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To Pickle Onions

A method for pickling small button onions in vinegar with optional mace and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper 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. Soak the onions in hot water to make peeling easier.

  2. Remove three skins from each onion without cutting the root.

  3. Place the peeled onions in saltwater to prevent browning.

  4. Scald the onions over low heat for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Lay the scalded onions on a clean cloth and cover with another cloth.

  6. Remove any cracked skins to ensure evenness.

Make the vinegar

  1. Boil vinegar with mace and whole white pepper for about 10 minutes.

  2. Let the vinegar cool.

Pickle and store

  1. Pack the onions into bottles or glass jars.

  2. Pour the cooled vinegar over the packed onions.

  3. Seal the jars tightly with bladder and leather.

  4. Let the jars sit for about three weeks 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. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Small button onions
Form the main body of the pickle and absorb the flavour of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Salt
Keeps the onions from browning while they wait to be packed.

The step that matters

Let the jars sit for about three weeks before using. Pickling is a slow process: the acid and spices need time to penetrate the onions, so eating them early gives a harsh, underflavoured result.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, vinegar, white pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, white 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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