BOILED BEANS

Select small, young string beans, string them carefully and boil in salt water, in a brass kettle, until tender, and throw them on a large, clean board to drip.  Next morning press them into a jar, with alternate layers of salt and beans, and proceed as with string beans.

CORN

Boil the corn, cut it off the cobs, and pack in jars in alternate layers of salt and corn.  Use plenty of salt in packing.  When you wish to cook it soak in water overnight.  Pack the corn in this way:  First a layer of salt, half an inch deep; then about two inches of corn; then salt again, and so on.  The top layer must be salt.  Spread two inches of melted butter over the top layer and bind with strong perforated paper (perforate the paper with a pin).  Keep in a cool cellar.

PICKLES AND RELISHES

Use none but the best vinegar, and whole spices for pickling.  If you boil vinegar with pickles in bell metal do not let them stand in it one moment after taken from the fire, and be sure that your kettle is well scoured before using.  Keep pickles in glass, stoneware, or wooden pails.  Allow a cup of sugar to every gallon of vinegar; this will not sweeten the pickles, but helps to preserve them and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.  Always have your pickles well covered with vinegar or brine.

MOTHER’S DILL PICKLES

Examine the cucumbers carefully, discard all that are soft at the ends, and allow them to lay in water overnight.  In the morning drain, and dry them with a clean towel.  Then put them in a wooden pail or jar, along with the dill, putting first a layer of dill at the bottom then a layer of cucumbers, a few whole peppers, then a layer of dill again, and so on until all are used, and last lay a clean, white cloth on top, then a plate and a stone to give it weight, so that the pickles will be kept under the brine.  To a peck of cucumbers use about a cup of salt.  Dissolve the salt in enough cold water to cover them.  You may add one or two tablespoons of vinegar to the brine.  If the cucumbers are small, and if they are kept in a warm place, they will be ready for the table in five or six days.  If salt pickles have turned out to be too salty, just pour off the old brine and wash the pickles and then examine them closely, and if they are spoiled throw them away.  Lay those that are sound in a clean jar and pour over them a weak solution of salt water, into which put a dash of vinegar.  Always examine the pickles weekly.  Take off the cloth, wash it, and remove all the scum that adheres to the pail, and lay a clean cloth over the pickles again.  Do not use more than a cup of salt in the new brine, which must be thoroughly dissolved.  You will find among Salads a nice recipe wherein salt pickles are used. (See “Polish Salad,” or “Salad Piquant.”) It is a good way to make use of pickles in winter that have become too salty for ordinary use.