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Onions

A preserved onion recipe using white wine 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Remove the brown skin from the onions.

  2. Boil water in a tin stew pan.

  3. Add onions to the boiling water until they look clear on the outside.

  4. Quickly remove the onions with a slotted spoon and place them on a clean cloth.

  5. Cover the onions with another cloth.

  6. Repeat the process until all are cooked.

  7. Let the onions cool.

Pickle and store

  1. Place the cooled onions in a jar or wide-mouthed bottle.

  2. Pour hot (not boiling) white wine vinegar over the onions.

  3. Add 1 ounce of allspice and 1 ounce of black pepper for each gallon of vinegar.

  4. Cover the jar once the mixture is 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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

  4. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

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

  5. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 translucent after brief blanching.
Best white wine vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its tang.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour that infuses into the vinegar.
Whole black pepper
Adds mild, sharp aroma and spice that infuses into the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pouring the vinegar while hot but not boiling. Vinegar that is too hot can cook the onions further and soften them, while vinegar that is cool may not penetrate well. Keeping it hot but below boiling lets the onions take on flavour and stay firm.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, 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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