Haywards are Britain's best loved pickled vegetable brand and they've recently launched a new pickled onion - Hot & Spicy. Each jar contains pink and black peppercorns and Birdseye chillies to give the onions a fiery twist. They are described as working perfectly with a variety of food including cheese and cold meats and have a bold new flavour that will liven up any Boxing Day leftovers!
I'm a fan of most types of pickles so I was very happy to be asked to give these new Hot & Spicy Pickled Onions a try. There are plenty of small onions within each large jar, with a liberal sprinkling of the additional peppercorns and chillies. The flavour is still surprisingly sweet and tangy with a lovely peppery hint and a fairly mild, but zingy, heat from the chillies. The overall balance between the sweetness of the onions and the mild tangy heat is just perfection here, and the flavours really do work wonderfully with a selection of cheeses and cold meats. I especially enjoyed them with some mature cheddar and pitta chips - creating a delicious medley of flavours. If you're a fan of pickled onions then you have to give these a try!
Haywards Hot & Spicy Onions are available now from Sainsbury's and Morrison's and will be in Tesco from next spring. RRP - £1.89p.
PR Samples.
i too am a pickled onion lover and these look a bit anemic to me. I'm not a fan of spicy things, but my nan and grandad used to grow & pickle their own shallots - and might powerful they were, for as long as i can remember, they were part of our boxing day family meals!
ReplyDeleteif i see these on offer i may try them, but the peppercorns arent something from my nan and grandad's receipe so i'm not sure they'll hit the right spot.
sadly i didn't get to find the true secret of the reciepe, my grandad died 20 years ago and for a while my nan carried on making them - by the time i decided to try them myself, my nan's memory is too far damaged to be able to remember :-( i did try and got the hotness right, but not the malt vinegar flavour. I should try again. the closest in flavour of shop brand pickled onions/shallots for me is Garners, they are just lacking the heat, but are pretty spot on with the flavour. Really i need to save the vinegar and try again adding some spices for the heat
The colouring is probably just my lighting Danielle. I really need to get a new camera.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing those lovely memories of the pickled shallots your nan and grandad used to make. The powerful flavour sounds delicious! It's such a shame that the recipe is lost now :( I hope you can experiment and try to recreate the flavour in the future.
The Haywards pickles are not that spicy either, the heat is quite mild really. I really enjoyed them but I guess I don't have homemade ones to compare it too. I'm sure they wouldn't be as good as that!
last year b&m were doing the big jars of garners (about £4 rrp) for something silly like £1.79 - i think i bought about 6!! haha.
Deletei think it's going to be a case of using the right kind of vinegar and the correct chillis, i dont remember whicn ones i used. i bought sarsons pickling vinegar, but my mum & aunt reckon just normal malt vinegar would do. i will have to try them again in the new year.
if i do buy these i shal report back :-)
Please do report back if you try these Haywards ones, and especially how they compare to the Garners and homemade.
ReplyDeleteI'd also love to know how you get on with the regular malt vinegar. Fingers crossed it'll work :)
Sadly, not available in Sainsbury's or Morrisons in London. Looked everywhere.
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