Just A Few Pickled Onions?

[BreezyCooking]

I need some advice from experienced "picklers", which is something I'm definitely not!

I bought a small mesh bag of tiny little white pearl onions to use in Coq au Vin. Since husband is not an onion fan, I'll just be adding a small amount to the dish for myself.

However, since I do like pickled onions, I was thinking of blanching & peeling the entire little bag & refrigerator pickling the ones that don't go into the Coq au Vin for me to enjoy in salads, snacks, etc. So spent a goodly portion of the morning reviewing pickled onion recipes online & in my cookbooks, but of course all of the recipes are for much larger amounts of onions than I'll be doing. I'll probably only have a dozen or so little guys to jar up, & I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out a pickling or marinade ratio for just one small glass bowl or jar.

Any ideas, tips, hints, or recipes? Thanks in advance!

 

[miniman]

In the past I have made a batch of spiced vinegar which I have the put back in the vinegar bottle to use as needed - making a pint or so at a time. If you arelikely to make other pickles, you could do this.

Quick thought, you could make a sort of mixed pickle I have seen and include other vegetables as well. Cauliflower, carrot, cucumber all make good pickles. I have seen this for a relatively small amount.
Pickled Vegetables - Country Living

 

[Jeff G.]

I need some advice from experienced "picklers", which is something I'm definitely not!

I bought a small mesh bag of tiny little white pearl onions to use in Coq au Vin. Since husband is not an onion fan, I'll just be adding a small amount to the dish for myself.

However, since I do like pickled onions, I was thinking of blanching & peeling the entire little bag & refrigerator pickling the ones that don't go into the Coq au Vin for me to enjoy in salads, snacks, etc. So spent a goodly portion of the morning reviewing pickled onion recipes online & in my cookbooks, but of course all of the recipes are for much larger amounts of onions than I'll be doing. I'll probably only have a dozen or so little guys to jar up, & I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out a pickling or marinade ratio for just one small glass bowl or jar.

Any ideas, tips, hints, or recipes? Thanks in advance!

Couple of Ideas...
Mix up some brine. Drop the peeled babies into it and weight them down for 24 hours or so.

In a pot, vinegar, salt, pickling spices(bay leaf, etc..) Bring that to a boil. Let it cool overnight(not in the fridge). Put the onions in a clean jar pour the pickling solution over it and seal it up....

I a couple of weeks they should be rather tasty...


OR.....
Get some cucumbers, slice thin in a bowl.
Take some of the onions, peel, place in a bowl. Add apple cider vinegar, water, sugar to taste. Let it set for a couple of hours and you have great cucumber and onions.......

 

[YT2095]

I`m with Jeff too, brine for 24 hours then drain well, I use white Spirit vinegar for white onions such as those, the 8% stuff and a little white sugar too.

jar and leave them for a couple of months, do it now and they`ll be good for Christmas

 

[BreezyCooking]

Sounds good - but what ratio would you use for such a small amount of onions? I'm only talking about maybe a dozen tiny pearl onions here. The problem I'm having is trying to figure out the vinegar/water/sugar/spice ratio for such a small amount.

 

[YT2095]

well I would use a baby food jar, they seal well and most Certainly sterilisable.
for a 200 ml jar I would add a teaspoon of sugar, drop the onions in and add the cold white vinegar and cap it.

for the Brine I`de use a cup and add a tablespoon of salt and the onions then top up with water, stir well to dissolve the salt.


you don`t HAVE to Brine them, what it does do though it dehydrates the onions a little so they suck up more vinegar

 

[Bilby]

We don't use water to pickle onions, only the salt, then into the vinegar with cloves and something else that I can't recall off the top of my head.

As to the ratio, wouldn't you just do it by weight of the onions you have against the potential weight of the onions in your recipe of choice and reduce all other ingredients accordingly where possible. If you do the dry salt method, you just need to make sure they are covered in salt and when you bottle them, they need to be completely submerged in the vinegar. We also don't use sugar in ours.