Make a brine of salt and water, with a quarter of a pound of salt to a quart of water. Soak the walnuts in this for a week, and if you wish to have them ready the sooner, run a larding pin through them, in half a dozen places, which will make them much softer and better flavoured. Put them into a stew-pan with the brine, and give them a gentle simmer. Lay them on a sieve to drain, then put them on a fish plate in the open air, a couple of days, or till they turn black. Put them into unglazed or stone jars, about three parts full, and fill up the jars with the following pickle;[13] and when they have been done about a week, open them and fill them up again, and so on continually, or else they will be spoiled.

Put a sufficient quantity into salt and water for nine days, observing to change the water every day; next put them into jars and pour fresh boiling salt and water over them, cover them close up till they are cold, then make a second decoction of salt and water, and pour it on boiling. When it is cold drain the onions on a hair sieve, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles; fill them up with distilled vinegar; put into every bottle a slice or two of ginger, a blade of mace, and a tea-spoonful of sweet oil, which will keep the onions white. Cork them well up, and keep them in a dry place.

Take a large strong wooden vessel, or cask, resembling a salt-beef cask, and capable of containing as much as is sufficient for the winter’s consumption of a family. Gradually break down or chop the cabbages (deprived of outside green leaves,) into very small pieces; begin with one or two cabbages at the bottom of the cask, and add others at intervals, pressing them by means of a wooden spade, against the side of the cask, until it is full. Then place a heavy weight upon the top of it, and allow it to stand near to a warm place, for four or five days. By this time it will have undergone fermentation, and be ready for use. Whilst the cabbages are passing through the process of fermentation, a very disagreeable fetid, acid smell is exhaled from them; now remove the cask to a cool situation, and keep it always covered up. Strew aniseeds among the layers of the cabbage during its preparation, which communicates a peculiar flavour to the Saur Kraut at an after period.

In boiling it for the table, two hours is the period for it to be on the fire. It forms an excellent nutritious and antiscorbutic food for winter use.

This consists of all kinds of pickles mixed and put into one large jar—girkins, sliced cucumbers, button onions, cauliflowers, broken in pieces. Salt them, or put them in a large hair sieve in the sun to dry for three days, then scald them in vinegar for a few minutes; when cold put them together. Cut a large white cabbage in quarters, with the outside leaves taken off and cut fine, salt it, and put it in the sun to dry for three or four days; then scald it in vinegar, the same as cauliflower, carrots, three parts boiled in vinegar and a little bay salt; French beans, rock-samphire, reddish pods, and nastertiums, all go through the same process as girkins, capsicums, &c. To one gallon of vinegar put four ounces of ginger bruised, two ounces of whole white pepper, two ounces of allspice, half an ounce of chillies bruised, four ounces of turmeric, one pound of the best mustard, half a pound of shalots, one ounce of garlic and half a pound of bay salt. The vinegar, spice, and other ingredients, except the mustard, must boil half an hour; then strain it into a pan, put the mustard into a large basin, with a little vinegar; mix it quite fine and free from lumps, then add more; when well mixed put it to the vinegar just strained off, and when quite cold put the pickles into a large pan, and the liquor over them; stir them repeatedly so as to mix them all; finally, put them into a jar, and tie them over first with a bladder, and afterwards with leather. The capsicums want no preparation.

Put what quantity is wanted into a clean pan, throw over it two or three handsful of salt, and cover it with spring water for twenty-four hours; next put it into a clean saucepan, throw in a handful of salt, and cover it with good vinegar. Close the pan tight, set it over a slow fire, and let it stand till the samphire is green and crisp; then take it off instantly, for should it remain till it is soft, it will be totally spoiled. Put it into the pickling pot and cover it close; when it is quite cold tie it down with a bladder and leather, and set it by for use. Samphire may be preserved all the year by keeping it in a very strong brine of salt and water, and just before using it, put it for a few minutes into some of the best vinegar.

Put the smallest that can be got into spring water, and rub them with a piece of new flannel dipped in salt. Throw them into cold water as they are cleaned, which will make them keep their colour; next put them into a saucepan with a handful of salt upon them. Cover them close and set them over the fire four or five minutes, or till the heat draws the liquor from them; next lay them betwixt two dry cloths till they are cold; put them into glass bottles and fill them up with distilled vinegar, with a blade of mace, and a teaspoonful of sweet oil in every bottle; cork them up close and set them in a dry cool place; as a substitute for distilled vinegar, use white wine vinegar, or ale. Allegon will do, but it must be boiled with a little mace, salt, and a few slices of ginger, and it must be quite cold before it is poured upon the mushrooms.

