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To Pickle Cherries

A historical recipe from Modern cookery for private families, by Eliza Acton (1882).

A historical recipe

Modern cookery for private families, by Eliza Acton (1882). Project Gutenberg eBook #72482.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: preserving or pickling. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.

Source and licence

From Modern cookery for private families, by Eliza Acton (1882). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #72482 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72482). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

  • Preserving. Old preserving methods may not make food safe to keep. Use current tested guidance.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. Leave about an inch of their stalks on some fine, sound Kentish or Flemish cherries, which are not over ripe;
  2. put them into a jar, cover them with cold vinegar, and let them stand for three weeks;
  3. pour off two-thirds of the liquor and replace it with fresh vinegar;
  4. then, after having drained it from the fruit, boil the whole with an ounce of coriander seed, a small blade of mace, a few grains of cayenne, or a teaspoonful of white peppercorns, and four bruised cochineals to every quart, all tied loosely in a fold of muslin.
  5. Let the pickle become quite cold before it is added to the cherries: in a month they will be fit for use.
  6. The vinegar which is poured from the fruit makes a good syrup of itself, when boiled with a pound of sugar to the pint, but it is improved by having some fresh raspberries, cherries, or currants previously infused in it for three or four days.