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Sauce

Onions, Pickled

A sauce made from boiled onions simmered in melted butter and milk, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Onions, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Boil the onions for 1 hour.

  2. Drain and chop the onions, then rub them through a sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, melt 4 pints of butter with milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the chopped onions and season with salt.

  3. Stir until it simmers and is ready to serve.

  4. For a milder sauce, use Spanish onions and add cream just 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions (in the method)
Provide the main flavor and, once boiled and sieved, the body of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds liquid and mild creaminess, helping the butter and onion form a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Bringing the butter and milk to a boil. Milk proteins can scorch on the base of the pot, and a butter and milk mixture that overheats can split. Watch the heat closely and stir so the sauce stays smooth before the onions go in.

“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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