I looked online for a simple recipe and there are plenty out there. Just search for 'pickled onions.' In the end, I used the one in my Fanny Farmer Cookbook. It goes something like this :

Pickled onions:
Put a pint or so of peeled, washed pickling onions in a bowl and cover with cold water and 1/4 cup of salt. Everything should be cold if you want crisp onions. Leave the onions to brine for at least 24 hours. Then when ready to pickle, wash the onions well under cool water and pat dry, then wash and sterilize your jars (important step). Place the pickles in your jars and cover the cold pickles with cold vinegar and pickling spices. I could not find pickling spices so I am just using a flavored peppercorn mix. We will see how this works... fill the jars with vinegar and a 1/2 teaspoon of spice each - in one of the jars I used red wine vinegar, the other two are normal white vinegar. I am leaving them in the fridge for about 2 weeks before Jace can have at them and I will report back on the flavor. So far, we had a peek and all is coming along nicely.

Good luck! Tomorrow - my Swiss cookbook recommendations!
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