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 ↓
Plain Boiled Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the onions and cut off the roots and stems, being careful not to injure the skin.
Place the onions in a saucepan and cover them with water.
Cook
Add the salt and butter, then cover the saucepan.
Set the saucepan on a medium heat and cook until the onions are tender.
Serve
Strain off the water and serve the onions with melted butter.
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.
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and sweet as they cook through.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a rounded flavour to the onions.
The step that matters
Cook until the onions are tender. Onions must be cooked gently and fully through; if the heat is too high or they are not cooked long enough, the centres stay firm and the outer layers can overcook. A covered pan at medium heat lets steam soften them evenly.
“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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