AUNT SARAH’S CUCUMBER PICKLES

Always use the cucumbers which come late in the season for pickles.  Cut small green cucumbers from vine, leaving a half-inch of stem.  Scrub with vegetable brush, place in a bowl and pour over a brine almost strong enough to float an egg; 3/4 cup of salt to seven cups of cold water is about the right proportion.  Allow them to stand over night in this brine.  Drain off salt water in the morning.  Heat a small quantity of the salt water and pour over small onions which have been “skinned.”  Use half the quantity of onions you have of cucumbers, or less.  Allow the onions to stand in hot salt water on back of range a short time.  Heat 1 cup of good sharp cider vinegar, if too sour, add 1/2 cup of water, also add 1 teaspoonful of sugar, a couple of whole cloves; add cucumbers and onions (drained from salt water, after piercing each cucumber several times with a silver fork).  Place a layer at a time in an agate stew-pan containing hot vinegar.  Allow them to remain a few minutes until heated through, when fill heated glass jars with cucumbers and onions; pour hot vinegar over until jars are quite full.  Place rubbers on jars and screw on tops.  These pickles will be found, when jars are opened in six months’ time, almost as crisp and fine as when pickles are prepared, when taken fresh from the vines in summer.  Allow jars to stand 12 hours, when screw down tops again.  Press a knife around the edge of jar tops before standing away to be sure the jars are perfectly air-tight.

“ROT PFEFFERS” FILLED WITH CABBAGE

Cut the tops from the stem end of twelve sweet (not hot) red peppers or “rot pfeffers,” as Aunt Sarah called them.  Carefully remove seeds, do not break outside shell of peppers.  Cut one head of cabbage quite fine on a slaw-cutter; add to the cabbage 1 even tablespoonful of fine salt, 2 tablespoonfuls of whole yellow mustard seed (a very small amount of finely shredded, hot, red pepper may be added if liked quite peppery).  Mix all together thoroughly, fill peppers with this mixture, pressing it rather tightly into the shells; place tops on pepper cases, tie down with cord.  Place upright in stone jar, in layers; cover with cold vinegar.  If vinegar is very strong add a small quantity of water.  Tie heavy paper over top of jar and stand away in a cool place until used.  These may be kept several months and will still be good at the end of that time.

AN OLD RECIPE FOR SPICED PICKLES

500 small cucumbers. 2 oz. of allspice. 3 gallons vinegar. 1/4 pound of black pepper. 3 quarts salt. 1 oz cloves. 6 ounces of alum.  Horseradish to flavor.

Add sugar according to strength of vinegar.  Place cucumbers and pieces of horseradish in alternate layers in a stone jar, then put salt over them and cover with boiling water.  Allow pickles to stand 24 hours in this brine, then pour off brine and wash pickles in cold water.  Boil spices and vinegar together and pour over the pickles.  In two weeks they will be ready to use.  Pickles made over this recipe are excellent.