Knowledgebase

Pickled onion canning #946804

Asked October 09, 2026, 11:55 AM EDT

Can red or white onions pickled in a 50% brine of vinegar be safely canned via water bath following your general pickling guide lines?

Multnomah County Oregon

Expert Response

Hi,

Both Ball and the NCHFP have recipes for pickling onions. Both of these recipes call for a brine more strongly acidic than the minimum 1:1 ratio you're referring to. The Ball "vinegared red onion" recipe calls a brine of straight vinegar (no water), and the NCHFP pickled pearl onion recipe calls for 5 1/2 cups of vinegar to 1 cup of water. 

This stronger brine could be purely for taste and quality reasons, but without knowing for certain if the recipes were written with the stronger brine for safety or just quality reasons, I would encourage you to use the stronger ratio of vinegar. 

If you want to use a weaker brine, you could safely refrigerate the product rather than canning.

Thanks for using Ask Extension,

Jared

Jared Hibbard-Swanson Replied October 09, 2026, 4:13 PM EDT

Loading ...