Pickled Cocktail Onions
Published April 8, 2017
Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky.
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Ingredients
1 pound peeled pearl onions
FOR THE PICKLING-SPICE BLEND
2 ½ tablespoons mustard seeds
2 ½ tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 cloves
2 tablespoons fennel seeds, crushed
3 dry bay leaves, broken up
FOR THE BRINE
1 quart rice-wine vinegar
½ cup warm water
1 cup white sugar
2 ½ tablespoons salt
Nutritional analysis per serving
45 grams carbs; 221 calories; 1 gram monosaturated fat; 2 grams fat; 4 grams fiber; 689 milligrams sodium; 2 grams protein; 37 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Stir together until sugar and salt dissolve before using. Add onions, brine and 2 tablespoons of pickling-spice blend to a heavy-bottomed pan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat immediately. Pour onions and liquid into a sterilized Mason jar. Cover and store at room temperature for two days before using. Refrigerate after opening.
Private Notes
Comments
For new cooks who want a quick trick to peel those pearl onions, blanch them for about a minute straight into an ice bath, and the onions practically peel themselves!
A quart+ of brine for a pound of onions?!? That's completely ridiculous and more than three times what you need. (I actually tried it with the full recipe though I thought it sounded like too much.) Halve the amount of brine, or you'll be dumping most of the excess down the drain anyway after you have packed the onions in your jar.
Oh, please don't dump the brine! Even if you have leftovers, there must be vegetables in the house who would like to be pickles when they grow up! Break up some cauliflower and salt the florets. Leave them for about an hour, rinse and pat dry. Place them in a clean jar and cover with the warm brine. Put it in the fridge and wait a week (if you can). It makes a delicious pickle. And most vegetables will pickle well. No brine gets wasted in my house!
FWIW, if you have leftover brine, you can dehydrate it and reuse the salt in other dishes.
Note for other Europeans (and myself when I make this again). Translation into metric and based on the amendments from Jose and Jerry. 450g onions 450 ml vinegar (I successfully used white malt) 60 ml warm water 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp maldon sea salt Pickling spice as directed above
Is there a point in dissolving the salt and sugar in the warm water? I added it the water/salt/sugar to the brine and when it was warm, I stirred to dissolve.