Page:Art of Cookery 1774 edition.djvu/308

270 fill them either with distilled vinegar, or the sugar-vinegar of your own making, with half spring-water.

BOIL artichokes till you can pull the leaves off, then take off the chokes, and cut them from the stalk; take great care you don't let the knife touch the top, throw them in salt and water for an hour, then take them out and lay them on a cloth to drain, then put them into large wide-mouth'd glasses, put a little mace and sliced nutmeg between, fill them either with distilled vinegar, or your sugar-vinegar and spring-water; cover them with mutton fat fried, and tie them down with a bladder and leather.

TAKE the samphire that is green, lay it in a clean pan, throw two or three handfuls of salt over, then cover it with spring water. Let it lie twenty-four hours, then put it into a clean brass sauce-pan, throw in a handful of salt, and cover it with good vinegar. Cover the pan close, and set it over a very slow fire; let it stand till it is just green and crisp, then take it off in a moment, for if it stands to be soft it is spoiled; put it in your pickling pot, and cover it close. When it is cold, tie it down with a bladder and leather, and keep it for use. Or you may keep it all the year, in a very strong brine of salt and water, and throw it into vinegar just before you use it.

TAKE the largest and youngest shoots of elder, which put out in the middle of May, the middle stalks are most tender, and biggest; the small ones are not worth doing. Peel off the outward peel or skin, and lay them in a strong brine of salt and water for one night, then dry them in a cloth, piece by piece. In the mean time, make your pickle of half white wine, and half beer vinegar: to each quart of pickle you must put an ounce of white or red pepper, an ounce of ginger sliced, a little mace, and a few corns of Jamaica pepper. When the spice has boiled in the pickle, pour it hot upon the shoots, stop them close immediately, and set the jar two hours before the fire, turning it often. It is a good way of greening pickles as often boiling; or you may boil the pickle two or three times, and pour it on boiling hot, just as you please. If you make the pickle of the