Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Pickled Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the onions
Peel the small onions until they are white.
Scald the onions in salt and water until tender.
Remove the onions and place them in wide-mouthed bottles.
Pickle and store
Pour hot spiced vinegar over the onions.
Optionally, add 1 tablespoon of sweet oil to the bottles before corking.
When cold, cork the bottles tightly.
Store in a dry, dark place.
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.
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Small white onions
- Provide the main vegetable that becomes tender and absorbs the pickling flavour.
- Hot spiced vinegar
- Acidity preserves the onions and carries the spiced flavour into them.
- Sweet oil
- Adds a mild richness and smoothness to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Scalding the onions until tender. Scalding softens the onions enough to take up the vinegar, but overcooking makes them mushy and leaves them limp. Stop as soon as they are tender.
“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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