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Pickled Onions

A pickled onion dish using red onions, chillies, mustard seeds, peppercorns, ginger, and malt vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the onions and sprinkle them with coarse sea salt on a large dish.

  2. Place the dish in the sun for three hours, adding the halved chillies.

  3. Dry the mustard seeds, black peppercorns, white peppercorns, and ginger in the oven.

  4. Crush the ginger slightly.

Pack and pickle

  1. Using a perforated spoon, layer the onions in small bottles with some chillies and the mixed spices.

  2. Fill the bottles with more onions and cover them with boiling malt vinegar.

  3. Once cooled, cork the bottles tightly to keep air out.

  4. Let the pickled onions sit for ten days 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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 recipes

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

  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

Red onions
Form the pickle's bulk, and their sugars soften and sweeten as they pickle.
Malt vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the onions and gives them their sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the onions, firming their texture before pickling.
Red chillies
Add heat to the pickle, flavouring the vinegar as it infuses.
Mustard seeds
Contribute a pungent, aromatic bite that develops in the vinegar over time.

The step that matters

Cover with boiling malt vinegar and cork tightly. The vinegar must be hot and the onions fully submerged so the acid penetrates and preserves them. Sealing the bottles tightly keeps air out, which limits spoilage and mould during the long rest.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, mustard, malt, vinegar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mustard, malt, 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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