Salting White Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the onions
Place the onions in a tank or cask and cover them, weighing down as you would for cucumbers.
Cover the onions with cold water and let them soak for two days.
Drain the water and cover the onions again with cold water.
Brine
Add 3 pounds of salt for every bushel of onions or 18 pounds for a 50-gallon cask.
Spread the salt on top of the onions to dissolve.
Let the onions sit in the brine for 3 to 5 days, then draw off the brine.
Transfer the onions to another cask to avoid sediment.
Cover the onions with a 60% brine solution.
Rest and use
After about three weeks, the onions are ready for use.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- The vegetable being cured; the salt brine gradually softens and preserves them.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the onions and preserves them through brining.
The step that matters
Covering the onions with brine. The onions must stay fully submerged so the surface does not spoil. Salt draws out moisture and firms the tissue, so the brine strength and even coverage determine how well the onions keep.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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