cold salt and water, which has been boiled and skimmed. A quantity
of vinegar, enough to cover them well, should be boiled with whole
pepper, mustard-seed, small onions, or garlic, cloves, ginger, and
horseradish; this should not be poured upon them till it is cold. They
should be pickled a few months before they are eaten. To be kept close
covered; for the air softens them. The liquor is an excellent catsup
to be eaten on fish.

Put peppers into strong salt and water, until they become yellow;
then turn them green by keeping them in warm salt and water, shifting
them every two days. Then drain them, and pour scalding vinegar over
them. A bag of mustard-seed is an improvement. If there is mother in
vinegar, scald and strain it.

Cucumbers should be in weak brine three or four days after they are
picked; then they should be put in a tin or wooden pail of clean
water, and kept slightly warm in the kitchen corner for two or
three days. Then take as much vinegar as you think your pickle jar
will hold; scald it with pepper, allspice, mustard-seed, flag-root,
horseradish, &c., if you happen to have them; half of them will spice
the pickles very well. Throw in a bit of alum as big as a walnut;
this serves to make pickles hard. Skim the vinegar clean, and pour
it scalding hot upon the cucumbers. Brass vessels are not healthy
for preparing anything acid. Red cabbages need no other pickling than
scalding, spiced vinegar poured upon them, and suffered to remain
eight or ten days before you eat them. Some people think it improves
them to keep them in salt and water twenty-four hours before they are
pickled.

If you find your pickles soft and insipid, it is owing to the weakness