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Baked Spanish Onions

Baked Spanish onions seasoned with butter, parsley, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and topped with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Spanish Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel 3 medium Spanish onions, clip off the ends and cut in half crosswise.

  2. Place the onions cut side up in a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Mix together 1 ounce butter, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, 1 salt spoon of salt and pepper, and the juice of a lemon.

  2. Spread the mixture over the onions.

  3. Cover with a buttered paper and set in the oven for 35 minutes.

  4. Baste frequently.

  5. Bring the dish to the oven door, take off the paper, sprinkle 2 tablespoons grated bread crumbs, baste well, and put back in the oven for 10 minutes more.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

601Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
105 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Their sugars soften and caramelise slowly, giving the baked onions sweetness and tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the onions brown and moisten as they bake.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they toast on the surface during the final minutes.

The step that matters

Covering with the buttered paper and basting. The paper traps steam so the onions cook through gently, while regular basting keeps the surface moist. Removing the paper late lets the topping brown.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread. 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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