Pickled Peaches
Take eight fine large free-stone peaches, (white or yellow,) when nearly but not quite ripe. Wipe off the down with a clean flannel, and put them into a brine strong enough to bear up an egg. In two days take them out, and drain them for several hours on an inverted sieve. Tie in a piece of thin muslin one ounce of whole white pepper; one of broken-up ginger; eight blades of mace, and two ounces of mustard seed. Boil this seasoning for ten minutes in a quart of the best cider vinegar. Lay the peaches in a broad-mouthed stone jar, with the bag of spice at the bottom, and pour the vinegar boiling hot upon them. At the top add a table-spoonful of salad oil. Put them up warm, and secure them with broad flat corks, and rounds of leather tied on carefully.
Peach Mangoes.—The above sort of peaches are best for mangoes. Steep them in brine for two days. Cut a small piece out of each, and carefully loose the stones from the inside with a small sharp knife. It will then be easy to thrust them out of free-stone peaches, and none others should be used, either for pickling or preserving. Make a filling for the places that were occupied by the stones. For this purpose, use fresh mustard seed moistened with vinegar; scraped horse-radish, powdered ginger, a clove of garlic, or a minced shalot or very small onion, and a very little chilli or red pepper minced very small. Also a little powdered mace, and a little chopped peach. With this mixture stuff the peaches hard. Replace the bits that were cut off, and tie them on firmly with fine packthread, crossing the peach. Boil a quart of the best vinegar, seasoned with white spices and mustard seed, tied up in muslin; and when it has boiled ten minutes, pour it hot over the peach mangoes in a stone jar. Add at the top a table-spoonful of salad oil; cork the jar immediately, and tie leather over it. Where there is no dislike to cloves, you may stick half a dozen into the outside of each peach; but we think a few small bits of mace will be preferable, as the clove taste will overpower every thing else.