Pickled ramps. Oooh yeah… Crunchy, sweet-and-sour, just a little pungent. What’s not to love? Fresh young ramps don’t have an overpowering smell, but ramp bulbs sure do: It’s a big garlicky-oniony smack in the face. But these pickles are so damn good.
And pretty, too. I came up with the flavors after reading a reference to a pickle made in Medieval Persia that used honey and saffron and “aromatic herbs.” I reckoned that’d be delicious, so I developed this recipe. Saffron is expensive, however, so if you can’t find it, sub in a little turmeric. Even curry powder will do in a pinch.
Don’t worry if you don’t have ramps where you live. Any large wild onion bulb will work. There are big wild onions in Texas, here in the West — nodding onion bulbs are great for this — and even the ubiquitous “lawn onion” of the East Coast can set decent sized bulbs. And of course you can use store-bought pearl onions.
You can buy ramp bulbs fresh or frozen online, or you can forage them yourself if you live in the East.
As I'd mentioned, ramp bulbs are ideal here, but any onion bulb will work. Use your ingenuity. The flavors here are sweet-and-sour, and you can in fact taste the saffron. Use turmeric or curry powder if you can't get saffron. You'll need to wait at least a week before eating these pickles if you are using large ramp bulbs. Smaller onion bulbs can be eaten after 48 hours.
- 1 1/4 pounds of ramp bulbs, garlic cloves or pearl onions
- 1/2 teaspoon saffron
- 2 cups distilled or white wine vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- Put the thyme sprig in a clean quart jar. Make sure you have an unused lid for the jar; they only seal properly once.
- Get your canning pot ready. Put a layer of old canning jar rims on the bottom of the pot, or a vegetable steamer -- something to keep the bottom of the jar off the bottom of the pot. Pour in enough hot tap water to cover the jar by about 1 inch. Put it on your most powerful burner and kick the spurs to it.
- Meanwhile, pour the vinegar and water in another pot and crumble the saffron into it. Pour the salt in and turn the heat to medium-high. Once the vinegar mixture is hot, pour in the honey and stir to combine.
- When the vinegar mixture is simmering, add the ramp bulbs and boil 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pack into the jar, making sure to not overfill -- there's a line on the jar marking the proper headspace. Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean cloth or paper towel and seal.
- Submerge the jar in the boiling water of the canning pot for 10 minutes.
- Wait at least 1 week before eating. Sealed, the pickles should last a year. Refrigerate after opening.
Ha! I went looking for a picked onions recipe to use with ramps bulbs. Should have just come to you first! Perfect.
Also, to reply to Warren above, I’m going to try making chimichuri (ie, pesto without nuts & cheese), but pesto where the ramps greens serve as both the green and garlic I think would be really good.