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Glazed Onion for

A sweet and savory onion dish simmered in stock to create a glaze, served with roast or braised mutton.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Glazed Onion for

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions, removing the brown skin and the first layer underneath.

  2. Scoop out a cavity 1 inch deep in the middle of each onion.

Brown the onions

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan and arrange the onions side by side, leaving space between them.

  2. Fill the cavities of the onions with sifted sugar.

  3. Fry the onions, turning them to brown both sides.

  4. Once browned, pour enough stock over the onions to cover them.

Glaze and serve

  1. Cover the pan and simmer over low heat, basting frequently until the stock reduces to a glaze and the onions are soft but not broken.

  2. Strain the glaze and pour it over a roast or braised shoulder of mutton, arranging the onions around it.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + sugartop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Onion and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Become soft and sweet as they simmer, and form the dish's main body.
Butter
Fat that carries the browning in the pan and adds richness.
Sifted sugar
Caramelises in the cavities, adding sweetness and deep browning to the glaze.
Good stock
Liquid that reduces slowly into a savoury, glossy glaze.

The step that matters

Simmering until the stock reduces to a glaze. Simmering gently and basting keeps the onions tender without breaking, while the stock reduces and its sugars concentrate into a glaze. Too high a heat or too little basting can scorch the sugar or leave the stock watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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