When I think of a cocktail, I think of an alcoholic drink, but a cocktail can also be a combination of fruits and/or vegetables, pureed, chopped up, or otherwise combined. Fruit cocktail is a combination of chopped fruits in a syrup. The recipe above is for a tomatoe [sic] cocktail, probably along the lines of V8 juice. Depending on how it tasted, it might have been good as the base for the famous cocktail known as a Bloody Mary (and a favorite in my family). If you don’t like these ingredients, or wish to change it up, it would be quite easy to add garlic, carrots (chopped fine), or even cucumber. Just be aware that some veggies can produce more liquid, like a cucumber might, so be prepared for either more juice at the end or cut the amount of water. It might take a few tries to get this right for your preferences, but I don’t know if I would want to make that much tomato juice. If you put this into jars, be sure to seal them carefully with proper canning technique to prevent bacteria.
UPDATE: Because of Diane B’s comment, I looked up how much a peck of tomatoes would be, and it is 10-14 pounds. That IS a lot of tomatoes, but as Gramma A said, if this was going into the cellar for the winter, it would last quite a while.
Tomatoe Cocktail
1 Peck of tomatoes
2 onions
2 or 1 stalk of celery
4 green peppers
1 quart of water
Boil 20 minutes
Strain
Add 2 tablespoons salt
Add 2 tablespoons sugar
Bring to a boil again
Put in jars and seal
Gram's Recipe Box 
A peck of tomatoes? ! Really? No one even knows what a peck is nowadays. That’s a heck of a lot of cocktail. Perhaps it makes so much tomatoE cocktail that we could share it with Dan Quayle.
I love you a bushel and a peck,
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck …
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I’ll bet this recipe was eventually to be canned and saved through the winter. Gram had a fruit cellar in the basement and she put up every kind of thing that could be grown in our garden. Peaches, cherries, pears, and of course green beans, carrots (ugh on the canned carrots), corn, tomatoes, beets, applesauce, all sorts of jams and jellies, and also mincemeat. By end of summer the “cellar” was loaded and we had enough “sides” to last through the winter.
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