Pickled Grapes

Select large but not ripe grapes, cut into small bunches, and fill a stone jar with them, putting vine leaves between the bunches. Dissolve one pound of bay salt and a little common salt in one quart of cold water, put it into a copper pan, boil and remove the scum as it rises to the top. When it has boiled for quarter of an hour, let it stand until cool. Pour the liquor over the grapes, put more vine leaves on the top, and tie down with a folded linen cloth. Boil two quarts of vinegar together with one quart of water and one pound of brown sugar for a few minutes, skim, and let it stand until quite cold; strain the grapes. Dry the jar, put fresh vine leaves at the bottom between the layers of the grapes and on the top, and pour the clear pickle over all. Tie a thin piece of board in a piece of flannel, lay it on the top of the jar, cover it with bladder and then with leather, and tie it down tightly.

Pickled Peaches

Allow to fourteen pounds of peaches weighed after peeling, three quarts of vinegar and six pounds of brown sugar. Mix together in a plate or saucer a tablespoonful of blades of mace, two ounces of stick cinnamon broken up into small pieces, one teaspoonful of cloves. Lay at the bottom of a two-gallon jar about one quart of the peaches, cover with sugar, and sprinkle over a portion of the mixed spices. Then lay in more peaches covering as before with sugar and spices. Proceed in this manner till the jar is full or till all the peaches, sugar and spice are used. Then pour in the vinegar, put a plate or saucer over the fruit to keep it well under the vinegar, tie a cloth tight over the top of the jar, and set it over the fire in a saucepan half-full of cold water. Let the water boil till the peaches are soft enough to pierce with a straw.

Pickled Pears

Peel six pounds of pears, stick two cloves in each, put them in a lined preserving-pan in which three pounds of crushed loaf sugar and one pint of vinegar are boiling. Cook the pears till tender, then turn all into stone jars. When cold tie them down.

Pickled Plums

Select plums not too ripe, prick them well all over with a fork, arrange them in layers in a jar with cinnamon and cloves and orange-peel between each layer, cover over with vinegar, and soak them in this for twenty-four hours, at the end of which time strain off the vinegar into a saucepan, boil it up quickly for about ten minutes, and let it become cool, then pour it over the fruit. After the lapse of twenty-four hours again strain the vinegar, boil it for ten minutes with some sugar, six ounces to every quart of the liquid, pour it over the fruit, and leave it until cold. Cover the jars with stout paper, tie securely, and keep them in a dry place.