Cebolletas en vinagre -- Pickled Scallions

 I'm still translating and exploring  Encarnación Pinedo's book, El cocinero español.  

Today I am trying a recipe on page 56:

Cebolletas en vinagre.

Se toman cebolletas tiernas y blancas, se despellejan y se les quita la cabeza. Se ponen en vinagre hasta que la vasija quede llena, cubriendolas con estragón, hinojo y pimienta en grano.

Se salan despues y se cierran hermeticamente hasta el momento de servirlas.

Pickled scallions.

Take the tender white part of scallions, skin them and their heads are taken off. They are put in vinegar until the jar is full, covering with tarragon, fennel and ground pepper.

They are salted afterwards and hermetically closed until the moment to serve them.

Plus the pepper, which didn't make it into the picture

My Redaction

4 or 5 bunches of scallions (green onions)

fennel leaves

tarragon leaves

salt

pepper (Miss Pinedo says ground, I used whole)

white wine vinegar

Wash and trim the scallions. Cut off most of the green part.  In a clean jar, put in some fennel, tarragon, and pepper.  Put the scallions into the jar, put in more fennel, tarragon, and pepper.  Cover with vinegar.  Add salt to taste.  

Close jar and store in the refrigerator for at least a week.  

My Notes

I interpreted the directions to "skin" the scallions and "take their heads off" as "trim off the root ends and take off the outer layer if it was dirty, slimy, or otherwise unappealing".  My store-bought scallions didn't need to be skinned except in a few cases.

I cut them to a length that would fit in my quart canning jar.  That included some of the green part but still with enough of the white to keep it "tender."

I didn't know how much fennel, tarragon, and pepper to use.  I wanted their flavor to infuse the vinegar and scallions but not so much as to overwhelm.  So I decided that putting some below and some above would be helpful.

A few pieces of leaves and about 5 peppercorns below

A greater quantity of leaves and about 5 more peppercorns above.

Then I filled the jar with white wine vinegar, which I chose for its mild flavor and mild acid bite.  I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt on top.

I tried to put the scallions in decoratively!

I noticed everything floated and so the tops of the scallions were out of the vinegar.  So once the jar went into the refrigerator, I shook it at least once a day to get the tips covered.

The store where I purchased the scallions also had an item specifically labeled as cebolletas, so I bought some of them to try, too.

The bulbs were at least 1 inch in diameter and I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to bite into that much onion flavor and eating the whole thing in a sitting, so I decided to cut them into rings and pickle those.

I had fewer cebolletas, so I used a pint canning jar.  I put leaves and peppercorns at the bottom, the middle, and the top.  I didn't adjust the quantity downwards for the smaller jar - I expect the herb flavors to be bolder.  Also, I used apple cider vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  It helped to use a spoon to gently pack the rings down into the jar.

This jar went into the refrigerator, too, to wait out its week.  It was also shaken regularly.

The Verdict

Several weeks went by until we tasted them.  

The cebolletas in apple cider vinegar were crisp, flavorful, and had a mild acid bite.  The fennel was a dominant flavor.  My guest tasters liked the acid level but I wanted it diluted, either with water or sugar.  They made a good relish next to roasted meat and on a charcuterie platter.

The scallions in the white wine vinegar were soggy and the acid bite was too strong for me.  The fennel was still the dominant flavor (not a bad thing).  I think I should have not included as much (or any) of the green stem as we all agreed that it was fibrous and you had to really pay attention to how you were biting it to make sure you could get a piece in your mouth.  This was not good.

The majority opinion was that either vinegar would be fine (I still wanted to dilute both and I liked the apple cider vinegar best), the cebolletas were better than the scallions, and the flavor was good.  I would have liked less fennel so I could taste a better balance with the tarragon and pepper.  

Success, especially for the cebolletas.  I would do this again with the scallions and only use the white part.  I would also put in less fennel, more tarragon, and crack the peppercorns.

UPDATE:  No one really wanted to eat the soggy scallions as they came out of the jar.  However, I found that chopping them into about 1/2 inch long pieces and including them in stews is absolutely wonderful.  They add a depth of flavor that is unexpected and they also make the whole dish smell so enticing.  A bonus!