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Stuffed Onions

A large onion is hollowed, filled with a forcemeat mixture, wrapped in bacon, and cooked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Stuffed Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onion

  1. Scoop out the center of the onion and peel it.

  2. Parboil the onion until slightly tender.

  3. Fill the center with forcemeat.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the onion in a stew-pan and cover it with bacon slices.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and sugar.

  3. Cook over high heat until done.

  4. Remove the onion, reduce the sauce, and pour it over the onion before serving.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 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

Spanish onion
Forms the main body of the dish and turns sweet and tender when cooked.
Forcemeat
Fills the onion centre, adding savoury body and flavour as it cooks.
Bacon slices
Cover the onion, releasing fat that adds savoury flavour and browning.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the onion and bacon brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Cook over high heat until done. Sugar browns quickly at high heat and can scorch before the onion softens and the filling cooks through. Watch the pan closely and keep the onion covered by the bacon to protect it.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, ham, mushroom, sugar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, ham, mushroom, sugar. 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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