Pickled onions are a staple for us in England. Gorgeous with a ploughman’s lunch, that’s crusty bread and butter, ham, a big chunk of very mature English Cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber, or with the left over Turkey and ham at Christmas, pork pie or just about anything savoury. Been a few years since I last did them, but used to do them with my mom for Christmas. I found your video to refresh my memory 😋
Oh and English chutney, though chutney originated in India. We just adjusted the recipe for English tastes and Branston pickle is also a must to go along with a ploughman’s lunch, or on a sandwich with ham or cheese. The Sandwich is another English invention by the ‘Earl of Sandwich’ (not kidding). Curried Indian Chutneys, such as mango chutney, are by the way delicious, as a starter, along with popadoms and Indian mint sauce and diced salad and have become over the centuries another adopted national dish, the wonderful curry. Almost as popular here now as traditional fish & chips.
As an Englishman, I have to say bravo! The method is on the money, that's for sure. A slight tweak would be to make your own spice batch e.g. with a few dried chillies for extra oomph. And maybe try dark muscovado sugar as an alternative to white.
My wife is English and I have to tell you your peeling your onions the hard way . Next time just cut the root end off. And boil a pot of water then dump th onions into the boiling water remove from Heat let stand no more than 5 minutes cool them off in ice water . Then pinch top of onion and the onion will pop out from skin . It's much faster and less tedious than you method try it you'll like it
Gosh, I think you are absolutely adorable and I am loving this as I believe that you can pickle anything!!! Thank you for being you and please don’t question the validity of you helping us do this!!! it may be so ridiculously simple to you… and brand new to us!,,😊😊😊😊
Autumn 2021 and I have all my homemade pickled onions, shallots, beetroot and quail eggs done. Jams and honey also stored away and the winter store of beer and cider nearly done. It's great to make your own preserves, so much better than over priced and bland shop bought. Great video Craig, thanks!
Sitting in a carpark in Scotland using my satnav trying to find the neatest supermarket for pickled onions 😂. Used to eat these at 1am as a midnight feast 😂
Back in 1983, I visited a family in Wellington, New Zealand. They had pickled onions like this in a 5-gallon crock they kept in the kitchen. The pickled onions were delicious! Fond memories!
Hi Craig I’m from Yorkshire England great video I make pickled onions every year for Christmas. They make great gifts for family and friends I all so recycle jars to put them in. I mix my own spice to put in cinnamon stick , cloves, black pepper corns , chilli flakes, ground black pepper. And I use honey to sweeten it I put it in the vinegar when warming. Just thought you might like to try it. Big fan of your home brewing on this thanks for your help I have learnt a lot from you. 🏴
Craig. I have to tell you that this is my "go to" recipe of pickled onions. I discovered your channel a couple of years ago and have had no reason to go any further for a good, reliable, tasty pickled onion recipe that is fool proof! Thank you so much for my lovely pickled onions (with a fresh chilli popped into each jar to give it a bit of a kick), Thank you for sharing.
Making a batch right now. Used pearl onions instead of shallots. Talk about time consuming. Took me and the daughter 2 hours to trim and peel 2 pounds of them suckers and about half a pound of garlic (the garlic was easy though😉). Keg blew on my London Brown too. Pretty bummed since it is a perfect pint to go with a plough man's lunch. The reason I'm doing these is just for a ploughman's lunch! Home made beer, home made pickled onions and cucumbers and, home made bread using Nottingham slurry from my ESB I made. All so good together. Maybe the next adventure will be cheese making and sausage curing so the plough man's will be 100% my own. Cheers!
This man you mention is very much under rated! I hope Craig does ot mind me posting this but Craig is a very humble and gifted Man! Please listen to this beautiful song and do some research on him. You will forever be thankful you have met ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dvuH069S07s.html Cheers
@@wildjames I am wondering if you tried making this or it just turns you off? No judgement just curious. And I like a honest opinion before I bother trying so was wanting to to know why you thought it was Fing horrible?
