Pickled onions

Pickling was cling-film to the ancients

I've been remiss the last couple of days and have missed posting anything. Too busy with grandchildren and socialising. Much more important.

But back to business and good old Aldi - one of yesterday's special buys was big jars of pickled onions. I didn't buy any but it was another nostalgia trip for me. Indeed I don't think either my mother or my grandmother every bought pickled onions. They made them themselves.

And I do have vague memories of helping. I think that after peeling, they were soaked in something for a while before the actual pickling process. The vinegar we used would have been ordinary malt vinegar and the spices were prepared pickling spices. And I did like them - they're a staple of English pub food of course - have to be included with the Ploughman's lunch, but I think the ones you buy in the shops are a bit sweeter than the ones my mum made. Small onions of course.

They're not subtle and they're very British but they do go with bread and cheese. And maybe fish and chips.

Pickles generally though are very popular and dare I say trendy. Partly due to the Korean cabbage pickle - kimchi - apparently. But anyway you will often find pickled something as an accompaniment to things in posh restaurants. Delia has a recipe for pickled shallots - she says they're even better than pickled onions, and Jamie has some sliced pickled onions. But when I checked out my cook books I couldn't find a single recipe not even in the ones that were supposed to be about traditional English cooking. This is a fairly authentic sounding recipe that I found though. Click here.

So pickling - very in. Pickled onions - not so much.

"And in this grow-your-own, make-do-and-mend, count-your-food-miles age, we've got to do something with all those surplus radishes. And they look so pretty in their jars. Don't they?" Sue Quinn - The Guardian