Young Cucumbers.
Choose nice young gherkins; spread them on dishes; salt them, and let them lie a week: drain them, and, putting them in a jar, pour boiling vinegar over them. Set them near the fire, covered with plenty of vineleaves. If they do not become a tolerable good green, pour the vinegar into another jar, set it over the hot hearth, and when it boils, pour it over them again, covering with fresh leaves; and thus do till they are of as good a colour as you wish: but as it is now known, that the very fine green pickles are made so by using brass or bell metal vessels, which, when vinegar is put into them, become highly poisonous, few people like to eat them.
123Note. Acids dissolve the lead in the tinning of saucepans. Pickles should never be kept in glazed jars, but in stone or glass; and vinegar, or any acids, should be boiled, by putting them in jars of stone, over a hot hearth, or in a kettle of water.