Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1309

Rh Method.—Mix all the ingredients together in a jar. Cover, keep in a moderately warm place for 1 month, and stir 2 or 3 times daily. At the end of the time strain off the liquor, let the residue drain well, but do not squeeze it. Pour into small bottles, and cork tightly.

Ingredients.—6 lbs. of ripe tomatoes, 3 lbs. of sour cooking apples, 4 ozs. of salt, 8 ozs. of brown sugar, 3 pints of vinegar, 6 cloves of garlic, 6 ozs. of ground ginger, 1 oz. of mustard-seed.

Method.—Scald the tomatoes, remove the skin, cut them into slices, and put them into an earthenware cooking-pot with the vinegar, salt and apples, previously peeled, cored and chopped finely. When the fruit is soft, rub the whole through a sieve, add the sugar, ginger and mustard-seed, also the garlic (chopped finely), and boil the whole gently from ½ to ¾ of an hour. Pour the contents of the cooking-pot into a jar, cover it, and let it stand in a warm place for about 3 days. Bottle the chutney for use, cork up tightly, and exclude the air. Sultanas or preserved ginger are sometimes added to the above.

Ingredients.—Large cockles, vinegar to cover them, peppercorns, allspice, salt.

Method.—The large cockles found on the north-east coast are the best for this purpose. Wash them in several waters to remove the grit; when quite free from it cover the cockles with cold water, add a good handful each of salt and oatmeal, and let them remain until the following day. To each quart of cockles allow a small ½ teaspoonful of allspice, and the same quantity of peppercorns. Tie these spices in muslin and boil them in the vinegar for 20 minutes. Put the cockles into a steamer, or, failing this, a large iron saucepan with 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of water to protect the bottom of the pan, cover them first with a wet kitchen-cloth, then the lid, and cook the cockles slowly until their shells may be easily opened with the point of a knife. Put the cockles into the prepared cold vinegar, and the liquor contained in the shells into a basin, and as soon as it is quite cold strain it into the vinegar. Cockles or oysters pickled in this way may be kept some days.

Time.—To steam the cockles, about 15 minutes. Average Cost, cockles 6d. per quart.

Ingredients.—Cucumbers, good vinegar to cover them. To each pint of vinegar allow ½ an oz. of peppercorns, ½ an oz. of allspice, ½ a teaspoonful of salt.