James Miller I’ve been watching his videos for years! It’s great family content, I only watch things that are positive and inspire creativity. So yes it’s a great way to start the day
Good to see you Craig. I love picked onions. You'll have to make your own beer vinegar for your next batch. Just stick a tablespoon or so of raw ACV into a pint of beer, cover and leave for 3 weeks. Best beer vinegar ever.
Pickling onions & red cabbage, plus other stuff such as pickled eggs, gherkins etc, were used to preserve things over winter and out of season. Pickled red cabbage is so delicious too, though less popular these days with the younger, pampered generations, who were born with the benefits of modern-day fridges & freezers. Pickles were, back-in-the-day, a pantry staple. I believe pickles can last up to 12 months in a cool, dark place, such as a pantry.
hi Craig, I'm from England. My mum used to make picked onions. have to say @Simon o hit the nail on the head. following your instructions, how my mother used to, with the added chilli and muscovado brought back some awesome memories. thank you.
Hello Craig. Wow it’s been such a long time. I first started following you around 15 years ago when I first got into homebrew thanks to you. Sadly after a few years stopped homebrew. And now in 2023 I searched for a pickled onion recipe and surprisingly your video came up. It’s great to see your still uploading and helping others after so so many years. The funny thing about this upload is I’m English and live in England yet I’m looking for an English recipe from a Canadian in Canada. The irony. Anyway I’m so glad to see your well and still uploading. I have re subbed your channel and have loads of you Craig’s kitchen to catch up on. Thanks again for your uploads stay safe your old pall Chris from Yorkshire England uk.
👌👌👌must dig out my mum's recipe for these, they were always a high point of Christmas celebrations, now's just about the right time to do them in preparation. Get your friends and family to save coffee jars in the run up, they're perfect for reusing.
Craig ,Curt here been long time I love this video man i made a batch of these i couldn't even wait two weeks to try them 🤤 talk about flavour town I currently have many batches going now because im scared to run out lol
I have made ones same recipe except I don’t put sugar in mine best recipe ever and I do leave mine in salted water overnight but of course I was born in London and my mother has a great cookbook from there with the recipe in
Hi Craig, I was just wanting to brush up my memory on making pickled onions and found this. Great to see you’re still hard at it mate. Great video. I know you make beer too, and so do I and I had some bottles that had lost their gas as I forgot about them and decided to make malt vinegar with them…it’s turned out amazing. You should give it a go to make your pickled onions with…as I am about to do. All you need is the mother of vinegar but make sure it’s for making malt vinegar as there are red wine and white wine mothers too. Back to the onions..if you like a bit of a spicy kick add a few dried chilies to the jar before you put the lid on. Many thanks mate and keep up the great work. Neil (Yorkshireman in NY)
Awesome video. Btw I’d have captured the escaped errant onion, washed it and added it to the stash. But not admitted to it. I add sugar to the vinegar boil. This is how my mum did this. Like you, I dry brine the onions or shallots. For an extra keen pickled onion, I add two whole dried chillies to the vinegar boil and a further two to each jar minimum. Don’t be afraid of seeing bubbles coming from the onions in the jar, that’s part of the process, pickles aren’t preserved, they’re fermented a little and pickle. They’re not preserved, their shelf life is extended. Up to 18 months I the refrigerator but mine rarely last that long. They rarely last a month. My other favourite home made pickle is redd cabbage, just like my mum used to do. Awesome.
Nice one Craig I grew up in the North of England and you are pretty spot on in your method. I brew beer too, but usually, put jars and lids in a steamer to sanitize them. The salting also adds extra flavor so you shouldn't skip it. Oh also as someone else suggested, try pickled eggs. I'd use Apple cider vinegar but in the UK they tend to use 50/50 malt and white vinegar but it's a bit too strong for me.
Hi Craig, great to see another cooking video - your creamy chicken soup is now a staple in our house! :) I make pickled cucumbers some years to take care of a glut and the jars don't need to be sterilised as for jams and chutneys, they just need to be nice and clean because the vinegar acts to stop any nastiness...
I will definitely try these! I had never heard of pickled onions. Also...you could sterilize your jars by putting them into boiling water, like you do when you are canning. Thanks so much.
