Page:Art of Cookery 1774 edition.djvu/303

Rh they will be fit to eat. Observe to throw them out of the boiling water into cold, and then dry them.

SET a pot of spring-water on the fire; when it boils, put in your beets, and let them boil till they are tender, then peel them with a cloth, and lay them in a stone jar; take three quarts of vinegar, two of spring-water, and so do till you think you have enough to cover your beets. Put your vinegar and water in a pan, and salt to your taste; stir it well together, till the salt is all melted, then pour them on the beets, and cover it with a bladder, do not boil the pickle.

TAKE the large white plumbs; and if they have stalks, let them remain on, and do them as you do peaches.

THEY are done the same as the peaches. All these strong pickles will waste with keeping; therefore you must fill them up with cold vinegar.

TAKE your onions when they are dry enough to lay up in your house, such as are about as big as a large walnut; or you may do some as small as you please. Take off only the outward dry coat, then boil them in one water without shifting, till they begin to grow tender; then drain them through a cullender, and let them cool; as soon as they are quite cold, slip off two outward coats or skins, slip them till they look white from each other, rub them gently with a fine soft linen cloth, and lay them on a cloth to cool. When this is done, put them into wide-mouth'd glasses, with about six or eight bay-leaves. To a quart of onions, a quarter of an ounce of mace, two large races of ginger, sliced; all these ingredients must be interspersed here and there, in the glasses among the onions; then boil to each quart of vinegar two ounces of bay-salt, skim it well as the scum rises, and let it stand till it is cold; then pour it into the glass, cover it close with a wet bladder dipped in vinegar, and tie them down. This will eat well, and look white. As the pickle wastes, fill them with cold vinegar.