Pickled Onions

[rustylady]

Just opened a jar of pickled onions. Made last september from some onions that had been left in cell trays so had not developed to full size. Didn't want to waste them (about the size of cocktail onions) so pickled them with sliced chillies. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT, CRUNCHY, SPICY AND MORESOME

[Patchninja]

Can you post your recipe? I've never pickled anything but DH loves pickled onions that I bring over from England so it would be good to try making some.

[valmarg]

The peeling of the onions is the longest job.

Once peeled you 'brine' them. The method I use is to 'wet' brine the onions. For every pound of onions you add a pint of water and 2 oz salt. ie 2lbs onions, 2 pints water, 4oz salt, etc.

The other method is to dry brine, whereby you put the onions on a tray and cover with salt. Its not a method I've used so cannot say how effective it is. I'm sure other peeps on the site will be able to help.

You leave the onions in the brine solution overnight. Next day drain the onions and rinse.

For the vinegar. you can boil a pint of malt vinegar with 2oz pickling spice. When boiled leave to go cold. Drain the vinegar through muslin.

Pack the onions into jars, making sure they are tightly packed. Pour malt vinegar into the jars three quarters of the way up, and top up with spiced vinegar.

You can add a couple of small dried chillies if you want a spicier onion.

If you want a sweeter onion you could substitute some of the malt vinegar with sherry vinegar, or even sweet sherry.

valmarg

[valmarg]

P.S. for a sweeter pickle you could also use some balsamic vinegar.

valmarg

[Two_Sheds]

Just opened a jar of pickled onions.

You're lucky, we couldn't open the jars that I made. We tried rubber gloves, banging them on the floor, pouring hot water on the lids, then repeated all that. They didn't budge. Mr TS is a 20 stone rugger-type, and he couldn't open them.

Eventually I gave up, and left the jar upside down in a dish of hot water. That did the trick: the metal lid swelled slightly and reluctantly gave up its contents.

[bobleponge]

I luvs em too, had some just before I came back to work, with added chillies. Proper yummy and made eyes water.

Had a couple of gherkins in them though, that were scrummy but not at all crunchy, which was a bit disappointing.

[sarraceniac]

Re dry brining Valmarj. This method is usually used for red cabbage. You just sprinkle it with salt on a plate, put another plate on top and then weight it. Usually a couple of pounds (a kilo) of jam (still in jar of course) does it if you haven't got 'old fashioned' kitchen scale weights. The salt takes the excess water out of the cabbage which would dilute the vinegar. I usually dry brine pickled onions as well if I am using either balsamic or wine vinegar as the pickling liquour. Malt vinegar is strong enough to stand a bit of dilution but wine vinegar isn't used very often. We like it for a change but they have to be eaten fairly quickly. Our favourite is to mix shallots and garlic (elephant garlic is brilliant but the genuine item is good too) and wet brine them. Throw some chillies (whatever you like) in and pickle for about a month in balsamic vinegar. It has that WOW factor. Last time I saw this being sold commercially was at Waitrose at nearly £3 for a 12 oz. jar.

[Buleste]

If you like your pickeled onions small but don't want to use silver skins use shallots. I did last year and they're still crunchy and sharp. This year I'm going to try some with Naga Jollokia chillis.

[flighty1]

Hi there,
To be honest I am not particularly fond of pickled onions but my OH loves them. He used to buy a bag or two of shallots from the supermarket. However were now growing our own. The problem is they won't stay crunchy. He peels them & soaks them overnight in salted water before drying them & bottling in pickling vinegar. Can anybody tell me why they go soft & more to the point how do we make sure they stay crunchy. I am going to get him to add some chillies to them as he also love the heat of chillies. Sounds like a win win situation if he can get them to stay crunchy.

[valmarg]

Difficult one flighty. The object of the brining is to extract moisture from the onions so that when the vinegar is added they keep their crunch. Maybe the ratio of onion:water:salt for the brining is not right.

I've been using the method I quoted for years, and the onions have always kept their crunch. We are still eating the 2008 onions, and they are still lovely and crispy/crunchy.

valmarg

[bargainhunter]

Yeah, im up for learning how to keep them crunchy, my OH loves them n i promised to make a jar or two this year

[Two_Sheds]

Can anybody tell me why they go soft

Yeah, im up for learning how to keep them crunchy

Apparently the trick is to have the liquid cold, not warm/hot. I think this is hte recipe I used (and mine are crunchy) BBC - h2g2 - How to Make Perfect Pickled Onions

[Hilary B]

The other trick is to make sure you don't leave any saltiness on the onions when they go into the vinegar.
A neighbour of mine used to brine the onons BEFORE peeling. It needed 3 days in the brine, but it helped because it seemed to reduce the tear-gas effect when peeling.
Either way, the onions need a bit of rinsing, then dry, before adding the vinegar, and the vinegar needs to be strong enough. Some table vinegars are too weak.

[valmarg]

HB, I think you need to be a bit careful. What you basically need for pickled onions is malt vinegar (you can vary this by adding proportions of spiced, sherry or balsamic, etc).

A lot of what is sold is 'non-brewed condiment' which is acetic acid. It doesn't have very good keeping qualities, and is VERY sour. It is an example of where you really need to read the small print.

valmarg

[Hilary B]

The main component of vinegar is acetic acid. The poetentil problem with 'non-brewed condiment' is that the acid content may be too low. Some of the stuff sold is only 3%, and for preserving 6% is a lot better. Obviously the other natural ingredients in real vinegar add interesting flavours.
Malt vinegar should, strictly speaking, be named ALEGAR (gone-sour ale). Vinegar (properly speaking) comes from wine. I don't know what the corresponding name is for cider-originated stuff....
That said, we all know what we mean by malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, cider vinegar etc.