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Pickled Onions

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Onions

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Gather the onions when they are dry and ripe; wipe off the dirt without peeling them.

  2. Make a strong solution of salt and water, and soak the onions in it, changing the brine morning and night for 3 days. Save the last brine.

  3. Remove the outer skin from the onions and place them in a large tin saucepan.

  4. Mix equal parts of milk and the last brine, then add 2 tablespoons of salt and pour over the onions.

  5. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring gently with a wooden skimmer to keep the onions from boiling.

  6. Once the onions are transparent, transfer them to a colander to drain, covering with a cloth to retain steam.

  7. Place the hot onions on a doubled old cloth, cover with a blanket, and let them cool overnight.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, clove, mace):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, clove, mace. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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