A version of the pickled onion that makes lively company for meats hot or cold, and cheese. Use small round shallots, peeled but left whole.
A Happy Father’s Day to you and yours. I headed to my parent’s house today and made my father his favorite dessert – grandma’s banana pudding.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad.
Now, on to the update.
I picked up a few pounds of shallots at my local megamarket to start this recipe, then peeled and trimmed them. Mr. Henderson instructs that they need to sit in a salty brine for a whole week, so into the brining bucket they went to serve out their sentence.
Seven days later the shallots had lost some of their bright purple color, turning dull and a little soft. Next up I needed to make the pickling liquid.
Half malt vinegar, half white wine vinegar was called for, along with multiple spices like cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, bay leaves and peppercorns.
I rinsed the shallots with some fresh water and then added them to the same pot the pickling liquid was simmering in. For five minutes the shallots bounced around in the pot before I removed them. The liquid was strained to remove all of the spices, then the shallots and vinegar mixture were placed into a sterilized jar …
… like so. The shallots needed to sit for a month to mellow and properly pickle, so I found a cool place in my cupboard for them to rest.
One month to the day, we cracked open a jar to be greeted by a pungent whiff of vinegar and shallots. Not exactly the kinda smell one would want on their breath when interviewing for a job, or going on a first date. The first bite was actually more powerful than I could have possibly imagined. If the vinegar had mellowed even slightly, I couldn’t tell. The flavor was overwhelmingly tart, with a slight sweetness showing up here and there. My wife enjoyed them immensely, as did my father. I’m happy to have them in my arsenal, but I think I’ll let ‘em sit for a few more months until the vinegar’s bite is softened.
One down, seventy five to go.
I’ve been thinking about pickling a lot since the summer started. How do you go about sterilizing the jars?
Looks delicious.
Wow – a whole week in the brine?! Blimey. Does that get them extra crisp or something? I made pickled shallots once and the hosue stank of vinegar for a week. I will try this though because I am totally obsessed with pickles. Love them.
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Hello Sydney! You can sterilize a jar by immersing it in boiling water for ten minutes. Pretty simple except for the whole handling screaming hot glass part.
Helen, I’m totally new to pickling, and all I noticed it doing was making the shallots soft. Heh, our house smelled like vinegar for a good long time also. If you like pickles, then you’ll probably like this recipe. My wife is nuts for pickles, and she really likes these!
I have been pickeling shallots for several years, to make pickeling easer I use 100% malt vinegar, I also use pickeling spices and after washing off the brine I place the shallots directly in the jars and pour in the vinigar and spices together then leave untill ready to eat. about a month.
They must be eaten with the strongest chedder cheese you can buy.
I’ll be picking up some strong cheddar cheese this weekend Mr. Blake, thank you for the tip!
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As a Welshman who has been living in Denmark for 25 years I sometimes miss British food. Pickled oinions are not all that easy to find over here
( although Danish pickled gurkins are real nice ) and if you can they’re usually expensive and only in small jars. So for years I’ve been making my own ( also pickled eggs…but thats another story ) I’ve allways just popped my shallots straight into vinigar.This year their from my own garden so i think I’ll give them the star treatment ! !. Malt vinigar is impossible to get ones hands on over here, so I’ve use Danish pickleing vinigar, which is pretty good. However I will be using your method this year.
So its off to the kitchen I go ! ( PS…..Danes don’t like our kind of pickles….so at least I can keep them all for myself ! )
Hello Meirion! It sounds like you’ve adapted quite well to your hostile pickled shallot environment. Thank you kindly for the excellent tips for those of us trying to get our pickle fix, wherever we might be!
Having topped nd tailed my shallots I cover with salt for 24 hours, then wash thoroughly and dry, then staight into jars with malt vinegar, a spoonful of brown sugar for each jar, together with cloves, chillis and piccking spices, seal and leave for 6 weeks…
Open and enjoy with vintage cheddar, and all cold meats.. also Pork pies if you can find them.. I’ve taken to making my own as it’s impossible to find a decent pork pie in the USA