Pickles should be kept secure from the air, or they soon become soft; the least quantity of water, or a wet spoon, put into a jar of pickles, will spoil the contents.
TO PICKLE GHERKINS AND FRENCH BEANS.
These are, of all vegetables, the most difficult to pickle, so that their green colour and freshness may be preserved. Choose some fine fresh gherkins, and set them to soak in brine for a week; then drain them, and pour over boiling vinegar, prepared with the usual spices, first having covered them with fresh vine leaves. If they do not appear to be of a fine green, pour off the vinegar, boil it up again, cover the gherkins with fresh green vine leaves, and pour over the vinegar again. French beans are pickled exactly the same.
TO PICKLE CAULIFLOWERS.
Remove the stalks and leaves, break the flower into pieces, parboil them in brine, then drain them, and lay them in a jar, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar.
