The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1882-01-12
Dietetic Value Of Good Pickles.

The actual dietetic value of good
pickles ranks with that of condiments:
they are simply aids to the appetite and
they affect digestion only relatively un-
less they are consumed in enormous
quantities. Eaten in ordinary fashion,
they are solely medium for the .absorp-
ton Of vinegar and spice, or useful as a
modification of a too greasy dish; few
drops of vinegar or lemon juice would
serve the same purpose. When vinegar
is taken moderately it augments the &C
ton of the salivary. glands, assuages
thirst, and slightly facilitates digestion
by acting as a solvent upon certain pro-
tern compounds; used in excess it i'm
pairs digestion, thus preventing the
proper assimilation of nutriment, and
causing emaciation. No more striking
illustration of its opposite effects can be
given than by contrasting its use by the
field laborers of Southern Europe, who
mix gill of vinegar and pinch of salt
in a gallon of cold water, and drink it
while working in the sun, and unwise
young women who drink it clear to re-
duce their flesh. The legitimate effects
of vinegar are common to many acid
fruits, such as currants, barberries,
gooseberries, cranberries, lemons and
lines, and vegetable pickles of all kinds.
Therefore, we may be justified in ac-
cording praise to pickles, especially to
those made by the well-conducted
housewife who will no more put copper
cents among them or boil them in a
brass kettle to green them than she will
expose her family to the dangers of
those cups of cold poison with which the
popular fancy credits the pickle traders
mingling with their wares. Well she
knows she may produce reasonably
green pickles without becoming rival
Of the illustrious compounder of aqua
tofand. The minor dangers of picking
her acidulous delicacies in tin or glazed
earthenware vessels she will also avoid,
since she will be aware that boiling
vinegar will take unto itself modicum
of the metal and portion of the lead
which often enters into the composition
of the glaze; she will also preserve them
in unglazed earthen or glass jars. for
like reasons. and keep them in cool
place closely sealed from the air; as the
vinegar is absorbed she will replace it,
so that there is always an inch or more
above the pickles. If from large jar
little is to be used, she will take out that
little with wooden spoon, and at once
carefully replace the coverings or corks;
the best covering over the lids Of jars or
the corks of bottles is piece of bladder
wet in cold water and then tightly tied
down in such way as to exclude all
air. If the presence of copper is feared
in pickles which are bought, a bright
steel darning or knitting needle placed
among them and allowed to remain for
couple of hours will acquire percept-
IDLE coating of copper. The addition Of
alum to pickles for the purpose of hard
ening them is another questionable
point. Alum is powerful astringent,
and its effect, when used in excess, il
to check the secretions, and consequent
~ to impair normal health. If used to
make pickles crisp, not more than salt
spoonful should be added to each gallon;
this quantity might not prove injurious,
as but small portion of it would be
consumed by an individual. Juliet Cor
son, in N. Y. Times.