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Onion Vinegar (1 teaspoonful of salt)
1 teaspoonful of salt, 2 teaspoonfuls of granulated 2 large onions. sugar, Grate the onions, mix with them the salt and sugar, let stand two hours and add the vinegar. Turn into bottles, shake every day for two weeks, strain through a fine cloth, bottle, cork, and seal.
This onion vinegar may be used for salads and sour meat dishes where a very delicate onion flavor is desired.
The ingredient list has been scrambled in printing, and the key quantity is missing. Read the method carefully before shopping.
- What the list should sayReassembled, the ingredients are 2 large onions, 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons granulated sugar. The vinegar appears only in the method, with no amount given.
- The missing measurementThe recipe never states how much vinegar to add. Enough to cover the grated onion generously, somewhere between a pint and a quart, will work; the original is genuinely silent and no conversion can be inferred.
- Choice of vinegarUse cider or white wine vinegar of at least 5 percent acidity. Distilled white is harsher but keeps the flavor cleanest; do not use a low-acid "salad vinegar" or a homemade vinegar of unknown strength, since the acidity is what keeps the infusion sound.
- GratingA box grater over a bowl catches the juice, which carries most of the flavor. A food processor pulses to a purée that is far harder to strain; grate if you can stand it.
- The two-hour standSalt and sugar draw juice out of the onion by osmosis before the vinegar goes in, so the finished vinegar tastes of onion rather than of pickled onion. Skipping it gives a thinner result.
- Two weeks of shakingKeep the bottle at cool room temperature, out of sunlight, and give it a real inversion once a day. Refrigeration will slow extraction, so the two weeks the recipe allows may not be enough.
- StrainingA fine cloth means several layers of muslin or a jelly bag; a paper coffee filter also works but clogs. Strain twice if the liquid is cloudy, and do not press the pulp or you will force solids through.
- Bottling and keepingUse bottles washed in hot soapy water and rinsed with boiling water, and fill to leave little air. Sealed and stored in a dark cupboard it keeps a year or more; discard it if it turns cloudy or develops a film.
- Yield and useExpect close to the volume of vinegar you started with, less what the pulp absorbs. A teaspoon or two in a vinaigrette replaces raw minced onion without the texture or the bite.
Flavored vinegars were a standing feature of the well-run pantry from the early nineteenth century into the twentieth: tarragon, celery, garlic, horseradish, cucumber and onion all appear in English and American household manuals, kept in corked bottles and used a spoonful at a time in dressings, sauces and cold meats. They solved a real problem before refrigeration and year-round produce, since a bottle of onion vinegar put onion flavor on the table in February without a sound onion in the house, and gave a dressing seasoning that would not turn sharp or slimy after a day. The salt-and-sugar maceration here is the same principle a cook uses to draw juice from cucumbers or berries, applied to extraction rather than texture.