My husband's attempt at pickling onions was a disaster. They went soft. Any tips please would be very much appreciated.

choose even sized onions - peel and immerse in brine for at least 12 hours - 4 oz coarse salt to 2 pints water.
Rinse - drain well. Pack into jars, cover with cold spiced vinegar. Seal jars.

Keep for 2-3 months before opening.

Beryl.

I go for covering the peeled onions(or shallots) with dry salt rather than brine for 24 hours then rinsing,drying and bottling as Beryl does.I like to add a small piece of dried chilli to each jar for extra fire.
Carole

I soak the onions in brine for 24 hours then peel (easier to peel this way) and soak in brine again for 48 hours then bottle and as Carole said I add an extra chilli to each jar and if you want sweeter onions add a teaspoon of sugar per jar. This came from a WI book on pickling.
the brining removes extra water from the onions making them crisper !

This recipe was the old forum. I havent tried it but it looks good to me



pickled onions(3) — Mick W — 15/09/2004 15:21:59
Here it is again for you.Best of luck.Pickled onions(4) — Mick W — 21/07/2004 23:58:16 I love em. First place your peeled shalotts in a brine salution for 24 hours to expell the water from them and so that they retain their crispness, then boil up a gallon of ready spiced vinegar with a 250ml jar of clear honey and a 500grm bag of brown sugar, simmer for 10n minutes and then allow to cool before adding to your jars of shalots.Once you've tried them this way your'll never do them any other way again.Good luck.Mick

With regard to 'wet' brining the onions, the ancient Good Housekeeping recipe I use the ratio is 1 pint of water to 2oz salt to 1lb onions. It seems to work. Still nice and crunchy after 18 months.

I think the brining is the important part of pickling onions, wether it be wet or dry. One of my old aunts used the dry method, but I don't know how much salt she used to a pound of onions.

valmarg

Thanks for this post chaps. My attempt when horribly wrong so will have a bash this way instead.

I want to do them for my 14 year old niece who will sit there with a large jar of pickled onions and several pork pies. She doesn't even bother with a fork, just dips in her pinkies and she's off, crunching.

Such a delicate, refined child!!!

Thank you all. Hubby wasn't salting them at all - just bottling them in vinegar. The next batch should be perfect