Traditional British pickled onions

We have no intention of making this blog all about recipes but when the harvest is coming in it is always handy to find recipes that actually work. When harvesting onions, there are always those small ones, the ones that you work around because they are such a pain to peel when you are cooking dinner. This is the perfect recipe for those small onions as they are also the ones that are hard to keep and threaten to spoil the rest. What's more the recipe is easy!

Ingredients:

2lbs small onions (roughly the size of a walnut)
4ozs salt
1 1/2 pints of malt vinegar
2 Tablespoons of pickling spices (ready made or your own mix of red, white, black pepper and coriander seeds)

Directions:

You need to start 2 days ahead by placing the onions in a large non-metallic bowl. Mix 2 pints of water and 4 ozs of salt together, pour over the onions and leave covered with a cloth for two days

1. Drain and dry the onions well.
2. Peel the onions and pack one third of them into a large preserve jar
3. Scatter one third of the pickling spices over the first layer of onions. Continue packing the onions into the jar - adding two more layers of pickling spices as you go.
4. Pour the malt vinegar into the jar, making sure that all the onions are covered. (add some more malt vinegar if there is not enough)
5. Seal the jar and store in a dark, cool place for at least 6 weeks.

The recipe doubles well and if kept in a cool dark place the pickled onions will keep 2+ years ... though ours will never keep that long!