This is not joke! Take from an 1897 Complete Cook Book and handed down in the family.

1. A good, cool place is necessary. The temperature must be kept above the freezing point.

2. Select a good kerosene barrel and take out the head and set fire to the inside and burn it until slightly charred, then smother out the fire by turning it bottom side up. Scrape off charred parts and soak in lime-water until the smell of kerosene is entirely removed.

3. TO MAKE THE PICKLE: Take one bushel of best fresh lime, one peck of rock-salt, and 60 gallons of clean water. Slake the lime as for making whitewash, add the rest of the water, and then the salt. Stir well two or three times the first day and then let it stand until well settled and cold.

4. No dip off the clear fluid carefully and put it into the barrel about one-half full.

5. Now put in the eggs, without breaking. When you have about a foot of eggs on the bottom of the barrel, pour in some of the "milky" pickle made by stirring up the lime and water left. It is these light, fine particles of lime settling on the eggs and filling the pores that preserves the eggs.

6. Care should be taken not to put in too much or too little of the "milky" pickle, pour in enough to cover the eggs nicely when settled. If not enough lime, the white of the egg will get watery, if too much it will stick on the outside like plaster and be difficult to remove.

7. A faucet should be fitted into the barrel about six inches from the bottom, so that the pickle can be drawn off when necessary.

8. A common method for small quantities: Take a box or half-barrel and first put in a layer of common salt, and then a layer of eggs, and so on, until the desired quantity is packed.