lemon, 1 oz. of ginger, cucumbers.
_Mode_.--Choose the greenest cucumbers, and those that are most free
from seeds; put them in strong salt and water, with a cabbage-leaf to
keep them down; tie a paper over them, and put them in a warm place till
they are yellow; then wash them and set them over the fire in fresh
water, with a very little salt, and another cabbage-leaf over them;
cover very closely, but take care they do not boil. If they are not a
fine green, change the water again, cover them as before, and make them
hot. When they are a good colour, take them off the fire and let them
cool; cut them in quarters, take out the seeds and pulp, and put them
into cold water. Let them remain for 2 days, changing the water twice
each day, to draw out the salt. Put the sugar, with 1/4 pint of water,
in a saucepan over the fire; remove the scum as it rises, and add the
lemon-peel and ginger with the outside scraped off; when the syrup is
tolerably thick, take it off the fire, and when _cold_, wipe the
cucumbers _dry_, and put them in. Boil the syrup once in 2 or 3 days for
3 weeks; strengthen it if required, and let it be quite cold before the
cucumbers are put in. Great attention must be paid to the directions in
the commencement of this recipe, as, if these are not properly carried
out, the result will be far from satisfactory.
_Seasonable_.--This recipe should be used in June, July, or August.
[Illustration: SALT-MINE AT NORTHWICH.]
COMMON SALT.--By this we mean salt used for cooking purposes,
which is found in great abundance both on land and in the waters
of the ocean. Sea or salt water, as it is often called,
contains, it has been discovered, about three per cent, of salt
on an average. Solid rocks of salt are also found in various
parts of the world, and the county of Chester contains many of
these mines, and it is from there that much of our salt comes.
Some springs are so highly impregnated with salt, as to have
received the name of "brine" springs, and are supposed to have
become so by passing through the salt rocks below ground, and
thus dissolving a portion of this mineral substance. We here
give an engraving of a salt-mine at Northwich, Cheshire, where
both salt-mines and brine-springs are exceedingly productive,
and are believed to have been wrought so far back as during the
occupation of Britain by the Romans.
CUSTARD SAUCE FOR SWEET PUDDINGS OR TARTS.