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Fried Onions

Fried onions are sliced onions boiled, drained, then fried in butter with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Fried Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Remove the skins and slice the onions.

  2. Cover the onions with boiling water, add salt, and boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Drain the onions.

Fry and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the onions and fry for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

  3. Season with pepper and serve with steak or fried liver.

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).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Provide the main bulk and sweetness as their sugars caramelize during long frying.
Butter
Conducts heat evenly across the pan and adds richness and flavor to the onions.

The step that matters

Fry the onions for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Onions must cook slowly over medium heat so their natural sugars brown gradually. Stirring spreads heat and prevents scorching at the pan surface, which would make the onions bitter rather than sweet and golden.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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