When making any pickles from the receipts given under their respective headings, always use the best cider vinegar, scald to boiling point but do not let it boil, prepare always in either granite or porcelain lined kettles, use wooden spoons or paddles. A piece of horseradish root in the jars will prevent the vinegar from becoming moldy. They should always be kept in stone or glass, and in a dry dark place.

Aromatic Salt Pickle (German)

Take seven and half gallons of water, one pound of Indian cane sugar, half pound of pulverized cleaned saltpetre, three ounces of coriander seeds, half a dozen bay leaves, three cloves of garlic. Boil all for five minutes, let it cool, strain into brine tub through a fine strainer, throw away the refuse. This brine will keep all SUMMER, and can be used for every kind of meat. All meat from this pickle will have a fine red color and a pleasant taste.

Pickle Pumps

There is perhaps no process so important in the curing of meat as pumping. Meat is liable to very quick decomposition unless it is immediately brought in contact with a preservative of some kind, such as salt, borax, etc. In ordinary course if these preservatives were laid on the surface of the meat, they would mingle with the meat juices, dissolve and percolate slowly through the tissues; but this process is slow and under many conditions of temperature, dangerous. Hence the necessity of an appliance which brings the preserva-atives at once into operation. The salt brine or pickle is filtered so that it runs clear, and is then injected by the pickle pump into the meat to be cured.

Pickling Beef And Hams

To 100 pounds of beef or hams, use 7 pounds of rock salt, 5 pounds of brown sugar, 2 ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of salaratus, mix together and boil in four gallons of water, skim while boiling and pour on to the meat hot. For hams to cure well, they should remain in the pickle for six weeks.