Get Pickled on Onions
Crunchy, sweet, sharp and spicy, pickled onions, once the mainstay of the summer picnic table, can have a new twist when you make them with baby red onions.
Pickled foods, such as pickled onions, gherkins or garlic are preserved when surrounded in a bath of acid , in this case vinegar, which discourages microbial (nasties)growth. The pickling liquid can be straight out vinegar - malt, cider, apple or fruit vinegar, or it can be spiced ad flavoured using whole spices. Ground spices will make the vinegar cloudy and give a dusty paste-like feel in the mouth when being eaten.
To preserve foods in vinegar, the first step is to remove as much water from the fruit or vegetables as possible. Excess water dilutes the acid content of the vinegar and can cause the pickled vegetables to not be as crispy when preserved. Salting is done by preparing the fruit or vegetables and then soaking in a salt brine for 24 or more hours before being well rinsed and dried.
The prepared fruit or vegetables are then packed into jars, leaving sufficient room at the top of the jar for the vinegar to be able to completely cover the foods by 1.5-2cm. For crisp vegetable pickles, cold vinegar is poured over, of for softer pickled vegetable hot brine is used. Cover and label.
Pickled foods need to stand for a good month to allow preservation to take place and for the flavours to marry. Use a clean spoon or fork to remove the pickled foods as fingers can easily transfer bugs to the brine and cause spoilage.
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