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To Pickle Onions

A method for pickling small round silver onions using salt, vinegar, pepper, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

To Pickle Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Remove the skins from the onions without cutting the bulb.

  2. Place the peeled onions in a stone jar with salt and water.

  3. Scald the onions in boiling water for 20 minutes.

  4. Drain the onions on a napkin.

Make the pickle

  1. In an enamelled pan, boil vinegar, salt, pepper, and mace.

  2. Once the onions are cold, place them in jars, leaving room for the vinegar and spices.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the onions.

  4. Do not cover until cold.

  5. Tie the jars with bladder or wash‑leather and paper.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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 + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Silver onions
Form the bulk of the pickle and stay firm and crisp after scalding.
Wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the onions and seasons them during the initial brine.
White pepper
Adds warm, sharp aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the vinegar.

The step that matters

Scald the onions for 20 minutes. Scalding softens the raw bite and partly cooks the onions so they absorb the vinegar. Too little time leaves them harsh, while overcooking makes them mushy and weakens their texture.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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