cultivation, but if our correspondent had look- 
ed under the head of Kitchen Garden in Hints 
about Work, he would have found sufficient said 
upon the subject. In brief, they require the same 
culture as tomatoes. The plauts must be started 
in the hot-hed or in the house, and given a rich and 
sheltered spot iu the garden. As an article of food, 
the fruit is much liked by those who are accustom- 
ed to it, while others positively dislike it. In this 
respect it is much like tomatoes. The fruit is sliced 
and fried, being served as a dinner or breakfast dish. 
It has no positive flavor, being only a rich, marrowy 
substance. The best way, according to our notiou, 
is to pare the fruit, cut it into slices half an inch 
thick, and theu salt the pieces and stack them up- 
on a plate. In an hour or two they will have part- 
ed with considerable water. They are then to bo 
dipped in egg and sprinkled with cracker crumbs 
and filed. Serve very hot. Cooked in this way 
they are, to our taste, very acceptable. Filed, with- 
out the covering of egg and crumbs, they take up 
much fat and are very indigestible. The fruit is 
used at any time before the seeds become hard. 
■m- —81 ■— 
Melon Mangoes. — The late, small, and 
smooth muskmelons are used for this pickle. Cut 
out a plug at the stem-end, or, as some prefer it, 
from the side ; scrape out the cou tents, replace the 
plug and secure it with a wooden pin, and put the 
melons thns prepared into a strong briue. When 
they have been in the brine for twenty-four hours 
or more, they are ready for stuffing. The stuffing is 
made of any pickle material at hand : shredded cab- 
bage, broken cauliflower, small onions and cucum- 
bers, green beans, peppers, mustard seed, nastur- 
tiums, scraped horseradish, and the like. Cabbage 
and the other stuffing, except the aroiuatics, are bet- 
ter for being scalded and cooled. Stuff the melons 
according to fancy, and then sew each plug in its 
place by means of a needle and coarse thread. 
Place the stuffed melons in a jar, add cloves, pep- 
per, and other desired spice, and pour boiling vine- 
gar over them. Repeat the scalding of the vinegar 
for three days in succession. 
Tomato Pie, by Mrs. K. T. H., Seviervillc, 
Tenn. — Take two large ripe Feejee or other Toma- 
toes of the same size, drop them into boiling water 
to remove the skin, theu, with a sharp knife, cut 
them into thin slices, put the crust in an ordinary 
pic-pan, as for berry pie ; cover the bottom with a 
layer of the Tomatoes, then a layer of sugar and 
butter, then of tomatoes, then of sugar and but- 
ter as before ; flavor with either lemon, orange 
peel, or nutmeg, to the taste. Cover with the top 
crust, bake, and bring to the table hot — (cold toma- 
to-pie is not good). Two very large tomatoes, two 
tablespoonfuls of sugar, and one of butter, are 
enough for oue pie, baked in a pan ten inches 
across. If there are too much tomato, sugar, and 
butter put into one pie, there will be too much 
juice: a little practice iu making will make all riuht. 
