To Pickle Cherries

Instructions

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. Drain that liquor from the fruit, then boil the whole with, to every quart, 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, all tied loosely in a fold of muslin.
5. Let the pickle become quite cold before it is added to the cherries.
6. Keep a month: in a month they will be fit for use.
7. Obs. (Acton): the vinegar poured from the fruit makes a good syrup of itself, boiled with a pound of sugar to the pint; it is improved by infusing some fresh raspberries, cherries or currants in it for three or four days beforehand.