Pickled Onions/Shallots & pickled cucumber

asea

Hi there

I have lots of lovely shallots at home & would love to make some pickled/salted ones like my late auntie used to. She used to do shallots & mini-cucumbers in the same jar. Yummy!

Am sure she used to put them into boiling water with salt & a little vinegar but I can't remember exactly. They didn't taste vinegary, just salty. Does anybody know a recipe that I could use please?

Thank you very much!

lolarentt

I used to pickle onions, although I haven't done it for some years. Basically you soak the onions (cucumber etc) in a brine solution first before putting into vinegar - you can buy and use spiced vinegar if you like, or add your own spices to malt vinegar - these will give you traditional brown pickled onions. Otherwise use white/distilled vinegar if you want the onions natural coloured.

Also pickled eggs are great - just leave out the brine stage and put peeled HB eggs straight into spiced malt vinegar (got to be malt or you got those horrible anemic ones you see in pubs)
There are plenty of recipes on the web if you google it, such as:

http://farmgal.tripod.com/PicklesRelish.html

COOLTRIKERCHICK

a nice twist is to use red wine vinegar... instead of pickling vinegar....and add sone tiny little chilis in the jar too just to add a bit of kick....

heat the red wine vinegar with a little bit of brown sugar... dont boil etc.. just gently heat enough to disolve the sugar...

i put them in facy jars and gave as chrsitmas pressies......

went down very well....... better than any fancy shop bought ones....:D

asea

thank you!! any idea where i can get this special salt from, i've never seen it in any supermarkets before

thanks again!

lolarentt

asea wrote: »

thank you!! any idea where i can get this special salt from, i've never seen it in any supermarkets before

thanks again!

I use cheap rock salt, but I think any salt will do - pouring Table Salt (Saxa type) has some chemical additive to make it pour easily, so probably isn't ideal . You used to be able to buy cooking salt over here but I don't know if you stll can.That website is American so I wouldn't worry too much about the specifics on it.

Just looked it up in an old Good Housekeeping Encyclopedia and they seem quite happy with ordinary salt. For your pickled cucumbers they say DRY BRINE overnight - put veg in deep bowl sprinkling salt between the layers - use 2 x 5ml spoons salt to 500grm of veg. Onions should be WET BRINED 50grm salt to 1 pint water for 24 hours. "Drain wash dry and put into jars and fill with cold spiced vinegar"

Hope that helps!

gypsyroseloz

Hello, new to this forum!

Can anybody tell me what happens if you dont soak your onions first. My very impatient DH wouldnt wait for me to look on here for help for him to pickle his onions & has just put them in a jar with spiced pickling vinegar! Will they be useless?

Many thanks in advance!

Seakay

" have lots of lovely shallots at home & would love to make some pickled/salted ones like my late auntie used to. She used to do shallots & mini-cucumbers in the same jar. Yummy!

Am sure she used to put them into boiling water with salt & a little vinegar but I can't remember exactly. They didn't taste vinegary, just salty. Does anybody know a recipe that I could use please?"

You don't really need a special salt for the above recipes as you are pickling them in the vinegar having used the salt to remove excess water from the vegetables.
When you see "pickling salt" mentioned (usually in American recipes) they mean coarse sea salt (fine sea salt would be just as good) ie salt with nothing added to make it non-clumping (which table salt usually does have).

All the recipes above will taste more vinegary than salty when finished - I think that the recipes which your auntie made sound as though they may have more in common with the Russian and Polish traditions of pickling. I'm going to see if I can find any suitable recipes for you.

Seakay

gypsyroseloz wrote: »

Hello, new to this forum!

Can anybody tell me what happens if you dont soak your onions first. My very impatient DH wouldnt wait for me to look on here for help for him to pickle his onions & has just put them in a jar with spiced pickling vinegar! Will they be useless?

Many thanks in advance!

Not useless, but vinegar will not penetrate as easily and when it does it may well be diluted by the fluid from the onions - just keep an eye on them as they may take longer to mature than usual.

lolarentt

gypsyroseloz wrote: »

Hello, new to this forum!

Can anybody tell me what happens if you dont soak your onions first. My very impatient DH wouldnt wait for me to look on here for help for him to pickle his onions & has just put them in a jar with spiced pickling vinegar! Will they be useless?

Many thanks in advance!

You are using the brine to get some of the water out of the onions - you obviously wont have done this if you don't brine them so they won't be as crisp and crunchy as they might have been, wont be as vinegary and may not last as long - but if you're going to eat them at Christmas that probably wont matter!

gypsyroseloz

Thank you Seakay.
How long should they take? Did keep telling DH to be patient & arm himself with knowledge before starting!!!

Seakay

Well, I'm not absolutely sure because I always brine mine (only adds 24 hours to time, may be worth doing even now), but I usually try to leave then for 6-8 weeks before opening although I've eaten then at four weeks before now and they were okay.
If you have used malt vinegar or one coloured by spices etc then it is quite easy to see when the vinegar has fully penetrated the onions. If your vinegar is absolutely clear then it can be a case of try one and see. It's also a question of taste - they are your onions so trial and error will tell you what time is necessary to get them exactly how you like them!