To ask what is the closest alternative to......!

[Ahhhhhbisto]

.......Barry Norman pickled onions?

They were always a Christmas staple in our house but since being discontinued I am yet to find any as good!

I love pickled onions! Never tried these, sadly. What was so good about them?

Garners? We always get them but Barry Norman were the best!

These are very good and so are the baby balsamic ones they do:

crookedpickle.co/collections/all/products/balsamic-onions-limited-edition

I agree with pp , garners are good.
But I also make my own, it's really easy but a bit time consuming.

Buy some shallots very carefully peel them , make sure you cut as little as possible off the bottom , basically you just want to remove the 'hairy' roots not the bit they grow out of .
Removed the brown outer layer and the next layer down .
And any damage layers
Almost all shallots can be split in two where they have naturally divided .
Layer them in table salt ensuring they are completely covered.( the very cheap bags are perfect for this )
Let them stand overnight to draw out aa much moisture as possible.

You can make your own pickle spice with mustard seed , pepper corns, bay leaf , fresh chillies or buy the mix , I tend to buy it.

Gently warm malt vinegar , add the spices and take off the heat . This allows all the flavours to be released.

Dig the shallots out of the salt very quickly rinse in cold water to remove all the salt .
Pat dry
Put them in a jar and top up with the cold vinager mix.

Can be eaten within a few days but are better after a couple of weeks.

Thank you.

I don't know what made them so good but they were crisp, vinegary, spicy, heartburn inducing perfection!