Well a couple of issues come to mind as to why you won't find an approved recipe for what you want to do. First, yes you would use the same recipe but using slices is going to cause potential problems and isn't recommended. Slices of anything tend to compact in the jar preventing the brine to fully coat them. Slices create density issues. Air and bacteria are trapped between them and heat can't penetrate as effectively. That is one reason why you usually see recipes calling for cubes or chopped or chunks rather than slices. Onion slices would be especially bad at stacking up in the jar - not to mention falling apart into lots of rings and pieces when removed from the jar. If none of the approved recipes for canning chopped onions or onion relishes appeals to you then I think you'd have much better results with chunking the large onions as one would when canning potatoes. You can then slice the chunks after opening the jar just as one would when using canned potatoes to make fried potatoes. And yes the pre-cooking is required as a safety issue to insure proper acidification of the onions. And, just as potatoes need to be canned HOT only, so do onions. And that too will lead to more deterioration of your slices. Another option is canning the caramelized onions. If you search 'canning onions' here on the forum you'll find instructions for several different methods for canning onions safely - but they won't be in slices. I linked one good one below. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Canning sweet onions

Thank you, everyone! I think I'll omit the onions if I make the cauliflower. Linda C, I am not worried about the "beauty" of the contents inside the jar. I think sliced onions would look nice with the cauliflour, like how some people do with pickles. The recipe yields 5 pints....hmm....maybe some people will get lucky this Christmas besides the strawberry jam mom and I are planning to can :-). Brad AKA Moonwolf

"how do you know how long to boil it for with the boil water canning method? And why is it no longer safe after decades of it being okay?" How long to process them is found in any of the beets recipes that are in any of the canning books, even the very old ones. BWB processing of them has always been required, or at least from the 1923 Farmer's Bulletin series of canning pamphlets and the 1925 edition of the Ball books were published. I have an antique edition of the the Ball Blue Book of Canning from 1930's that calls for processing them submerged in a boiling water bath for 20 min. Current instructions calls for 30 mins. Your problem I think is you are using family instructions, not canning book instructions and your mother apparently chose to eliminate that step for some reason or that was how she was taught and so didn't know better. Open kettle canning recommendations were stopped based on testing research done in 1920-1922 by USDA. It only continues today in older generations because people didn't stay current with changes. I'd suggest you invest in a current edition of the Ball Blue Book or explore all the online resources available online at NCHFP. http://nchfp.uga.edu/ Dave

I've only done lacto-fermented pickles and refrigerator pickles. I've eaten store-bought kinds as well. Here are my preferences: Chile sauce (lacto-fermented, with vinegar added; cooked before fermentation; add probiotics before fermentation, after it cools sufficiently from cooking, but while it's still very warm) Radishes (lacto-fermented, without vinegar added; they turn pink/red inside) Peppers (with cardamom added; probably any kind of pepper pickle, almost) Sauerkraut (never made it, but I like it; it's pickled cabbage, lacto-fermented) Sempervivum (I think tectorum; lacto-fermented, without vinegar added) Carrots (lacto-fermented without vinegar added) Some of those I tried with/without vinegar I haven't tried the other way. I also like to use the brine from previously lacto-fermented stuff to make refrigerator pickles out of cheese strips. I'm not a fan of lacto-fermented large zucchini with vinegar added, although I like raw zucchini. I'm not fond of store-bought pickled cactus pad strips, but I like unpickled ones in stir fry. I like dill pickles, but I don't like sweet pickles that much (sweet pickles are okay in very small amounts). I like to use left-over dill pickle brine from store-bought pickles to refrigerator pickle stuff. I haven't historically added a lot to flavor my pickles (although I might prefer it). I want to lacto-ferment Jerusalem artichokes (and try adding some to other ferments, to speed the process).