[at-l] Re[2]: pickles

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C.)]

>"...How does the flour affect the taste?"

Not noticeably. It's only a half a cup in seven quarts of vegies, sugar, vinegar
and spices. The flour does require constant stirring to keep the pot from
burning on. And I find pickles are about as pickled as they are going to get by
the end of two or three weeks.

Mostly flour slightly thickens the juices and helps keep the spices from
settling to the bottom of the jars.

But one could leave it out without a problem. As an avid reader of recipes, I've
discovered that their is nothing sacred about any of them. Someone, sometime,
added flour because she had to much juice, and her children, grandchildren and
great grandchildren have been adding flour ever since.

Surely, nothing is critical in a recipe that produces between 9 and 18 pints and
requires just two "handfuls" of salt! (I cheated and added three)

Weary