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Silver Onions

A pickled onion recipe with bay leaves, laurel, chillies, ginger, mace, vinegar, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Laurel and ginger work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Silver Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Scald the onions

  1. Boil the onions until hot.

  2. Cover the onions tightly and let them cool.

  3. Repeat the scalding process with fresh pickle.

  4. Drain the onions thoroughly.

Pack and seal

  1. Place the onions in jars with the shredded bay and laurel leaves, whole chillies, sliced ginger, and whole mace.

  2. Pour in the vinegar, filling the jars completely.

  3. Add olive oil on top, about 1 inch deep.

  4. Seal the jars with wet bladder and then dried soft leather.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Laurel + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,725 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Laurel + olivetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,983 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Its acidity preserves the onions and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Olive oil
A layer on top excludes air from the jar, adding a fat barrier against spoilage.
Bay leaves
Contribute a savoury, herbal aroma that infuses the vinegar and onions.
Laurel leaves
Add a mild, herbal aroma that flavours the pickle as it stands.
Whole chillies
Add heat and pungency to the pickling liquid and the onions.
Ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma and a gentle bite to the pickle.

The step that matters

Drain the onions thoroughly. Water left on the onions after scalding dilutes the vinegar and lowers its acidity, weakening the preserving effect of the pickle. Thorough draining keeps the vinegar strong enough to protect the onions.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (laurel, ginger, vinegar, olive):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against laurel, ginger, vinegar, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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