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Onions, Pickled

A quick pickled onion recipe using vinegar, allspice, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Onions, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Gather dry, ripe onions.

  2. Remove the thin outer skin using your fingers.

  3. Use a silver knife to cut the onions as desired.

Pickle

  1. Combine vinegar, allspice, and black pepper in a jar.

  2. Add the prepared onions to the jar and seal it.

  3. Let the onions pickle for at least a week before using.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 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

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the onions and gives them their sharp, tangy flavour.
Onions
Supply the main body and texture of the pickle, softening and taking on the brine's flavour over time.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the pickling liquid.
Whole black pepper
Contributes mild heat and aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the onions pickle for at least a week. Acid from the vinegar needs time to penetrate the onion layers and mellow their sharpness. Using them too early leaves them harsh and under-flavoured, since the spices also need time to infuse.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice, pepper. 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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