Cornichons / Gherkins / Pickled Onions Etc.

[Tony Angelino]

I have recently developled a bit of a taste for pickled onions and cornichons and started to make my own onions and beetroot with good results. I do like the pickled cornichons from the likes of Lidl and Aldi and fancy making some myself as I think my onions and beetroot are much better than I buy.

Any ideas where to buy these little mothers or is it a case of growing my own being the only option?

Anybody pickled their own eggs and would like to share their recipe/tips etc?

[Eddie Strohacker]

I like them too. Mostly we see them being grown in Turkey & North Africa, going by the labels, so maybe greenhouse only? The seeds are readily available though.

http://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Vegetable-Seeds/In...

In our house, Cornichons are called Wolf Willys. as in would you like a Wolf willy in your burger? No idea where that started

[schmunk]

Eddie Strohacker said:

In our house, Cornichons are called Wolf Willys. as in would you like a Wolf willy in your burger? No idea where that started

Pickled gherkins are known as Wallies in the South East.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wally

[GreenDog]

Try pickled red cabbage too - much nicer than shop-bought.

[hacksaw]

Beetroot are the easiest thing in the world to grow, plus, there are some lovely varieties out there you wouldn't normally find in a standard jar. Onions pretty easy as well, again some good varieties to choose from.

[Jambo85]

Funnily enough I tried to do this in 2017 without any real success. I had a few suitable plants but despite the claims on the pack they were not suitable for growing outdoors in Aberdeenshire That left me with one in the greenhouse so I could never get enough mature ones at the same time to even fill a jar.

I've had better success with bigger cucumbers, slicing and pickling those. But they got mushy quickly which was a bit sad.

I'm sure it's doable though, I'll have another crack at it this year. Let us know how you get on.

[Tony Angelino]

Jambo85 said:

Funnily enough I tried to do this in 2017 without any real success. I had a few suitable plants but despite the claims on the pack they were not suitable for growing outdoors in Aberdeenshire That left me with one in the greenhouse so I could never get enough mature ones at the same time to even fill a jar.

I've had better success with bigger cucumbers, slicing and pickling those. But they got mushy quickly which was a bit sad.

I'm sure it's doable though, I'll have another crack at it this year. Let us know how you get on.

When you say they got mushy quickly, was this in the vinegar? It's the crunch that I like so any attempt would need to be nicely firm.

Currently experimenting with 2 vinegars, this one with some beetroot in:

https://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/157/quick-...

And also my new vinegar for onions that is 80% sarsons spiced vinegar with the remaining 20% being a 50/50 split of balsamic vinegar and black treacle.

[Wiccan of Darkness]

Ah mushy cucumbers. Pickling doesn't work if there's a high water content. Try slicing the cucumbers over salt, and leave for a few days to draw out the water and then pickle them. Should give a good crunch. As the salt draws out the water, the salt will turn to brine.

Pickled eggs go in white spirit vinegar, not brown otherwise they go all mottled. (as a side note, during my uni days the local pub had a pool table, and you can guess where I decided to "hide" the white cue ball it was 6 months before someone complained about a rock hard pickled egg)

Cornichons/wolf willies etc can be grown in a cold frame or greenhouse, again soak in brine for a few days before pickling. Same with cauliflower and cabbage.

Something I tried last year was pickled coleslaw. Finely chopped white cabbage, grated carrot, sliced onion and grated turnip, again brined, drained and in white vinegar. Should be good with mayonnaise, haven't tried it yet. Currently labelling 45 jars of marmalade

I did once try doing silverskin pickled onions. Manual peeling of those sent me screaming up the walls, take my advice re silverskin onions and either find a method for mechanical skin removal or leave well alone. Sanity is a high price to pay.

I'll have a go at the cucumber myself, grab one from lidl tomorrow and see what happens with a bag of salt. I'll let you know how I get on with that, as that's certainly why they went mushy.

Everything else either gets turned in to chutney or eaten I got some awesome chutney recipes, runner bean one is nice but the one with banana and blackberry was to die for.

[Tony Angelino]

Don't mind peeling the pickling onions, my method is to top and tail them and make an incision deep enough to go through the first layer of onion and peel that off taking the papery skin with it. OK you loose a percentage of each onion you do this way but overall your output is much quicker and at 50p/lb for them it's not worth worrying about the waste.

I have just bought some new season French ones this morning, going to have a bash at them today/tomorrow. Below is my current stash: