The wife of an English friend of mine makes pickled onions in malt vinegar. Once the onions are eaten up, he keeps the flavored vinegar in little bottles for fish and chips. He brought some to the USA on a visit. AMAZING!
Trust me, nothing beats a portion of perfectly cut, chunky chips fried in goose fat, a beer-battered cod served with mushy garden peas and tartar sauce, topped with sea salt and pepper for the chips and a squirt of lemon juice over the fish, completed with a traditionally made pickled onion, the vinegar from which goes great on top of the chips. Everyone ought to sit on a bench in a British coastal town and eat that, for it is a blissful experience. Going home to a nice cup of tea only completes it. You guys don't know what you gave up 200 years ago...
In England EVERYONE eats pickled onions. A lot of us pickle our own To peel onions quickly, top and tail them, then put in a bowl, cover over with hot water, wait for 15 minutes, and you will find that the skins can be lifted off easily with your fingers. And to get a superb flavour, only use English malt vinegar. Thank you for a really good video.
Yeah, once you've pickled them, so long as you store them in the vinegar in some kind of screw-top jar, they don't need refrigeration at all. Just store in a cool dark place away from extreme temperature variations. They're edible even after a couple of years. 5 year old pickled silverskins that have just been stored in a kitchen cupboard are the oldest I've eaten and they were still in good condition. Definitely edible. Assuming they carried on in the same manner, I dare say they'd have still been good after a decade. The high acidic content of the vinegar removes worries of things like botulism rearing its ugly head. Then again, between all the natural chemicals in onions and the ones in the vinegar, you're unlikely to ever get spoilage from rot or mould either. I'm not willing to say its impossible as absence of proof is not proof of absence but I know for sure I've never seen mould develop in a jar below the level of any vinegar. Its why we humans learned to pickle in the first place. It works.
Thanks for the upload. I was a weird kid growing up. I liked pickles, liver and onions, cabbage and broccoli. I once found an old Colonial Cook Book in my public Library in Massachusetts. I hand copied (this pre-dates Xerox machines) many of the recipes. I still have a few of them, many got lost or fell apart. That was in the 1960s. Since then I scour old book stores and now the internet for vintage recipes to add to my collection. I also collected many of my Family Recipes. I'm the sole keeper of many of my Grandparents and Parents recipes. Family recipes should be shared with everyone. Maybe Townsends should make a Vintage Recipe Repository, where folks could put their favorite recipes up by Decade?
you seemed to have missed the most important thing in pickling onions. Get the hardest ones you can, soft onions will only become mush. Properly pickled onions that I made lasted 14 months in jars in a cupboard, they were still crunchy.
Good info. I thought pickled onions only last 2 weeks in the fridge. I canned some red onions recently and the recipe I used said they should be consumed within a 2 week period. Is the recipe incorrect?
I'd still have them, but she passed away years ago, and we live in a tiny apartment in a city, with no yard to garden in and no space to store much in the way of canned goods. Someday we'll have our own house and grow and can most of our own food, like I did with her and my uncles and grandma, and give my son the experience I had, but not any time soon.
+Candi Walkowski My father used to put garlic in with his German dill pickles. Cauliflower and carrots too. I used to try to get to the garlic before anyone else because it was sooo good. So I understand what you are saying. Hopefully you can get a place where you are able to do that again.
Candi Walkowski In the meantime don't they have something in stores? I know they have olives with garlic cloves and other things. My bro loves the olives with garlic inside instead of pimento.😍🍀
Pickled sliced red onions is a great favorite here with tacos or sandwiches. Love your videos, thanks for what you do to present and encourage historic interpretations. Nothing like period cooking inspiration. Also the preparation and historic layout is a visual delight.
What you say is slightly askew. The onions put onto toothpicks, along with other foods, are small silver onions and are pickled slightly differently. In England, we do not use the same onions as presented in the above recipe but a slightly larger brown onion. Put the onions into boiling water for 45-60 seconds then put them into ice cold water before peeling. Do not put into cold water and then bring to the boil as that often makes the onions go soft as they become cooked onions. Then put the onions into a plastic bag along with sea or kosher (both without iodine) and seal the bag. Put the bag to one side and leave it overnight. Turn the bag and its content several times to ensure the onions get salted properly. Next morning, wash the onions a few times to remove the outer layer of salt, before continuing the pickling process. Incidentally, malt vinegar is easy to obtain. In Toronto, I buy 4 litres (yes, I spell the UK way as I am English and prefer that system) for about CAD10.00 at wholesale suppliers. Don't buy many small bottles from the supermarket as that is expensive. When the pickles are put into containers, usually glass jars, leave for 6-8 weeks before eating. When in storage, turn the jars upside down a few times to spread the spices around more evenly. I have just dug through my vast collection of recipes (being an erstwhile chef, I have thousands of recipes), and include it here for you. Pickling Spice Mix #1 Ingredients 1 tbsp mustard seed, 1 tbsp. whole allspice, 2 tsp black peppercorns, 2 tsp whole cloves, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp hot pepper flakes, 2 small bay leaves, broken, 5 cm/2" cinnamon stick broken into small pieces, 1 tsp cardamom Method Mix everything together and keep in an airtight container in a cool place.
