How to Peel Pearl Onions and Keep Them Intact
You can buy pearl onions in several forms: raw and in a bag, peeled and frozen, or peeled and pickled in a jar. They all have their own benefits. Buying them raw and unpeeled gives you maximum leeway, but you have to peel them, and peeling a tiny onion is nothing like peeling a large onion.
Since pearl onions don’t have a lot of onions, most people want them to stay intact, both for frying and pickling. This means that the usual “cut in half and chop off the stem, then peel off” method will not work. In fact, the first thing you’ll do is slice off the root, which is usually a poor strategy for peeling an onion.
To successfully peel a pearl onion, you must think of it as a tomato, and I mean you need to blanch it. Simply cut off the tiny stems of each onion you want to peel, dip the onion in boiling water for 30 seconds, then immediately submerge it in an ice bath. Let them cool for about a minute, then squeeze the top of the onion to create a perfectly peeled pearl onion, ready to be sautéed, sautéed or marinated in aquavit . (Save the tiny peels for storage. Even though they are small, they still have a strong flavor.)