Pickled Cocktail Onions

For new cooks who want a quick trick to peel those pearl onions, blanch them for about a minute straight into an ice bath, and the onions practically peel themselves!

A quart+ of brine for a pound of onions?!? That's completely ridiculous and more than three times what you need. (I actually tried it with the full recipe though I thought it sounded like too much.) Halve the amount of brine, or you'll be dumping most of the excess down the drain anyway after you have packed the onions in your jar.

Oh, please don't dump the brine! Even if you have leftovers, there must be vegetables in the house who would like to be pickles when they grow up! Break up some cauliflower and salt the florets. Leave them for about an hour, rinse and pat dry. Place them in a clean jar and cover with the warm brine. Put it in the fridge and wait a week (if you can). It makes a delicious pickle. And most vegetables will pickle well. No brine gets wasted in my house!

We miss you in the Times, Rosie! Thank you for honoring the Gibson. This is a splendid recipe, but I have made some tweaks, learned through having made a few batches since it was published. 1) Don't blanch the onions; you risk losing that crunch. 2) Skip water and dissolve salt and sugar in warmed-up vinegar. 3) One cup white sugar makes the brine too sweet. I prefer one tablespoon light brown sugar. 4) Use sea salt. 5) Crush the coriander seeds. 6) Use ALL the herb mixture.

I made these and have some thoughts:

1) would be clearer if instructed to stir the sugar and salt in the 1/2 cup water until dissolved.

2) pearl onions peel easier if blanched. Drop into boiling water for 30 seconds, then plunge into ice water. Cut off bottoms and tops and peel.

3) Rice Vinegar comes in various types. I used a light clear Japanese rice vinegar, not the dark (black) type which you might use for Chinese dumplings or gyoza.

Didn’t have any rice vinegar so I substituted 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and plain white vinegar for the rest. Used red and white onions too so the pink brine worked.

These are fabulous and last a long time. Great for a Gibson, as noted. I agree that adding the brine to a Gibson or martini is too strong with this mix. However, what IS great is rinsing your glass with the brine. Put a tablespoon or so in, swirl it around to coat the glass and then dump it back into the jar. Superb Gibson with an onion from this recipe and that wash.

Further to above, let them sit a week in the fridge before sampling. VERY tasty in a Gibson. Much more than onions in vinegar. Since the onions carry the flavor with them, don't add any of the "brine" to the cocktail, it overpowers the gin and vermouth.

Extra brine? Yes, please. Call me weird (you would not be the first), but I love a "dirty" Gibson as much as a "dirty" martini. I do like replacing some of the vinegar with dry vermouth - add it after you remove from the heat. Thank you for this recipe - I keep draining my store-bought jars of onions!

might have included the instructions for peeling pearl onions. it's easy enough. and... would frozen onions do? don't see why not.

i'll experiment.