Zack Mash - cheese, pineapple and silver skin pickled onion is actually a fantastic taste combo for a bite sized munch. Sweet/sour/salty/soft/crunchy/tangy =yum. Don’t knock it until you try it
You read my mind of what I am doing today.! Going through all the food storage ideas I can. I was looking for onion storage ideas and this is one.! I am thankful you have this video.!
wow... Im from mexico (right south the border with az) and i learned how to pickle onions and vegies with my grandma, so many of the techniques of preservation you have shown are familiar for me and I still do them
That's the exact recipe my grandmother used when I was little (Birmingham, England), she used brown malt vinegar. I'll do mine this way. Thank you for the lovely memory you gave me :)
I first heard of pickled onions in one of my all time favorite book series and have always wanted to try them. I didn't think they where real at first until I saw them at in the British isle at the grocery store today. I was going to pick them up but was a little iffy on em' but after this video I'm buying them!
I love pickled onions.. especially spicy pickled onions.. XD..My grandma would get jars of picked vegetables and as a child I always picked out and eat most of the onions and carrots..and now i know how to go about making them.. awesome..
Jon, our fathers worked together for years. I’ve been to your store several times! Love it! I’ll be in next visit to Columbia City. Great job, keep up the good work!
Pickled onions are extremely good! In Switzerland they are traditionally served to melted cheese (Raclette), usually together with pickled cucumber and boiled potatoes or bread. Though, in all honesty, people usually don't make them themselfs but buy them in the store ;)
I top/tail put in water this helps remove outer skin … once this is done and fresh water in a bowl with salt leave for a few days stir them every now and then … and onions to jars fill with vinegar … seal lids and leave them to mature … I love pickles 🇬🇧🏴
OMG! I can't believe! I know this channel maybe for more than 3 years and this is the first video I found that is not ruined horribly by adding music. (There is still music but you can't hear if you don't listen carefully.) He probably forgot adding music; hope he does not add after this comment.
Another great video---thank you. Pickled and fermented foods are very, very good for the digestion. If anyone has problems with indigestion or acid reflux, this is a great natural remedy.
This is true of naturally fermented vegetables, not ones merely soaked in vinegar.. lacto-fermentation like kimchi, real sauerkraut etc. aid digestion as prognostic foods, this will not
Man that looks good, love pickled onions! I do make them myself the only difference is I soak them over night in salted water instead of adding salt to the vinegar. And the only way to make them is malt vinegar in my opinion.
You have opened a huge can of worms for me. I love pickled vegetables and grew up with my grandmother pickling corn, beans, and making kraut. We would even have suppers where we would have pickled beans&corn together along with a big bowl of kraut, we called them "rotten suppers". I have a couple of questions. First, was sauerkraut something Americans in the 18th century enjoyed or was this mainly something you would find in German settlements? Second, have you ever run across a pickled green bean? My grandma pickled them and corn, put them together in a pan and they were delicious together. However, too much of a good thing could have some aftermath. I love your videos by the way, they open this young historians eyes to 18th century food. I believe studying food history is something that is neglected, even though we have now have "food historians" and you can study for a degree in this in some universities. There are so many questions I want to ask you but I will try to break them up so you do not receive a novel from this guy in NC. Keep doing what you do because this is great. One small question, you have the memento mori ring which I am thinking of buying. Was it usual for a man to wear more than just a wedding ring in the 18th century or was this something you would only see with the gentry?
My mother's BF, who passed away a few years ago, showed me how to make these. He was from Whales and, they are amazingly good. They are a good bar snack in England. I had no idea we ate them here in the 18th Century in the US. Thank you for being so informative. I love watching your videos and really appreciate you using some of my questions in your videos. I really love learning about our past.
