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Onions, Pickled

Pickled onions are onions preserved in vinegar with 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 the thin outer skin with your fingers.

  2. Use a silver knife to remove one more layer of skin until the onions look clear.

  3. Place the peeled onions in dry bottles or jars.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour enough cold vinegar over the onions to cover them, adding the allspice and black pepper evenly.

  2. Seal the jars tightly and store in a dry place.

  3. After two weeks, the pickled onions will be ready for 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. Allspice + vinegartop 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
Provide the main body of the pickle, becoming tender and mildly sharp as they soak.
Vinegar
Acts as the pickling liquid, preserving the onions and giving them their sharp tang.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole black pepper
Adds mild, pungent spice to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Sealing the jars tightly. Vinegar covering the onions must keep air away from them. Loose lids let the onions be exposed to air and spoil, so the jars should be sealed firmly and kept in a dry place.

Swap the onion

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

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

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