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Spanish Onions and White Sauce

Onions boiled until tender, then topped with a white sauce of milk, butter, cornflour, pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 26,984 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Spanish Onions and White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose onions of equal size and boil them whole in plenty of water until tender (about 2 to 2½ hours).

  2. Drain the onions, keeping the cooking water as stock for soup or stew.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine ½ pint of milk, 1 oz. of butter, 1 heaped teaspoonful of cornflour, pepper, and salt to taste.

  2. Boil the milk with the butter and seasoning, then thicken with the cornflour.

  3. Boil the sauce again until thickened, then pour it over the onions.

Serve

  1. Serve the onions with the sauce on a hot dish with slices of toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

155Calories
8 gProtein
8 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions (in the method)
Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender when boiled whole.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the sauce, giving it moisture and a creamy body.
Cornflour
Starch that thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when it is heated.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat to the sauce, giving it richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce again until thickened. Cornflour is a starch that only thickens fully once the liquid reaches a boil and the starch granules swell. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and can leave a raw floury taste.

“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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