Pickled Onions..

[Chislenko]

For years we had a lady in our village who pickled her own onions and supplied to a few select neighbours.

Now these were proper crunchy and hard with loads of taste.

Sadly, said lady is no longer with us and I just can not find decent shop bought pickled onions nowadays, they all appear to be soft and lacking in crunch and taste as if they have already gone soft before they have been put into the jar.

Anybody have any recommendations for a brand they purchase that meet the hard and crunchy requirement?

 

[Oldhippy]

Make your own and you get to control the heat and crunch.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

The only commercial ones that ever really impressed me were the ones that were labelled as Barry Norman's (yes, Barry Norman the film critic). They were crunchy, hot and slightly sweet, really, really good they were. Supposedly it was his own family recipe but obviously produced by a third party.
After he died they slowly disappeared, sadly, I guess his family didn't want any continued involvement. I did some digging and found rumours that his had been produced by Opies, the Kent company that makes pickled walnuts etc. Then a good 4 or 5 years on I saw Opies own brand pickled onions, tried them and found they were the same, every bit as good. So they're worth looking for.
I've only seen them in larger Tesco shops up to now.

 

[Chislenko]

The only commercial ones that ever really impressed me were the ones that were labelled as Barry Norman's (yes, Barry Norman the film critic). They were crunchy, hot and slightly sweet, really, really good they were. Supposedly it was his own family recipe but obviously produced by a third party.
After he died they slowly disappeared, sadly, I guess his family didn't want any continued involvement. I did some digging and found rumours that his had been produced by Opies, the Kent company that makes pickled walnuts etc. Then a good 4 or 5 years on I saw Opies own brand pickled onions, tried them and found they were the same, every bit as good. So they're worth looking for.
I've only seen them in larger Tesco shops up to now.

Thanks Canucks, will give them a try.

 

[bonzobanana]

I only ever buy the 30p jars which used to be under the value brands of various supermarkets but sadly most seem to have had a price hike. Only Asda still have them at 30p and that is probably likely to change soon. Most have gone up to about 50p. I've always liked them and could find no difference with the more expensive brands in quality but perhaps I'm a more forgiving pickled onion eater.

 

[newts]

We got Garners pickled onions from Sainsburys recently, very crunchy & strong. We had Ede's pickled onions/eggs locally until a few years ago, very pungent odour when you walked past. They are now made in another Devon town down the the road, allegedly the same recipe?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.de...ews/look-back-edes-exeters-famous-1833625.amp

 

[Profpointy]

"Buying pickled onions" What craziness is this?
One hint is not to buy the pre-spiced vinegar nor pre made pickling spice because it's horrid.

I use coriander, mustard seeds, chilli flakes and peppercorns, slightly ground and add a bit of honey or brown sugar. I try and keep a cycle of three large jars going so that when one runs out the next one is ready to eat.