Pickled Onions

Good evening, everybody! We are about ready to ring in the new year, but I didn’t want 2017 to get away before I have a chance to show you a delicious accompaniment to your traditional southern New Year’s Day meal or any southern meal. I made a batch of these pickled onions today, and they were quick enough that you can make them in about 30 minutes and enjoy them with your good luck meal.

I started out with three medium sized onions, peeled and sliced into 1/4″ or smaller rings. My preference for pickled onions is to use Vidalia onions (check to be sure that they were grown in Vidalia, Georgia, as these are the real deal. You just can’t imitate onions grown in that good Vidalia soil!). However, this time of the year I didn’t have Vidalias, so I used regular sweet onions. They will be a little spicier than Vidalias, but they will be delicious.

Though I am making these in canning jars, I am actually not going through the canning process with these. I will put them in the fridge, so no need to sterilize jars. I filled the jars all the way to the top with onions and packed them down pretty tightly to fit in as many onions as I could.

I don’t pre-cook my onions because I like my pickled onions a little crunchy. Pouring the hot brine over the onions cooks them a little anyway. But if you don’t want any crunch to your pickled onions, you can boil them in a pan of water for about two minutes before you put them into jars.

The brine I used was a combination of apple cider vinegar, water, salt, turmeric, celery salt, cinnamon, sugar, whole cloves, and whole peppercorns. See recipe below for specific measurements, but I brought all of this to a boil and poured over sliced onions. Be aware that turmeric stains terribly. Be very careful not to get it on your clothes, countertops, dish towels and use only jars you don’t mind getting stains.

Once I poured the brine into the jars, I let them cool on the counter. This allows the onions to cook a little in the jars before going into the fridge. Once completely cool, they are ready to be refrigerated until ready to eat. I can’t wait to pull these out on New Year’s Day to eat with my traditional meal of ham, greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread!

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