Taste from the past – Mixed pickles recipe from 1879

Mixed pickles recipe from 1879

(Transcribed from the Evergreen Star, Evergreen, Alabama, September 18, 1879)

To one-gallon good cider vinegar add one-quarter pound cloves and set on the stove to heat; fill fruit cans with small cucumbers, beans, onion, and green tomatoes; if you like first wipe them with a dry cloth; do not crowd them into the can, but fill it full when the vinegar comes to scalding heat; skim it if it needs it and pour into the cans slowly until filled; then seal them tight.

I have put pickles up in this way and never had any trouble with them.

I never salt cucumbers or any thing else for pickling. I have pickled barrels of cucumbers, tomatoes and beans, simply putting them into cold vinegar and never had any turn soft, yet I put a few gallons of vinegar in the barrel; throw in some whole cloves, put in my cucumbers; then add vinegar and cloves as I fill the barrel up.