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Pickled Onions

Pickled onions are preserved in a vinegar solution with salt and optional spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil the vinegar with salt and spices if desired.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises.

Pickle the onions

  1. Add the onions and let them simmer for 3 to 4 minutes.

  2. When clear, place the onions in a jar.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar over the onions.

  4. Seal the jar when completely cool.

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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Spanish onions
Form the bulk of the pickle and turn tender and translucent when briefly simmered.
Vinegar
Supplies the sharp acidity that flavours the onions and helps keep them preserved.

The step that matters

Simmer the onions until clear. Simmering for 3 to 4 minutes softens the onions just enough to take up the vinegar. Simmering too long makes them limp, while stopping too early leaves them raw-tasting and sharp.

“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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