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Fried Onions

Fried onions are sautéed in butter until brown and tender, optionally mixed with crisp salt pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Fried Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the young onions thinly.

Fry the onions

  1. In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onions and fry until brown and tender.

  3. Alternatively, fry six thin slices of salt pork until crisp.

  4. Add the onions to the pork and cook together.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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

Young onions
Provide the main bulk, softening as they cook and browning to give sweetness and flavor.
Butter
Adds fat to cook the onions and carries flavor while they brown.
Salt pork
Renders fat for frying and adds savory, salty flavor that crisps in the pan.

The step that matters

Fry the onions until brown and tender. Onions brown through slow caramelization of their sugars over medium heat. Cooking too hot can scorch the outside before the inside softens, leaving a bitter taste instead of sweetness.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, pork. 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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