Bruise a quantity of well-grown flaps of mushrooms with the hands, and then strew a fair proportion of salt over them; let them stand all night, and the next day put them into stew-pans; set them in a quick oven for twelve hours, and strain them through a hair sieve. To every gallon of liquor put of cloves, Jamaica black pepper, and ginger, one ounce each, and half a pound of common salt; set it on a slow fire, and let it boil till half the liquor is wasted; then put it into a clean pot, and when cold bottle it for use.

Let them be as free from spots as possible; take the smallest that can be got, put them into strong salt and water for nine days, till they become yellow; stir them at least twice a day; should they become perfectly yellow, pour the water off and cover them with plenty of vine leaves. Set the water over the fire, and when it boils, pour it over them, and set them upon the earth to keep warm. When the water is almost cold make it boil again, and pour it upon them; proceed thus till they are of a fine green, which they will be in four or five times; keep them well covered with vine leaves, with a cloth and dish over the top to keep in the steam, which will help to green them.

When they are greened put them in a hair sieve to drain, and then to every two quarts of white wine vinegar put half an ounce of mace, ten or twelve cloves, an ounce of ginger cut into slices, an ounce of black pepper, and a handful of salt. Boil them all together for five minutes; pour it hot on the pickles, and tie them down for use. They may also be pickled with ale, ale vinegar, or distilled vinegar, and adding three or four cloves of garlic and shalots.

To a peck of sprats put two pounds of salt, three ounces of bay-salt, one pound of salt-petre, two ounces of prunella, and a few grains of cochineal; pound all in a mortar, put into a stone pan first a layer of sprats, and then one of the compound, and so on alternately to the top. Press them down hard; cover them close for six months, and they will be fit for use, and will really produce a most excellent flavoured sauce.

Boil the fish gently till done, and then take it up, strain the liquor, add bay leaves, pepper corns, and salt; give these a boil, and when cold add the best vinegar to them; then put the whole sufficiently over the fish to cover it, and let it remain a month at least.

Fish may be preserved in a dry state, and perfectly fresh, by means of sugar alone, and even with a very small quantity of it.

Fresh fish may be kept in that state for some days, so as to be as good when boiled as if just caught. If dried, and kept free from mouldiness, there seems no limit to their preservation; and they are much better in this way than when salted. The sugar gives no disagreeable taste.

This process is particularly valuable in making what is called kippered salmon; and the fish preserved in this manner are far superior in quality and flavour to those which are salted or smoked. If desired, as much salt may be used as to give the taste that may be required; but this substance does not conduce to their preservation.

In the preparation, it is barely necessary to open the fish, and to apply the sugar to the muscular parts, placing it in a horizontal position for two or three days, that this substance may penetrate. After this it may be dried; and it is only further necessary to wipe and ventilate it occasionally, to prevent mouldiness.

A table spoonful of brown sugar is sufficient in this manner for a salmon of five or six pounds weight; and if salt is desired, a tea spoonful or more may be added. Saltpetre may be used instead, in the same proportion, if it is desired to make the kipper hard.

For three hams pound and mix together half a peck of salt, half an ounce of salt prunella, three ounces of salt-petre, and four pounds of coarse salt; rub the hams well with this, and lay what is to spare over them, let them lie three days, then hang them up. Take the pickle in which the hams were, put water enough to cover the hams, with more common salt, till it will bear an egg, then boil and skim it well, put it in the salting tub, and the next morning put it in the hams; keep them down the same as pickled pork; in a fortnight take them out of the liquor, rub them well with brine, and hang them up to dry.

Lay the meat on a table or in a tub with a double bottom, that the brine may drain off as fast as it forms, rub the salt well in, and be careful to apply it to every niche; afterwards put it into either of the above utensils; when it must be frequently turned, after the brine has ceased running, it must be quite buried in salt, and kept closely packed. Meat which has had the bones taken out is the best for salting. In some places the salted meat is pressed by heavy weights, or a screw, to extract the moisture sooner.

A good brine is made of bay salt and water, thoroughly saturated, so that some of the salt remains undissolved; into this brine the substances to be preserved are plunged, and kept covered with it. Among vegetables, French beans, artichokes, olives, and the different sorts of samphire, may be thus preserved, and among animals, herrings.

Mix brown sugar, bay salt, common salt, each two pounds, saltpetre eight ounces, water two gallons; this pickle gives meats a fine red colour, while the sugar renders them mild and of excellent flavour.—Large quantities are to be managed by the above proportions.