The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-11-05
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

A Reasonable Recipe for Making Pickles.
Hints ON the Use and Care of
Lamps.
Suggestions for Furnishing Dining Rooms
Care of Carpets-Sauer-kraut.
PICKLES.
A contributor to the Portland Tran
script gives the following recipe for
pickles. which she will warrant salts
factory when good strong cider vinegar
and small cucumbers are used:
Start with two stone jars or crooks.
one empty, the other partly filled with a
strong brine of salt and vinegar. Watch
the vines each day and pick the little
cucumbers as fast as they grow, keep
ing as near the three-inch standard as
possible. Drop these into the brine
each day, first taking out those which
were put in the day before. Upon those
| which have been in the brine twenty
four hours. pour boiling water and let
them stand till cool. Then pour them
in the other jar and turn. on enough
| boiling vinegar to cover. This may
sound complicated, but practically IT if
not.
| ND you up
your cucumbers out of the brine and
pour on boiling water. When there is
| room on the stove heat pint of vine
gar or less, and add your daily install
ment of cucumbers and hot vinegar to
the jar. The only hard part is hunting
out the cucumbers. They steal their
nests like hens. and if you are not very
watchful you will be continually sur
prised by great melons as big as your
wrist when you thought you had picked
everything bigger than your thumb nah.
| At the end of tho season l hope your
| second crock will be solid with little
! pickles. Now add what spice you like.
put two bell-peppers and root of
horse-radish into four-gallon jar of
| cucumbers; all picked from eight hills.
See that the vinegar always covers the
| pickles and then eat and enjoy.
Finally, be sure of your vinegar and
don't heat in a brass kettle or old tin
pan. Bright tin or porcelain must be
used. often picked small string beans
and dropped them in the brine with MY
cucumbers. and they proved very good
companions.
My second rule is for mixed pickles
or chOwcnow, which is the nearest APP
proach to the famous and unapprOach-
| able Gross a. Blackwell's chowchow"
| that have eaten. Ii is not us not and
peppery, perhaps not quite as good, but
very nearly:
Cauliilower, 2 heads; celery, 6 roots;
cucumbers, 2 dozen, medium size;
string beans. small half-pcck; bell-pep-
pers, 6; onions, l quart; small, green
tomatoes, half-peck; vinegar 2 gallons;
ground mustard, half-pound; mustard
seed, ounces; turmeric, 4 ounces; all
spice, pepper, cloves, ground, l ounce
each.
Cut the vegetables into small pieces
and sprinkle with salt. Let them stand
twenty-four hours and drain. Put the
vinegar and spices into kettle and
heat them TO the boiling point Add the
vegetables and let them scald until they
become tender and yellow.
This is the rule as given to me. 1t
makes large quantity; half of it
| would be enough for most families. In
buying the spices it is the easiest way to
have the dealer weigh all ont for you in
one package. The turmeric can be
bought at any drug store.
Now, for the benefit of those who
! would like to try this, but have neither
country vegetable garden nor city mar
ket so select from, to whom caulifiower
and celery are impossibilities. if the
: rule is followed as regards vinegar,
spice, and mode of prep ration, very
appetizlng pickle can be concocted
from more available material.
| made kettle full i'm the dead of
winter of large onions cut i'm eighths,
; ordinary cucumber pickles cut in
chunks, and a quantity of shaved cab
bage. Those who hadn't seen the origi-
nal pickle thought the imitation beyond
comparison. Shaved cabbage is at any
| time equal to cauliflowcr in taste, but
not in looks.
HINTS ON THE USE AND CARE OF
LAMPS.
A contributor to the New York AnG-
/ lyst says:
OF all misunderstood things in daily
life the use of the kerosene lamp prob
ably stands at the head. First, lamp
is bought and fitted for use, and then
filled day after day, and after longer
or shorter period docs not give rs good
. light US it used to; then comes COM
, plants to the oil man or grocer about
the quality of the oil, when little rea-
son and judgment used would remedy
the fault ana remove the cause of COM
plant.
If persons using n lamp would re-
member that the lamp is a machine
: combining the furnace and pump, and
endeavOr TO learn the principle of using
oil, much trouble would be saved: for
while no one expects to use a large
machine without learning how to work
it, any one can use n lamp Now, the
wick is the pump to bring oil from the
fount to the blaze, and as there is
always more or less dust and dirt in the
oil the wick soon becomes clOgged up
and cannot pump oil fast enough for a
good light; so complaint is made,
when a new wick would remove the
cause. Then, as we burn oil out, the
lightest part burns, leaving the heavy
oil; and as the lamp is filled day by day
the oil gets so heavy that the draught is
not strong enough to pump it up, when
the oil should be all turned out of the
lamp, and it refilled with fresh OIL
And then the burner, after time,
gets gummed up. and the even flow of
the oil is disturbed and causes smoky
uneven light. which is vexatlous. !
have often had burners brought into
my store condemned and a new one
wanted, when by two minutes work
they were made as good as new. When
the wick needs cutting some scrape it
of, Others cut it so uneven that it makes
pointed blaze, which SO provckes one
that he wants to condemn 1t. If a little
reason and thought were used in every
day life we would soon find that lots of
our discomforts would be very easily
overcome and banished, but things go
on in a slip-shod manner year after
year, with no attempt to improve them.
But to resume, the burner is furnished
with a great number of small holes to
provide air, to the end that perfect COM
bustion may take place, and not to col
lect dust and dirt until they are clog
ged up and smoky, bad-smelling light
is the result. Now, if in using kero-
sene we fill the lamp up with white oil
every day, and once week empty back
the oil which is in the lamp and use a
new wick cut even and true, every week
or once in two weeks, and are sure to
have the lamp-burner clean and clear,
nicely polished chimney used, we will
find that the kerosene lamp is a cheap
and great luxury, and not, as is often
the case, necessary nuisance, which
has to be used for lack of anything bet
ter. A little care daily in using the
lamp makes all the difference between
luxury and nuisance.
DINING-ROOM FURNISHINGS.
For dining-room center piece of
carpet or drugget is much better than a