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Stuffed Onions

A baked dish of onions filled with a beef, breadcrumb, and cream mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions.

  2. Parboil the onions in salted water for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove and drain the onions.

  4. When cooled, remove the center of each onion.

Make and fill

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, well-beaten egg, and boiling water.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, chopped beef, salt, and pepper to the mixture.

  3. Fill the centers of the onions with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Brush the tops of the onions with melted butter.

  2. Sprinkle the tops with cracker crumbs.

  3. Place the onions in a shallow, buttered baking dish.

  4. Cover the dish.

  5. Bake until the onions are tender.

  6. Uncover the dish.

  7. Continue baking until the onions are brown.

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 + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and becomes tender when baked.
Raw beef
Provides the savory meat filling that sets as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds together when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the cream and add body to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and helps the tops brown during baking.

The step that matters

Continue baking until the onions are brown. Covering the dish first traps steam so the onions soften and the filling cooks through. Uncovering afterward lets dry heat brown the tops; leaving the dish covered throughout would leave them pale and soft.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, cream, egg, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, cream, egg, butter, pepper. 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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