Last year when I went to South Carolina for a week, I came home with several cookbooks. This is not a surprise as I prefer them as my souvenirs when I travel. I wrote about one of them shortly after I returned: see this post on Cheese Pudding.
Another book I found was The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge. (ISBN 978-0-87249-383-4)
It was originally published in 1847 (mine is a facsimile). Ms. Rutledge was a descendent of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and related to another. She was born and died in Charleston and was educated in England. The introduction, written in 1979 by a cousin, Anna Wells Rutledge, holds stories of what Charleston was like during Sarah Rutledge's time as well as tidbits of its history over the decades. I certainly got a feel for what life was like there!
I particularly enjoyed Anna's "translation" of the culinary terms used in the book: gill as one-half cup, hyson tea as green tea from China, shaddock as grapefruit (although she mentions our modern day grapefruit has been developed beyond what Sarah knew), and "brown it with a salamander" meant to broil under a heated metal plate. (page xxvi).
Today's recipe is on page 216.
To Pickle Shrimps
Pick your shrimps, and rinse them well in salt and water; take two parts of strong vinegar, and one of water, add a few allspice, and boil this pickle; pour it hot over the shrimps. If the shrimps are to be sent to a distance, the pickle should be boiled again; adding a little more vinegar, and pouring on the shrimps hot, again. They must be entirely covered by the pickle; a paper wet with brandy, should be placed over the top. They will thus keep sound a long time.
My Redaction
2 pounds medium shrimp
1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup water
6 whole allspice berries
My shrimp were raw and frozen, so I defrosted them, put them in 2 quarts of boiling salted water (1/2 tsp salt), brought it back to a boil, then simmered them for 2 minutes. The picture above shows them after I drained them and rinsed them with cool water until they stopped steaming.
To "pick" my shrimps, I simply peeled them, removing the tail and any remaining little bits of the vein I found after the shell had come off.
I filled a clean one quart canning jar with water and put it in the microwave on high for five minutes. (Put a plate under it to catch any water that might boil over.) While that was going on, I put the vinegar, water, and allspice berries in a pan and brought them to a boil.
Then I dumped the water from the jar and filled it with the shrimp. The two pounds fit in there pretty well; just a few were kept out only because I didn't want to stuff them in.
I poured the boiling "pickle" over the shrimp until it covered them by at least 1/2 inch. That used up almost all of the liquid.
Then I put the lid on the jar and let it cool on the counter.
My Notes
I wasn't sure if my vinegar would have qualified as "strong" but I went ahead and mixed it with the water.
I hoped that 6 allspice berries were enough to give some flavor.
I was surprised that all the shrimp fit in the one jar. (Honestly, I had hoped they all didn't so I could try other recipes with them. That will be for another day.)
The hot vinegar sealed the lid (it popped, as a good canning jar lid should), so I skipped using the paper soaked in brandy idea.
The Verdict
I looked around on the internet for other shrimp pickling recipes. They tend to contain many more flavors than simply vinegar and allspice but those recipes were for making a complete appetizer that was ready to go on the table out of the jar. They looked good! One of them noted that the longer you keep the shrimp in the flavored liquor, the more "pickley" they tasted.
The jar sat on the counter for four days. This was tough for me to do because I really, really dislike food poisoning, and I worried the whole time that I was making something that would make me sick. But I stuck it out.
When the day came to try it, the jar looked just as it did in the picture above, with a little bit of sediment at the bottom. The liquid had a mild scent and the shrimp was firm, not slimy or bad smelling. My guest taster and I were both willing to do a taste test.
It tasted of shrimp. The flavor was lightly vinegary, not enough to overwhelm the delicate shrimp flavor, so I guess the 2 to 1 ratio of vinegar to water was just right. I couldn't taste the allspice but I couldn't say it didn't have influence. Probably very minimally. Perhaps cracking the spices or using more would have been better, but I don't know how much allspice I really wanted to taste.
The goal was to make shrimp last a long time, not make it an intriguing flavor. I think the recipe accomplished that goal. We tried it straight out of the jar and then later on top of a tossed green salad. It was fine!
I can see why this would be a good baseline recipe for making the shrimp more exciting. The online recipes (mostly from the USA's deep south) include capers, onions, red pepper flakes, apple cider vinegar, Tabasco sauce, lemon slices, and/or various herbs and spices.
This was an easy recipe to prepare. The most "challenging" part was peeling all the shrimp, which turned out to be a nice contemplative time at the dining room table. Everything else was quick and simple.
Even though Ms. Rutledge assures us the shrimp will keep for a long time, after the jar was opened, I kept it in the refrigerator.
Success! I'd do it again, especially as an appetizer if I added more flavors.
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