To pickle Gerkins.
Take five hundred gerkins, and have ready a large earthen pan of spring water and salt; to every gallon of water put two pounds of salt, mix it well together, and throw in your gerkins; wash them out in two hours, put them to drain, let them be drained very dry, and put them in a jar; in the mean time get a bell-metal pot, with a gallon of the best white wine vinegar, half an ounce of cloves and mace, one ounce of all-spice, one ounce of mustard-seed, a stick of horse-radish cut in slices, six bay-leaves, a little dill, two or three races of ginger cut in pieces, a nutmeg cut in pieces, and a handful of salt, boil it up in the pot all together, and put it over the gerkins; cover them close down, and let them stand twenty-four hours; then put them in your pot, and simmer them over the stove till they are green; (be careful not to let them boil, if you do you will spoil them) then put them in your jar, and cover them close down till they are cool; then tie them over with a bladder, and leather over that, and put them in a cold dry place; mind always to keep your pickles tied down close, Or this way: after they have been twenty-four hours in the vinegar, pour the vinegar off from them, and make it boil; then pour it over the gerkins, cover them close, and repeat it every day till they are green; then tie them down with a bladder and leather, and keep them in a cool dry place: by this method they will keep good for three or four years.
