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"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
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Broadback wrote in message
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Having just spent a boring 50 minutes with a paring knife
and
a
quart of
tears I wonder if anyone has any tips for preparing
pickling
onions.
3lbs done and 3 to do. :-(

Peel them outside on a nice day. Wear marigolds to stop your
hands
smelling. Leave twenty four hours in salt. The salt removes
water
from
the onions by osmosis. Wash off salt. The vinegar adds water
by
osmosis. Result firm crunchy pickled onions.

It is unlikely that the direction of the osmotic flow in the
case
of
the vinegar is opposite to that in the case of the salt. In
both
cases the excess concentration of solute is on the outside of
the
onion.

As a matter of fact, if water removal is all that is achieved
in
the
salt stage, you might as well omit it, since the vinegar will
also
remove water from the inside of the onion.

Franz

I disagree.
Salt crystals are far more concentrated than the solutions in
the
cells of the onion.

Yes. I don't dispute that.

The same does for the vinegar.

Removal of water concentrates these salts to a level higher than
that
of the acetic acid solution in the vinegar

This is what I doubt. The acetic acid is much more highly
concentrated than the stuff inside the onion.
If the salt had removed the amount of water you would have to
remove
in order to make the solution inside the onion more concentrated
than
the acetic acid you subsequently intend to use, the onion would
have
to have been shrivelled to less than half the volume normally
occupied
by a turgid onion.

so the vinegar adds water
to the cells thereby producing crunchy onions.
If you like soggy onions follow Franz's methods

I have pickled hundreds of bottles of nice crunchy onions and
shallots
which have not been subjected to the salt treatment

Franz

Likewise although my experience has been mainly with shallots.
Certainly when I wash the salt off the onions or shallots,they are
quite flaccid in the surface layer, indicating water loss. After a
minimum of two weeks in vinegar ( I can't wait any longer ) they are
quite turgid, indicating water replacement. Maybe a biochemist could
enlighten us both. Anyway Franz I am glad you are successful with
them. I never eat commercially prepared pickled onions as they are
so
awful compared with my own.

That, at least, is something on which we agree.

Franz