Mangoes

Ingredients

• green peppers or young melons
• 1 piece alum
• strong cold vinegar
• 0.5 pound race ginger
• 0.5 pint black mustard seed
• 0.5 pint white mustard seed
• 0.5 ounce mace
• 0.5 ounce allspice
• 0.5 ounce turmeric
• 0.5 ounce black pepper
• 1 dash garlic
• 0.5 cup salad oil
• 1 small head firm but tender cabbage
• 3 hearts of celery
• 0.5 dozen small pickled cucumbers
• 0.5 pint small onions
• 1 large sweet red pepper
• 1 teaspoonful sugar
• 1 tablespoonful brandy or dry sherry
• soft thread or narrow tape
• best cold vinegar
• fresh grape leaves

Instructions

1. Make the peppers or melons thoroughly fresh. Cut out the stems from the peppers, removing and discarding the seeds but saving the stems. For melons, cut a section from the side and remove everything inside. Fit the stems and sections back in place.
2. Pack the prepared vegetables in a kettle in layers with fresh grape leaves between them. Add alum the size of a thumb's end, cover all with strong cold vinegar, bring to a boil, and simmer gently for twenty minutes. Let stand in vinegar for two or three days, then discard the leaves, remove the vegetables, rinse, and drain.
3. For the spice filling: bruise, soak, cut small, and dry half a pound of race ginger. Add half a pint each of black and white mustard seed, mace, allspice, turmeric, and black pepper—each spice at half an ounce—and beat all together to a rather fine powder. Add a dash of garlic and mix smooth in half a cup of salad oil.
4. Chop very fine a small head of firm but tender cabbage, three hearts of celery, half a dozen small pickled cucumbers, and half a pint of small onions. Add a large sweet red pepper finely shredded. Mix in a teaspoonful of sugar and a tablespoonful of brandy or dry sherry. Work in the mixed spices and combine all well together.
5. Stuff the mangoes neatly with this mixture, sew them up with soft thread or tie about with very narrow tape. Pack down in stone jars, cover with the best cold vinegar, pour a film of salad oil on top, tie down, and let stand for two months. If a sweeter version is desired, add moist sugar to the vinegar at a rate of one pound per gallon.