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This sounds perfect, thanks very much I'll give it a bash. Can I clarify rough quantities if I'm making 2-3 litres?
Is that 1.5 litres of water to 1 litre of vinegar with 1kg of sugar?
When you say go heavy with aromats is that 1 tablespoon each of the things in the list?
Cazakstan-
Spot on with quantities - you can use a little less sugar but I quite like them sweet for 'christmas pickles'.
And I'd say add aromats to taste - some will give off flavour more easily than others so I wouldn't want to risk saying 1tbspn for each spice. Longer boiling and steeping will help. And certainly make sure you include some of the spices in each jar and don't drain them out.
When I get around to onions this year, for that quantity of liquid, I'll probably include:
6 - 8 whole star anise
1.5 tbspn black or mixed peppercorns
1 broken cinamon stick
1 tbspn mustard seeds
.5 tbspn cloves
.5 tbspn nutmeg
.5 tbspn ginger
a few bay leaves (I'd like to leave a leaf in each jar and tbh, same for cinamon so I'd be inclined to carefully chop the stick into small inch long sticks so you can leave a chunk in each jar - for visual appeal as much as flavour).But really just go wild and see what comes out.
I'm almost weeping at the thought of how much I love pickled eggs..
CYOA
As someone who should have made a career out of pickling and eating things (usually eggs and onions but I've recently turned my hands to basically anything that can absorb liquid) I can confidently say it is entirely dependent on personal taste and what notes and subtleties you want in there.
Depending on the vinegar used you're going to need a lot of aromats to break through though - people usually underestimate how much and just get a pickled 'thing' that tastes of vinegar and little else (which is totally fine btw).
I usually make the base liquid and add different things depending on what I'm pickling and what time of year - either extra christmassy spices or more sugar or different vinegars etc.
Something like:
1.5 parts water
1 part vinegar (malt or cider usually depending - malt a bit more christmassy, cider a bit cleaner)
1 part brown sugar (to clarify, this is a LOT of sugar).
sea salt (a good handful depending on how much you're making. I probably make 2 or 3 litres at a time so about 50 grams).
Then I'll add, variously, star anise, bay, peppercorns, cloves, fennel, mustard, cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe ginger, other, etc.
Basically chuck it in a stock pot and slowly bring to the boil making sure all the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat off and drop the onions in and once cooled a bit add them to sterilised jars, seal and chuck in the fridge to test your resolve over how long you can wait before you eat them.