At Home on the Range by Margaret Potter

Author:Margaret Potter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McSweeney's
Published: 2012-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Preserve Yourself in a Jam

Grandmother would have been shocked at the meager display—to her—of jars and bottles on my pantry shelves, but today with the groceries’ canned fruits, vegetables and jellies why copy her long hot hours over a steaming preserving kettle? Homemade pickles, though, no grocery can imitate and they lend such an individual and lavish touch to the simplest meal that they are worth a few mornings in the cool autumn. Once started, try to make enough of any one kind of pickle to last two or three years. The preparation takes a little longer but the actual cooking doesn’t and, as the sweet-sour stuff improves with age, this labor-saving scheme keeps a welcome variety always on hand with a minimum of effort. Use undiluted cider vinegar in cooking and economical half-pint jars for storage if your family is small. And put whole spices, when called for, in big aluminum teaballs for easy fishing out.

Just what its name says—the makings of a fine sandwich—BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLE is also good with fish, and easy to cook. Slice thinly 2 quarts of unpeeled green cucumbers and 3 medium-sized peeled onions. Separate the onions into rings and set them and the cucumbers in a bowl with ½ cup of salt and three or four fist-sized pieces of ice. Leave to crisp for 3 hours. Make a syrup of 1 quart of vinegar, 2 cups of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of mustard seed, 1 teaspoon of celery seed and ½ teaspoon each of turmeric and cayenne pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of packaged pickling spices in a cloth bag or tea ball. Simmer for 15 minutes, add the drained cucumbers and onions, bring slowly to a full boil. Take from the fire and cool. Remove the spices and pack the pickles in sterilized jars. This will make about 4 pints.

A pinchpenny landlady refused to paint our shabby farm but I thank her just the same for two recipes for tomato pickle which have covered many a lack of flavor in cold meat or salad.

RED TOMATO PICKLE. Peel 18 large ripe tomatoes. Chop them coarsely and simmer 15 minutes. Skim off the juice for the family’s breakfast. Add to the tomatoes 6 peeled onions, 2 small bunches of celery, 6 seeded green peppers, all coarsely chopped or ground, and a teaspoon each of ground cloves and allspice, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon, 10 teaspoons of brown or white sugar, and 2½ tablespoons of salt. Let simmer until just thick, then add 1 pint of cider vinegar. Boil quickly until thick, stirring constantly, and seal in sterilized jars. This will make 10 half-pints.

Her GREEN TOMATO PICKLE, or INDIA RELISH, is equally tasty. Run the following through the coarse cutter of the food chopper: 1 peck of green tomatoes, ½ peck of peeled onions, 12 peeled green cucumbers, and 6 each of seeded green and red peppers. Mix the vegetables with 1 cup of salt and let them drain overnight, in cheesecloth or a fine colander.

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