Pickled French Beans
Ingredients:
- 1 kg French Beans.
- 1 litre Vinegar.
- 30g Peppercorns.
- 15g Mace.
- ½ teaspoonful Salt.
Method:
- Gather the French beans young, and leave on a small bit of
the stalk.
- Make a strong brine with salt and water, strong enough to
float an egg in (just dissolve salt in cold water till it is the strength
required) ; put the beans into this for two days. They turn rather yellow in
this.
- Take them out then, and wash and dry them lightly, and put
them in a stone jar.
- Put the vinegar and the spices in a porcelain-lined
saucepan, let it boil, and pour it boiling over the beans in the jar; instantly
cover the jar with a lid or plate, and let it stand twenty-four hours.
- Then pour all the vinegar off, and boil it again, and once
more pour over the beans, and cover till cold, when they may be bottled.
- Fumes of the vinegar restores the green colour; and the alum
assists that.
