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Onions, Pickled

A simple 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 and remove their thin outer skin.

  2. Use a silver knife to remove one more skin for clarity.

  3. Place peeled onions in dry bottles or jars.

Fill the jars

  1. Pour enough cold vinegar over the onions to cover them.

  2. Add allspice and black pepper evenly among the jars.

Seal and rest

  1. Seal jars with a bladder and store in a dry place.

  2. Let them sit for a fortnight before use.

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. Onion + allspicetop 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. 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

Pickling onions
Form the body of the pickle, softening and taking on the vinegar and spice flavours as they sit.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the onions and gives them their sharp, tangy taste.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour as it infuses into the vinegar.
Whole black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent aroma as it infuses into the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cover the onions fully with vinegar. Onions exposed to air can spoil or discolour. Keeping every piece submerged in the acidic vinegar protects them while the flavours develop.

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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