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Onion Pickles

A pickle of small white onions preserved in vinegar with allspice and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Onion Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Place small white onions in a pot with cold water and ½ cup coarse sea salt.

  2. Heat the water until scalding hot, then remove the onions and peel off the skins.

  3. Lay the peeled onions on a cloth to dry.

Pickle and store

  1. Boil ½ ounce allspice and ½ ounce cloves in 1 quart vinegar.

  2. Remove the spices and pour the hot vinegar over the onions.

  3. Once the vinegar is cold, seal the jar and store it in a dry place.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  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

Small white onions
Form the pickled vegetable itself, becoming tender and mild as they soak in the vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out some moisture and firms the onions, helping them keep their texture during pickling.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Adds strong, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Heating the water until scalding hot before peeling. Heat loosens the onion skins so they peel off cleanly. Water that is not hot enough leaves the skins stuck, while overheating can soften the onions too much.

Swap the onion

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

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

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