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Pickled Onions

Pickled onions are small white onions preserved in a brine of salt, peppercorns, mace, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,493 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Pickled Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the small white onions, ensuring they are as equal in size as possible and avoiding cuts.

  2. Soak the onions in a strong brine for four to five days, then drain and rinse with cold water.

  3. Parboil the onions in water for ten minutes, then immerse them in cold water and dry on a towel.

  4. Remove any loose pieces from the onions.

Pack and pickle

  1. Place the onions in glass jars with a few peppercorns and blades of mace.

  2. Cover the onions with boiled wine or cider vinegar and let it cool before sealing the jars tightly.

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. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Onion + winetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,784 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Small white onions
Form the main body of the pickle, giving a firm, crisp texture once brined and parboiled.
Boiled wine or cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a rounded sweetness.
Peppercorns
Adds a warm, pungent aroma that infuses the vinegar around the onions.
Blades of mace
Contributes a delicate, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking the onions in strong brine. Salt draws water out of the onions through osmosis, firming their texture and softening their harsh bite. Cutting the soak short leaves the onions soft or sharp, and the vinegar cannot fully correct that later.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, wine, sugar, vinegar. 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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