Split Pickles - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 gallon water
pickles (enough to be covered well in the brine)
lump of alum
8 c. vinegar
8 c. sugar
5 cents worth of cassia buds
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. mixed spices

Preparation

Put pickles in water.
Leave the pickles in the brine for one week.
Drain brine off and cover with clear boiling water.
Leave pickles in this water for 24 hours.
Drain off and cover with boiling water into which place a lump of alum the size of hulled walnut.
Leave pickles in this water for 24 hours, take out, drain and pack in jars.
Cover with the next 6 ingredients, boiling hot. Leave pickles in this 24 hours, drain, heat mixture boiling hot and cover pickles.
Repeat this in 24 hours, then seal pickles.