supermarket pickled red onions
March 15, 2019 8:54 AM   Subscribe

I really like the taste of pickled red onions. I'd like to eat them more often. But there don't seem to be any commercial products for sale. What the heck?

I've looked in my local grocery stores (Shaw's, Market Basket, and Hannaford), plus online at Peapod, Walmart, and Instacart (Whole Foods), with no results at any. Amazon has one result, which seems to be an artisanal product that's on the expensive side. Why is this? Other pickled vegetables are common, but as I've thought about this, I've realized that there are few commercially-available canned onion products of any kind. Crispy fried onions, frozen onion rings, and cocktail onions are really about it. Even Trader Joes, which has all sorts of prepared veggies, has nothing. I know they're easy to make at home, but so is marinara sauce, and there's an entire aisle at the grocery devoted to it. Is there something about onions that doesn't lend itself to commercial canning or preserving? If you can suggest a commercially-available product, that'd be cool, but I'm really more interested in why onions don't seem to be as common as tomatoes or beets or other veggies.
posted by kevinbelt to Food & Drink (13 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Is there something about onions that doesn't lend itself to commercial canning or preserving?

No, they are very widely available in the UK, I just checked a random supermarket and they have 13 different jars of pickled onions (and 2 packets of pickled onion crisps).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:56 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]


With that in mind, maybe try a place that imports British food?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:58 AM on March 15, 2019


I had some on a roast beef sandwich at Panera, promptly made some because they were so awesome. Now I have learned the trick of saving pickle juice and using it to make quick pickles. Red onions, carrots, cauliflower are my favorites. Onions just take overnight. I only reuse pickle juice 1 time.

There are some local companies making pickles, look on the refrigerated sections, contact the company.
posted by theora55 at 9:08 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]


There are a couple of bottled varieties available on Amazon.

As to frozen products, just about all produce gets mushy when frozen and crunch is part of the fun.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:10 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]


Yes, pickled onions are pretty much the most popular pickle in the UK. I've never seen red pickled onions, but the standard white ones are bigger, darker in colour and stronger in flavour than the type you would call cocktail onions (I'm assuming you mean the smaller/sweeter ones we usually call silverskins). So yeah, I'd try somewhere that imports British food. Doesn't Walmart have a British section? I definitely have a FB friend in the US who regularly buys British biscuits with her normal groceries.
posted by MysteriousSympathy at 9:20 AM on March 15, 2019


Red onions are usually sliced thin and quick-pickled. The thin sliced onions will just fall apart or turn to mush if they're heat canned for shelf-stability.

That said, you might be able to buy them as a fresh deli or salad bar item in Middle Eastern or Asian grocery stores. I've occasionally seen them sold in those little clear plastic deli tubs of house-made items.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:21 AM on March 15, 2019 [6 favorites]


Also, so you know what to look for, they come in glass jars here rather than cans.
posted by MysteriousSympathy at 9:27 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]


I know they're easy to make at home, but so is marinara sauce, and there's an entire aisle at the grocery devoted to it.

In fairness, they are orders of magnitude easier to make than marinara sauce, and given the small slices, I imagine the quality will degrade too quickly for them to see much shelf-stable commercial preparation.
posted by so fucking future at 9:42 AM on March 15, 2019 [4 favorites]


I favourited this method for quick pickled onions a while back. Haven't made them...YET
posted by wellred at 9:55 AM on March 15, 2019 [5 favorites]


Nthing that they turn to mush really quickly. I make these David Lebovitz pickled red onions quite regularly and the one time I tried to can them they lost all integrity and weren't very pleasant. The heat required to process them for canning basically destroys the cell integrity of the onion. This would be less of an issue with whole pearl onions than for sliced onions, probably, which is why cocktail onions are a thing and pickled sliced red onions aren't really, since in most cases they'd be quick pickled and need to be kept cold.
posted by urbanlenny at 10:03 AM on March 15, 2019 [4 favorites]


One more vore for: they don't keep well.
posted by mumimor at 1:32 PM on March 15, 2019


I just want to say I have always wondered this as well and your observation matches mine. My grocery store sells pickled asparagus, pickled carrots, pickled peppers, etc. but no pickled onions. I've resigned myself to the fact that I have to make them myself. Pickled shallots is an easier alternative to achieve a similar flavor - shallots are much smaller so it feels like you're wasting less and working with less, although shallots admittedly cost more than red onions.

Pickled red onions on nachos = heaven.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:33 PM on March 15, 2019


Yesterday in the supermarket I saw a new product: Baxters Red Onion Deli Toppers, and immediately thought about your ask. I don't know if they, or other providers, ship to the US.
posted by mumimor at 11:06 AM on March 22, 2019


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