Plain Pickles

Source: Abby Fisher, 1881

History

"Plain Pickles" is recipe No. 88 in "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking" (San Francisco, 1881), in the book's Pickles, Sauces, Etc. section. Fisher writes it as a general method rather than a single dish: "Any vegetable you want to pickle under this head, say small or large cucumbers, cabbage or green tomatoes, have them fresh and put them into a barrel, one layer of cucumbers, or other vegetable, about three inches deep, covering thickly with salt." The vegetables cure under brine, weighted down with a heavy rock; if pickled straight away they soak two hours in fresh water "so as to get the smell of the old brine off them," then drain two or three days on a galvanized-iron sieve "three by four feet, or larger, if needed" before going into a clean keg under vinegar with powdered alum. The vinegar is then drawn off and boiled twenty minutes with allspice, ginger root, cloves, black pepper and cayenne — and she adds, plainly, "If you do not like pickles very hot, use one-half the quantity of peppers."

This is Fisher's trade, not a sideline. Her title page records two medals at the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute Fair in 1880 — one for best pickles and sauces — and a diploma at the Sacramento State Fair in 1879, and by 1882 she was listed in San Francisco directories as a pickle manufacturer in her own right.

Fisher was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in June 1831 to Abbie Clifton. Genealogical research in San Francisco records identifies her father as James J. Andrews, an Orangeburg planter who held some seventy people in slavery, and an 1869 receipt from the Freedman's Savings and Trust in Mobile records her under her mother's name. Before 1865, censuses recorded only an enslaver's name with the age and sex of those he held, so no surviving record names Fisher herself; Karen Hess, who rediscovered her book, noted that absence of documentation. She could neither read nor write and dictated the book from "an experience of upwards of thirty-five years."

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this method. It is Fisher's own working practice, set down in her name.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Layer your fresh vegetables—cucumbers, cabbage, or green tomatoes—in a barrel in three-inch-deep layers, thickly salting between each layer.
  2. Continue layering vegetables and salt until all vegetables are submerged under brine.
  3. Weight the vegetables down with a heavy rock.
  4. Let them sit in the salt brine for twenty-four hours.
  5. Soak the brined vegetables in fresh water for two hours to remove the salt brine smell.
  6. Drain the vegetables on a galvanized iron sieve for two or three days.
  7. Place the drained vegetables in a clean keg or barrel.
  8. Sprinkle two ounces of powdered alum over the vegetables.
  9. Cover the vegetables thoroughly with vinegar.
  10. Let stand for twelve to twenty-four hours.
  11. Pour the vinegar from the pickles into a large kettle.
  12. To the vinegar, add one teacupful of allspice, one-fourth pound of ginger root, two ounces of cloves, one-half teacupful of black pepper, and two tablespoonfuls of cayenne pepper (or half quantities if you prefer milder pickles).
  13. Bring the seasoned vinegar to a boil and let it boil for twenty minutes.
  14. Pour the hot seasoned vinegar over the pickles in the keg, ensuring they are well covered.
  15. Sprinkle two or three ounces of powdered alum over the pickles if you like them brittle.

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