It's a little brown book dated 1909, a relic covered in tattered
cloth, shedding with each passing year.
Its pages are yellowed, stained with the grease and ghosts of meals past. On its pages are written culinary gems from an
age when wood fired stoves and icebox cabinets defined the "what" and
"how" of American tables. It
is a receipt, or recipe book, used to record family secrets...useful bits of
folk and gastronomic wisdom learned by generations of trial and error, passed
down by word of mouth, like legends of old, recorded by dutiful scribes by the
light of an Edison bulb...
This installment of the 1909 receipt book's treasury of
recipes deals with cucumber pickles.
Perhaps they'll go well with your Hamburg Steak...
I'm just thrilled with the language used in the last line of
this recipe...corning...it's not just for beef.
Enjoy!
The Original Recipe As Written Is In Bold...
To 2 Gallons Cucumber
Pickles (slice up a mess of raw, peeled cucumbers)
Pickling Solution:
1 Quart Vinegar
(use white vinegar)
4 Cups of Sugar (white)
2 Tablespoons Celery
Seed
2 Tablespoons Mustard
Seed
1 Tablespoon Curry
Powder
Before you pickle your cucumbers...Soak pickles (cucumber slices) in
salt water for 3 hours before corning
After that, put your cucumbers into a jug, pour in the pickling
solution, and pickle to taste.