@@chunkylass8671 Making beer battered Cod with chips tonight so I'll bring out my bottle. I love the stuff. Is there any other food items people in the UK put it on?
@@kents.2866 sounds great. Sauce wise hp brown sauce or ketchup used to be the faves. Mayo has got more popular in recent times. Mushy peas are good too. If you having it at home some people might have baked beans with it. (Heinz is the only brand for me lol).
Kent S. I use malt vinegar on all sorts. It’s nice to put black pepper and malt vinegar on fried tomatoes especially if you’re eating it with bacon. I use it on mushy peas for a bit of tang. I use it for some vinaigrettes. I also use malt to pickle all sorts of veg etc e.g. red cabbage, cauliflower, onions, cucumbers, mixed veg. I use it making chutneys etc. It adds a very distinctive flavour which is stronger than other vinegars. It makes fantastic batter for fish, onion rings, pineapple rings, fritters etc. And of course on chips(French fries) etc. In the U.K. we can also get distilled malt vinegar which is a bit milder - I use that for pickling eggs and other pickles that I want to keep pale in colour.
For the very best, use shallots, not onions, and add sugar to the vinegar, which should be white, the amount of sugar should be to taste, sip the vinegar and try the flavour. Never pour hot water or vinegar over the onions or shallots, they will be softened. Also a week or two is far to short, more like two months or more, stored in the cool and dark.
stephen wallin agreed Stephen. Shallots are top draw. I use honey instead of sugar and it really makes a different. One month minimum too. Great advice here Mr Wallin.
Pickled onions were served in many bars and taverns into the 1970s. I doubt there are many traditional places serve what was considered cheap or inexpensive foods for free or at low prices these days.
Very late to the party....but Ploughman’s Lunch. Pretty much a 20th century invention, but still. Bit of salad (iceberg lettuce, bit of celery, nothing too fancy) Branston Pickle, Pickled Onions, slab of cheddar, slices of ham and some apple. Lovely.
I make them a kilo at a time with a litre of malt vinegar. I put the spices in the bottle of vinegar and leave it for a few days so the spices get into the vinegar, before boiling it to put in with the onions.
I would rather watch you than Rachel Ray or Mario Bertolli, you have a lot more charisma the way you share knowledge is like a teacher I had where I remembered everything. I subbed to you just from watching this vid. going off to watch more of your vids!
Oh dear, glad my Gran isn't around to watch that! She made the best pickled onions this side of London! She boiled the vinegar with onions in it, then into steralised jars, with the pickling spice. Left for a couple of months before Christmas....oh I would kill for a jar of them right now! 🤣p.s. and ALWAYS Sarsons Malt Vinegar!!
I would pour the vinegar over the onions while still quite hot, screw on the lid, and as it cooled it formed a seal. No fridge needed, just a cool dark place - cool is easy to find in the UK.
@@FranklinLaserBlog Hahaha, good one! But seriously, when we consider how absolutely blessed most of us are, firstly to be able to see these great videos ON OUR PHONES, no less, but also, I was looking in my small pantry, and counted 6 different kinds of vinegars that I have on hand. Very humbling. I have no business complaining about anything.
There is a variety of onions, we call them winter onions, that are delicious when harvested in the winter. Tough and woody in the warm months. Tasty winter veggy!
John, I made the pearl onions according to your video, and they turned out great. However, it is sometimes hard for me to find them in the store, so I found something you may want to share with your viewers. I went to the feed and grain store and bought onion sets for planting. There is a variety in chose, and they are a lot cheaper. Here in the South, a white, sweet onion set sells for about $1.80 per quart, and the size of the onion is about the same, if not a hair larger. Hope you can use this information. Keep up the good work.
Hey John I was wondering if you could use sea salt for the pickle, you see my mom wanted to make some herself and she was wondering, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!
Recently came across your channel and am loving it! Hopefully you can settle a disagreement regarding the leftover pickle/vinegar. When all of the pickles were eaten, was the vinegar solution discarded or re-used to make more pickle? Thanks for all the wonderful vids and recipes!
An absolutely fantastic food and all it needs is some pickled eggs, home made bread and cheese with a few pints of home made beer to wash it down. Especially great as a late evening meal in summer.
Heather Spoonheim absolutely. It tastes phenomenal. If you’ve ever had, thousand island, Big Mac sauce, or really any burger sauce, it would have pickle liquid in it
Armenians pickle lots of veggies ffrom cuccumbers, onions, green tomatoes, carrot sticks, cauliflower, celery, and , cabbage, radishes. All of these can be bottled together when pickling.
