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To make your own pickled onions, you will need almost three kilograms of small pickling onions but shallots will also do for this recipe. You will also require some coarse salt, water and spiced vinegar. The preparation time is a rather lengthy one if you consider that the soaking time is 36 hours and the maturing time is another several weeks. As for your personal time, allow for two hours to prepare the pickling onions. The pickled onion recipe follows below.

Ingredients for five jars

To yield five jars of pickled onions, you will need 2.80 grams of unpeeled pickling onions, 1 kg of coarse salt, 10 litres of water and 1.5 litres of cold spiced vinegar.

Method

Dissolve 500 grams of the salt in 5 litres of the water in order to make brine. Place the unpeeled onions in the brine and cover with a weighted object to hold the onions down (a large plate will do). Ensuring that all the onions are covered, leave them to soak in the brine for 12 hours.

Once the onions are well-soaked, place them in a large bowl. Boil some water and scald them for a minute before draining them. Once they are drained, cut off the tops and tails and peel them.

Now, dissolve the remaining salt in the remaining 5 litres of water to make another batch of brine. Place the peeled onions in the brine for 24 hours. Once again, cover them with a plate or a heavy object in order to keep them submerged. When ready, drain the onions well.

Divide the onions between five clean bottling jars and pour the cold spiced vinegar over them. Seal the jars and leave the onions to mature for six to eight weeks.

Serve with bread and cheese or cold meats.

Tags: cooking