The Best Pickled Onions Start With This Vinegar

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Pickled onions might just be one of the easiest garnishes to make to immediately elevate salads, burgers, sandwiches, and tacos. If you're ready to pickle onions at home, the process is relatively straightforward, but know that the vinegar you use can affect the final flavor. White vinegar is a common choice, but using apple cider vinegar imparts a more balanced flavor.

Apple cider vinegar is made by crushing apples and then fermenting the sugars from the juice into alcohol – kind of like an apple cider. The fruit juice is what gives the vinegar the signature pale orange-yellow color. Then, that alcohol gets converted into acetic acid, the compound that adds the tang; apple cider vinegar also contains malic acid, which comes from apples and has a bit of a tart flavor. Distilled white vinegar is different because it is made from distilled alcohol and is typically grain-based. It's sharp and has a more acidic taste than apple cider vinegar.

Apple cider vinegar provides sufficient acidity to preserve and pickle vegetables, but it's gentler than white vinegars, adding complexity instead of overwhelming the palate. You can certainly use other vinegars, but apple cider vinegar is one of the best options as it brings a touch of sweetness, helping balance out the intensity of the onion. 

If you don't have apple cider vinegar on hand, other light vinegars will work. Distilled white vinegar or white wine vinegar are common options, but they don't contribute much flavor besides acidity. Rice vinegar is a bit softer tasting and also fine to use. Avoid using more industrial white vinegars, often used for cleaning, because they are too strong. A red wine vinegar can contribute more color to the final product. The pricier balsamic vinegar can be a bit overwhelming as the brine, so if you like its flavor, consider using half balsamic and half white vinegar.

If you do choose to use apple cider vinegar for pickling onions, it can typically be found wherever you regularly shop. Trader Joe's and Costco, for instance, both offer house, or private label, brands. The best-selling version on Amazon is Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, and costs $6.17 for 32 ounces.

When shopping for apple cider vinegar, you'll likely come across bottles labeled "raw" or "with the mother." Raw apple cider vinegar means that it is unfiltered and unpasteurized, and therefore contains strands of bacteria and yeast referred to as the "mother." While some people drink raw apple cider vinegar for its alleged potential health benefits, it doesn't really matter for pickling. Most quick pickled onion recipes call for heating the vinegar first, which kills any live microorganisms.