Help with pickled onions please

Nikkisun

The recipes all seem to say that you strain off the pickling spices but the jars my nan always made (which were the yummiest ever) still had the spices and chillies in?!

viv0147

Where is the best place to buy the pickles and vinegar and is it cost affective. After making them how long will they keep in a sealed jar and where should they be stored. Also where after opening should they be stored I guess the fridge, and how long will they be ok for once opened. Thanks

Bongedone

Nikkisun wrote: »

Thanks - I'm going to bribe the kids to peel them!

Good idea.

Word of advice. If you add chilli don't add too much! I made one I could not eat.

Seakay

viv0147 wrote: »

Where is the best place to buy the pickles and vinegar and is it cost affective. After making them how long will they keep in a sealed jar and where should they be stored. Also where after opening should they be stored I guess the fridge, and how long will they be ok for once opened. Thanks

As long as the onions are submerged then an ordinary screw top jar with a vinegar proof lid (ie no exposed metal on the inside) will be fine. The onions will keep pretty much for ever, but will start to lose their crunch after 8 months or so.
Cost wise, you have to compare like with like. For home made crafty type pickles then your home made preserves will beat anything that you buy. You may be able to buy inferior pickles more cheaply, but you won't have adjusted the spicing to your own taste etc.
Do not use non-brewed condiment for pickling.
If you have a Chinese supermarket nearby then they usually have very cheap malt or spirit vinegar.
Otherwise Tesco basics malt vinegar is cheap.
Spices are cheapest from ethnic grocers etc
I buy pickling onions from a local greengrocer. You might grow your own or use overgrown salad onions.
Last year I bought shallots and made pickles with half white malt vinegar (spirit vinegar) half red wine with fragrant spices and used kilner types jars. THey made very attractive Christmas gifts that would have cost a fortune if I'd bought them ready made.

Pink.

Hi Nikkisun,

As your thread has dropped down the Old Style board I've added it to the existing thread on pickled onions which may help.

Pink

DianeHC

I got a bag of onions reduced for quick sale in Morrissons for 35p and a large bottle of pickling vinegar for £1.00 so hoping to have a large jar of home made pickled onions ready for Christmas!

sandraroffey

have to ask this, though i think it should be ok.

my stock of pickled onions has gone down way to fast and as a result, i'm almost out.

no pickling onions to be had anywhere - seansons over so of course there isnt any to be had - but i have got some every day onions that are quite small. can i pickle these with the same result??? is there a difference between the two?? dont mind peeling them down to the right size and using the peeled off bits in something else. it was the end result i was concerned about.

i saw some very small bags of shallots but they were very expensive.

thanks for any advice.

natlie

Hi
you can't really used big onions unless you sliced them up maybe? they taste different, you can get tidy sized nets of shallots in ALDI much cheaper than in Tesco etc you may need to add some sugar as shallots can be a bit more sour than pickled onions.
Nat

stiltwalker

I mostly use shallots instead of pickling onions as they have a really good flavour and I like a nice sharp pickle. If you have a greengrocers or a market nearby then they should be cheaper than a supermarket, the other place to look would be an asian supermarket as they often have shallots and small onions in big quantities at small prices.

Farway

There is no difference, apart from size

I always use Asda Smart price ones as these tend to be smaller than normal, and of course cheaper.

I do like larger pickled onions, sort of Jumbo not the cocktail type, but a rummage through the packs will normally provide the right sized ones, there may be few larger ones but they can easily be used for cooking