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Stuffed Onions

Stuffed onions filled with veal or chicken, herbs, and pork fat, simmered in broth and reduced with Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Onions

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions carefully, avoiding cutting too deep at the ends.

  2. Parboil the onions in lightly salted water with butter for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain and dry the onions on a napkin.

  4. When cool, scoop out the centers.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill the centers with forced meat and cooked herbs.

  2. Arrange the onions in a buttered flat saucepan, close together.

  3. Season the onions with salt and a little sugar.

  4. Cover each onion with a slice of fat pork.

  5. Moisten the onions with broth.

  6. Heat the onions on the stove until boiling.

  7. Cover the pan.

  8. Transfer the pan to a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  9. Once cooked, remove the onions.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy into another saucepan.

  2. Skim off the grease from the gravy.

  3. Add Espagnole sauce to the gravy and reduce it to the desired consistency.

  4. Serve the gravy on the dish with the onions.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White onions
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens into a tender base.
Forced meat of veal or chicken
Provides a savory, tender filling that cooks through inside the onion.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onions brown lightly in the pan.
Thin slices of fat pork
Bastes the onions as it renders, adding fat and savory flavour.
Espagnole sauce
Adds body and depth to the gravy when reduced.

The step that matters

Heat the onions on the stove until boiling. Bringing the liquid to a boil before the oven starts the cooking evenly. Skipping or rushing this can leave the onion centers undercooked or the broth unevenly heated.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, meat, sugar, pork, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, meat, sugar, pork, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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