Tony wrote

Jeanne Stockdale wrote:
Our shallots are ready for lifting - I will be pickling them. Should I
leave
them to dry out first or not?

Jeanne Stockdale
I usually dry the mon a slatted table outside if the weather is good or
on a bench ( on newspaper) in my garage if the weather is wet.One to
two weeks is about right.
However drying is not absolutely essential. If the weather is good put
on the marigolds and start peeling. I strongly advocate salting the
shallots for twenty four hours before washing and adding the vinegar
although there was some discussion about this last year.

I've asked this question before but never got a proper answer...Why do you
salt them and then wash them? ( i.e. add the dreaded salt and then wash most
of it off with chlorinated tapwater)
We do neither and even two year old pickled shallots are still crisp, so
that's not the reason.
So why do you do this, what's the theory behind it?

I suspect the commercial firms do it to quicken the pickling process but
that's not a valid reason for us to do it, we can simply wait and get
uncontaminated food.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London