Pickled Onions

Just what are the best varieties of onions and shallots for pickling?

The varieties I grow at the mo just won't fit into a jar, far too big!

Excuse my ignorance but I've never grown pickling onions before, never pickled any and any help and advice on varieties and method would be very much appreciated.

Cheers guys

 

My mother-in-law made pickled onions every year and it was always a treat to get a jar at Christmas. The only onions I know of were .... "pickling onions"!! She used to buy them at the greengrocers though (she hadn't stumbled into gardening at that point).

Sorry, totally useless information really, Vince.

 

Maybe a wider mouthed jar, Vince? A mason/kilner jar?

 

Apart from buying a sack of pickling onions, I usually just pickle my smallest ones.

You'm not trying to pickle Kelsaes are you Vince?

 

Like Zigs I've only bought basic pickling onions to use - but grown from seed there are more varieties that can be bought from garden centres or seed suppliers e.g. Giant Zittau, Barletta Silverskin, Small Paris Silverskin, Purplette and Covent Garden Pearl. I have never grown any so wouldn't know which is best.

 

I've always found growing shallots from setts for pickling to be a lot less hassle than growing pickling onions from seed.

 

My grandfather used to spend hours pickling shallots that he'd grown. He used the large sweet jars that were around when I was knee high.