Why it works: Onion and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32,460 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and blanch the onions in boiling salted water for 15 minutes.
Dry the onions thoroughly and cut them into rings.
Dry the rings well in a cloth and roll them in flour.
Fry and serve
Shake off excess flour and fry in boiling fat until pale golden brown.
Drain well.
Serve as a garnish, ensuring they are crisp.
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 + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- Provide the main body and sweet flavour once blanched and fried.
- Flour
- Coats the rings so they brown and crisp in the hot fat.
The step that matters
Drying the onion rings before frying. Any surface water turns to steam in hot fat, which splatters and stops the flour coating from crisping. Thorough drying lets the rings brown rather than steam.
“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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