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Pickled Onions

Pickled onions are small white onions preserved in white wine vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 the onions

  1. Peel the brown skin off the onions.

  2. Boil water in a saucepan.

  3. Add enough onions to cover the surface of the water.

  4. Once the onions look clear on the outside, remove them quickly with a slotted spoon.

  5. Place the onions on a clean cloth and cover them with another cloth.

  6. Repeat the process with more onions until all are done.

  7. Let the onions cool completely.

Pickle and store

  1. Place them in a jar or wide-mouthed glass bottle.

  2. Pour hot white-wine vinegar over the onions, ensuring it is not boiling.

  3. Once cooled, cover the jar.

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. 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 round onions
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming tender and crisp-textured after blanching and soaking.
White-wine vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Blanching the onions briefly in boiling water. Removing them as soon as they look clear on the outside prevents overcooking, which would leave them soft. Brief blanching also helps the vinegar penetrate evenly and keeps a firm bite.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, 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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