Onion Pickles

Ingredients

• small onions
• salt
• water
• 2 gallons vinegar
• 1 teacupful allspice
• 2 tablespoonfuls cloves
• 0.5 teacupful black pepper
• 0.25 pound white ginger
• 0.25 pound Chile peppers

Instructions

1. Peel the small onions and place them in a keg or barrel.
2. Layer the onions about three inches thick and cover completely with salt.
3. Add another layer of onions and cover with salt, repeating this layering until all onions are covered with salt.
4. Let the salted onions remain for one or two days.
5. Remove the onions from the salt and place them in clear water.
6. Soak them long enough to become seasoned with salt to your taste, changing the water after three or four hours if they are very salty.
7. Drain the onions thoroughly in a large colander or wire sieve.
8. Put the drained onions into a keg and cover them with vinegar.
9. Let them remain in the vinegar for twenty-four hours.
10. Remove the vinegar from the onions and put it on to boil.
11. Season the boiling vinegar with one teacupful of allspice, two tablespoonfuls of cloves, one-half teacupful of black pepper (washed and picked clean of gravel), one-fourth pound of white ginger, and one-fourth pound of Chile peppers.
12. Boil the spices in the vinegar for twenty minutes.
13. Strain the vinegar from the spices through a colander onto the pickles, ensuring they are well covered with the spiced vinegar.