People are overly paranoid when making pickles. I sterilize jars by putting them in the oven at just above boiling temp for half an hour, then put the onions/cukes/peppers whatever in, I have never "processed" anything, and I have had stuff that has lasted years. If the jars are sterile and the produce is packed in vinegar (or sugar in the case of jam) nothing is going to grow in it. I have been doing this for decades and I learned how to do it from my mom who did it for decades, and no one ever died from eating any of it.
Salting the onions, prior to immersing in vinegar, is not only to make them crunchier. It is also to remove water which would leech out into the vinegar, and reduce its acidity. The acidity needs to be at least 5% to prevent the growth of bacteria, at room temperature. So, for shelf stable, unrefrigerated pickles, it is better to use vinegar of 6%, or even 7% concentration, which allows for (even if you pre-brined the vegetables) any dilution of the vinegar, ensuring it does not fall below 5%. This prevents spoilage and keeps the food safe to eat. Incidentally, although strong, and also pre-spiced pickling vinegars are widely available in the UK, they are difficult to obtain (and extortionately expensive!) in the US of A.
That’s what I do. I actually pour boiling water on the onions before peeling, let them cool, 30 mins later peel the skins and set aside. Very easy to peel. You get a really rich brown liquid to add to the stock.
Hi craig, a little gin or wine, or something stronger doesnt go amiss either.. just for flavour. Same with away from the norm flavour seeds or spices as well, example fresh dill., corriander seeds etc., on their own. Make smaller jars and experiment. Then go with your likes, for which flavor. Orange liquor with pickled carrots or anything crazy but matched. Lol. Nice to see your happy face 👍😊👍 Cheers from ( nz)
Craig, I watched your videos years ago, and somehow I just lost track of your channel. It just popped up in my youtube suggestions. So happy it did. I love your videos. Thanks for sharing :) I'm subscribed now so I look forward to catching up!
Hey Craig just wanna say this channel is by far the best channel on RU-vid.. What more could you ask for home brew vinyl and good food. Big fan by the way 😊 keep doing what you do best. Love the channel all the way from Ireland
Salting pre isn't to make them crunchy. What it does is remove moisture so that they will reabsorb vinegar to replace the moisture they have lost. This gets the vinegar directly into the onion and speeds up the pickling process. If you skip this step, the onions will eventually pickle by osmosis only, but they won't be as tangy.
Craig, I see a cooking channel in your future. I know it’s time consuming, but you have good audio, and patience. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just make your regular dinners for now. Everything else will come after. Good job!
I think the reason you salt them is because the vinegar replaces the water that the salt causes to come out. This way the vinegar goes deep into the onions.
Thanks Craig I love pickled onions and have come back several times to you're great video, now because its onion harvest time I am referring back to the video, I think the jar with the shoulder helps keep the onions down so I took that away from you're video and trying to source Malt Vinegar, I can get it off Amazon but its pricey I have one more store to try before I fall back on Cider Vinegar, thanks again
Nice. Pretty much how I do it. I grow my own onions, and in 2 different veg beds - 1 bed for pickles and 1 for cooking. I'm English but I now live in the USA, and certain things I miss - pickled onions being one of them. It's so hard to get malt vinegar in the USA (at an affordable price anyway), so I now use cider vinegar. Not quite the same, but still good. Great video !
Always love your Craig’s Kitchen videos. I’ve learned a lot from them. Also from your home brewing videos! Also from your music videos, haha. You rock!
The hardest part of this is finding small onions. My mom was British and I grew up eating these but we grew our own onions in the yard in Ohio. I have looked and looked for small onions. The only solution I've come up with is to peel the outer layers of a big onion (and use that in recipes) and use the inner portion of the onions for this recipe. (Wish I could find small onions.)
Do you like Chinese take out. If you do, I have made chinese style pickled onions. 😋 you need about four or five fresh garlic cloves, bruised by hand✋. Mixed peppercorns including the red ones, some pickling spice, your onions, chopped ginger about 1 and a half inch and about 1 or 2 teaspoons of chinese five spice. 2 teaspoons for a big jar. They are quite nice. I always put the spices in the bottom of the jar. No need to boil the vinegar. The spices will eventually rise. I am an Englishman and have a pickled onion for a head.
