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Onions, Spanish, Baked

Baked Spanish onions simmered, wrapped, and roasted, then topped with pepper, salt, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Onions, Spanish, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the onions

  1. Wash and trim the onions without peeling them.

  2. Place the onions in a saucepan and cover with water, adding a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Simmer gently for about 1 hour.

  4. Drain the onions and wrap each one in a separate piece of paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the wrapped onions in a 350°F (175°C) oven until tender, about 1.5 hours.

  2. Remove the skins.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper and salt.

  4. Pour the gravy over them 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Spanish onions
Provide the main body and sweetness of the dish as they soften and caramelize slowly.
Good gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the tender onions just before serving.

The step that matters

Simmering before baking. Simmering softens the onions' interior so they become tender during baking; skipping or shortening it can leave the centers firm and the dish uneven.

“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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