To Pickle Walnuts

Instructions

1. Gather the walnuts while a pin can pierce them easily; once the shell can be felt they have ceased to be in a proper state for pickling.
2. Make sufficient brine to cover them well, with six ounces of salt to the quart of water (the summary states 12 oz. salt to 2 quarts water for 100 walnuts). Take off the scum which rises as the salt dissolves.
3. Throw in the walnuts and stir them night and morning. Change the brine every three days.
4. If they are wanted for immediate eating, leave them in the brine twelve days. Otherwise drain them from it in nine days, spread them on dishes, and leave them exposed to the air until they become black - twelve hours or less.
5. Make the pickle for 100 walnuts: something more than half a gallon of vinegar, a teaspoonful of salt, two ounces of black pepper, three ounces of bruised ginger, a drachm of mace, from a quarter to half an ounce of cloves (some of which may be stuck into three or four small onions), and four ounces of mustard-seed.
6. Boil the whole together for about five minutes.
7. Have the walnuts ready in a stone jar or jars and pour the pickle on them as it comes from the fire.
8. When the pickle is quite cold, cover the jar securely and store it in a dry place.
9. Keep the walnuts always well covered with vinegar, and boil any vinegar that is added to them.