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A preserved onion recipe using salt, water, vinegar, ginger, mace, and sweet oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,595 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the onions

  1. Soak onions in salt and water for nine days, changing the water daily.

  2. Place onions in jars and pour fresh boiling salt and water over them.

  3. Cover jars until the mixture cools.

  4. Make a second boiling salt and water mixture and pour it over the onions when cool.

  5. Drain onions on a sieve and place them in wide-mouthed bottles.

Pickle and store

  1. Fill bottles with distilled vinegar and add ginger, mace, and sweet oil.

  2. Cork bottles tightly and store in a dry place.

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. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Are the vegetable being preserved, becoming softer and milder as they soak in brine.
Salt
Draws water out of the onions and helps preserve them during the long brining.
Distilled vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the vinegar.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Changing the water daily during the nine-day soak. Fresh water each day keeps the brine from becoming saturated with onion juices and spoiling, and steadily draws out harshness so the onions taste milder.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, ginger. 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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