Why it works: Onion and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32,460 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Eeied Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the onions and cut off the roots and stems.
Slice them crosswise and separate the rings with your fingers.
Season with coarse sea salt and coat with flour, mixing well.
Place in a colander to shake off excess flour.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot lard until nicely colored, then drain on a napkin and serve.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming sweet and tender as they cook.
- Flour
- Coats the onion rings so they brown and crisp when fried.
- Lard for frying
- Conducts heat to fry the onions and gives them a rich flavor and golden color.
The step that matters
Shaking off the excess flour. Too much loose flour on the rings burns or turns pasty in hot fat and can leave a floury taste, while a thin even coat browns and crisps well.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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