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Onions Stuffed

Onions stuffed with veal forcemeat, shallot, parsley, and mushrooms, simmered in white broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Onions Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions and cut a piece off the top and bottom for a flat appearance.

  2. Blanch the onions and lay them on a cloth to dry.

  3. Remove the middle of each onion and fill with veal forcemeat mixed with shallot, parsley, and mushrooms.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the stuffed onions in a well-buttered sauté pan.

  2. Cover with white broth and simmer over low heat until tender and glazed.

  3. Turn the onions over and serve as desired.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

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

Onions
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens into a tender, sweet base.
Veal forcemeat
Provides the savory, moist filling that sets as it cooks inside the onion.
White broth
Supplies liquid for gentle simmering, keeping the onions moist while they become tender.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onions brown and glaze in the pan.

The step that matters

Simmering over low heat until tender and glazed. Gentle heat lets the onion soften evenly and the filling cook through without the broth boiling away or the onion scorching. Too much heat can toughen the forcemeat and leave the outside burnt before the centre is tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, shallot, parsley, mushroom, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, shallot, parsley, mushroom, butter. 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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