Pickled Cucumbers (Gallon vinegar)

Line the brass kettle with grape leaves and boil, to green the fruit.

From: Housekeeping in Old Virginia
Published: 1879
Also printed in: 3 other books
Yikes Scale: Big yikes

Exactly as printed, 1879

1/2 gallon vinegar. 3 pounds brown sugar. 2 tablespoonfuls cloves. 2 tablespoonfuls allspice. 2 tablespoonfuls mustard. 2 tablespoonfuls celery. 1 tablespoonful white ginger. 1 tablespoonful cinnamon. 1 tablespoonful black pepper. 2 pods green pepper. 4 lemons sliced. A little horseradish. 12 onions, and as many cucumbers as the vinegar will well cover. Boil all together until the cucumbers are tender, and they will be ready for use in a week or so. To green the fruit: line your brass kettle with grape-leaves, and then pour weak vinegar on the cucumbers, cover with leaves, and boil a little while.--Mrs. E. I.

Housekeeping in Old Virginia, 1879. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Boiling vinegar in unlined brass dissolves copper into the liquid as copper acetate and related salts. That is the greening agent, and it is the whole reason for using that kettle.

The grape leaves are a red herring. Chemically they are a liner and a cover here, not the source of the colour — in modern pickling they are added for tannin, to keep cucumbers crisp.

Notes from the 21st century

Copper salts cause vomiting. And abdominal pain, in quantity. Household books of the period printed tests for copper in pickles because it was that common.
The green sold the jar. A bright green pickle looked fresh and commanded a price, which is why the practice was so persistent.
Modern crisp pickles use tannin and cold. Grape or oak leaves genuinely help with texture. The colour you get is the colour a cucumber actually is.

Also in this book

Brandy Peaches — Five minutes in boiling lye to strip the fuzz, and blanched kernels added to the jar.
Calf's Head Pudding — Boil the head until the bones drop out, pick the meat fine, then lay the brains over the top and bake.
Roast Turkey, with Truffles — Stuff the raw turkey with raw pork fat and truffles, then leave it two days so the perfume migrates.

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