Vegetable by vegetable
Pearl onions, the smallest vegetable in the whole set
A short recipe, and a useful one to read against the others, because almost every step in it exists to handle the size of the vegetable.
On this page
On this page
- Yield and quantities, exactly as printed
- The size of the vegetable drives the whole recipe
- Peeling by thermal shock, the step that takes the time
- Precooking and packing, with a two-stage headspace
- The processing time, hot pack, pints only
- Resting time before eating, and the onion in other recipes
- What this page does not say
Pearl onions are the smallest vegetable in the whole set, and almost every step in their recipe exists because of that size. The brine itself is ordinary for a sweet pickle of this family. What makes the recipe work is the preparation, and that preparation takes longer than the processing does. This page follows the single published recipe, the National Center for Home Food Preservation's "Pickled Pearl Onions," Guide 6, page 6-20, released by the National Center for Home Food Preservation in October 2005.
Yield and quantities, exactly as printed
The recipe yields about 3 to 4 pint jars. The full ingredient list from the NCHFP is:
- 8 cups of small white boiling onions, peeled. At purchase, this is four 10-oz bags of unpeeled onions.
- 5½ cups of distilled white vinegar at 5 percent acidity.
- 1 cup of water.
- 2 teaspoons of canning salt.
- 2 cups of sugar.
- 8 teaspoons of mustard seed.
- 4 teaspoons of celery seed.
The liquid ratio is 5.5 parts vinegar to 1 part water. That ratio is identical to the one the same 2005 NCHFP family prints for its pickled carrots, which is worth noticing when you read the two recipes against each other.
The size of the vegetable drives the whole recipe
Read this recipe next to the others and the pattern is easy to see. A large vegetable is cut once and packed in pieces. A pearl onion cannot be cut into serving pieces at all, it is already the serving piece, so the recipe has to solve three problems the large vegetables do not have. First, how to peel something an inch across without losing it. Second, how to cook dozens of small objects evenly instead of a few large ones. Third, how to fill a jar with round solids, for which the source prints its headspace in two stages without stating a reason.
One thing to keep
The brine in this recipe is standard for its family. What the size of the vegetable changes is the preparation, the headspace, and nothing else.
Peeling by thermal shock, the step that takes the time
The NCHFP peels by shock rather than by knife work, a few onions at a time. The instruction, quoted as printed: "place a few at a time in a wire-mesh basket or strainer, dip in boiling water for 30 seconds, then remove and place in cold water for 30 seconds. Cut a 1/16th-inch slice from the root end, and then remove the peel and 1/16th inch from the other end of the onion."
Both the 30-second boiling dip and the 30-second cold plunge are given without explanation of the mechanism, so none is offered here. What the source does make plain is the scale of the task: eight cups of onions, peeled one at a time, trimmed at both ends. This is the step that makes the recipe long. It is also the step you should not rush by skipping the cold water, because the cold plunge is printed as part of the procedure, not as an option.
Precooking and packing, with a two-stage headspace
Before packing, the onions are precooked in the pickling liquid. The printed instruction is to "heat until the onions are half-cooked (about 5 minutes)." The source says nothing about why half-cooked rather than fully cooked, so the reason is not given here.
The headspace instruction is the distinctive one. The recipe gives two numbers, and no reason for them: 1 inch of headspace after the onions go in, reduced to ½ inch after the liquid is added. Measure both, not just the final one.
The processing time, hot pack, pints only
| Pack and jar | Processing time |
|---|---|
| Hot pack, pints | 10, 15, or 20 minutes by altitude |
The NCHFP prints this recipe as a hot pack in pint jars only, with processing times of 10, 15, or 20 minutes depending on altitude. Follow the altitude band that applies to you. The source publishes no quart version of this recipe, so none can be given.
Resting time before eating, and the onion in other recipes
The source is explicit about waiting: "Allow pickled onions to sit in processed jars for 3 to 5 days before consuming for best flavor development." That window is part of the recipe, not a suggestion for serving style.
The onion also appears as an ingredient in several other published recipes from the same family: Pickled Beets calls for 4 to 6 onions, Pickled Cauliflower for 2 cups, Pickled Bread-and-Butter Zucchini for 4 cups, Pickled Sweet Green Tomatoes for 2 cups, and Pickled Mixed Vegetables for 2 lbs. Clemson HGIC 3400, revised February 5, 2001, additionally publishes a separate recipe called "Pickled Onions," built on 2 quarts of distilled white vinegar, with a ½-inch headspace and 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. It is a different recipe from the NCHFP one above, and the two are not interchangeable.
What this page does not say
No fermented onion recipe is published anywhere in the source material, so this page gives none. There is also no published explanation of the half-cooked stage, no quart-jar version, and no safe way stated to substitute a different onion size into this recipe. If a source publishes any of that later, the page will carry it.
Sources of the figures on this page