Onion Pickle
Peel and scald the onions in strong salt water twenty-five or thirty minutes; take them out and lay on dishes in the sun, a day or two, then put them in vinegar prepared as for cabbage pickle.--Mrs. Dr. J.
A two-line pickle that assumes you already know the book's cabbage-pickle vinegar and have a hot yard to dry things in. Both assumptions need translating.
- The hinge: don't cook them softTwenty-five to thirty minutes in boiling brine leaves small onions collapsed and slippery. Two to three minutes is enough to set the flesh and take the raw bite; the crunch is the whole point of an onion pickle.
- Which onionsMost likely small pickling onions -- silverskins, cipollini, or the smallest boilers -- though the recipe itself does not say. Pour boiling water over them for a minute before peeling and the skins slip off without gouging the flesh.
- "Strong salt water"An unmeasured brine in the original. A workable reading is a heavy one, roughly a quarter cup of salt per quart of water.
- Sun-drying, indoorsThe day or two in the sun is there to draw off surface moisture so the vinegar is not diluted. Draining well on a rack and leaving them uncovered in a cool room overnight does the same job without leaving food outdoors in warm weather.
- The vinegar it points toCabbage-pickle vinegar of this period is generally cider or malt vinegar boiled with whole spices such as mustard seed, black pepper, mace or allspice, sometimes with a little sugar; check the book's own cabbage-pickle entry for its proportions. Use vinegar of at least 5 percent acidity; period vinegar strength varied and was often weaker than what is sold now.
- StorageTreat this as a refrigerator pickle: pack into clean jars, cover completely with the spiced vinegar, and keep cold. If you want shelf-stable jars, follow a current tested pickling recipe with measured acid rather than this one, which gives no proportions at all.
- Yield and timingTwo pounds of small onions fills roughly two pint jars and takes about a pint of spiced vinegar. Give them two to three weeks before eating; the flavour is harsh at first and settles.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, was built from contributions solicited from Virginia housekeepers, credited variously by name or by initial -- "Mrs. Dr. J." is opaque now. The recipe's shorthand is typical of the genre: a cook writing for other cooks saw no reason to repeat the spiced vinegar she had already given under cabbage. Pickled onions come into American cookery through British practice, where small onions in spiced malt or cider vinegar were a standard cold-larder item.