[Sca-cooks] pickled grapes

[Olwen the Odd]

Good morning all.

I wonder what means "and as much white-salt as will make it bear an egg".
Bay salt?  Perhaps sea salt would do in place.  I imagine the black one
skims off is the dirt.  I do laugh at a memory when I read the part of using
a blatter to hold the stuff under the brine.  I used to use balloons!  Guess
a good idea gets around even if you didn't know someone else had it!
Well, have a fun day.
Olwen
Oh, you can all congratulate me, ALL the damn beads are done, packed and
labeled! 284 of them, not counting the 60 or so that broke.
is the receipt from the 1796 edition.
>Get grapes at the full growth, but not ripe; cut them in small bunches fit
>for garnishing, put them in a stone jar, with vine-leaves between every
>layer of grapes; then take as much spring water as you think will cover
>them, put in a pund of bay salt, and as much white-salt as will make it
>bear
>an egg; dry your bay salt and pund it, it will melt the sooner;' put it
>into
>a bell-metal, or copper pot, boil it and skim it very well; as it boils,
>take all the black scum off, but not the white scum; when it has boiled a
>quarter of an hour, let it stand to cool and settle; when it is almost
>cold,
>pour the clear liquour on the grapes, lay vine leaves on the top, tie them
>down close with a linen cloth, and cover them with a dish; let them stand
>24
>hours; take them out, let them be dried between two cloths; then take two
>quarts of vinegar, one quart of spring water, and one pound of coarse
>sugar.
>  Let it boil a little while, skim it as it boils very clean, let it stand
>till it is quite cold, dry your jar with a cloth, put fresh vine leaves at
>the bottom, and between every bunch of grapes, and on the top; then pour
>the
>clear off the pickle on the grapes, fill your jar that the pickle may be
>above the grapes, tie a thin bit of board in a piece of flannel, lay it on
>the top of the jar, to keep the grapes under the pickle; tie them down with
>a bladder, and then a leather; take them out with a wooden spoon.  Be sure
>to make pickle enough to cover them.
>
>It's just that simple! (yeah, sure)
>
>Nancy


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