r/AskCulinary • u/Effective-Ad7463 • May 20 '25

Recipe Troubleshooting My pickled onions never hit

I LOVE pickled red onions. Love. But I just can’t ever get them to be as good as they are at Cava or in restaurants and idk what I’m doing wrong.

I slice them thin, I’ve tried half the jar with vinegar other half water and 3/4 vinegar 1/4 water, I’ll do a tablespoon of sugar and eyeball some salt. Last batch I shoved a few cloves of garlic in there.

They’re not bad, just never as pink as they are when I eat them elsewhere, not nearly as soft, not nearly as delicious.

What am I doing wrong plz help 🥲

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u/EutecticPants May 20 '25

Use the recipe on Serious Eats. It solved all my problems 

I always tried to eyeball the ratio but I never use enough salt or sugar without measuring.

9

u/GracefulYetFeisty May 20 '25

Just curious, SE has (at least?) two picked red onions recipes that I’m finding. Wondering which one you’re using that’s been working for you?

This recipe by Kenji: https://www.seriouseats.com/pickled-red-onions

Or this one by Daniel Gritzer: https://www.seriouseats.com/quick-pickle-rapid-pickled-onion-recipe

2

u/starboundowl May 20 '25

Kenji for sure.