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Onions, Stuffed

Onions stuffed with a forcemeat of chicken, ham, parsley, mushrooms, and suet, then baked with bacon, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Onions, Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onion

  1. Scoop out the center of the onion and peel it.

  2. Blanch the onion in boiling water.

  3. Fill the center with forcemeat.

Cook

  1. Place the onion in a stewpan and cover it with slices of bacon.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Cook over medium heat until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the onion and reduce the sauce in the pan.

  2. Pour the sauce over the onion and serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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

Spanish onion
Forms the edible shell that holds the forcemeat and softens as it cooks.
Forcemeat
Provides the rich, savory filling that cooks through inside the onion.
Bacon
Covers the onion and releases fat that adds savory flavor and browning.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until done. Medium heat lets the onion and forcemeat cook through gently. Higher heat can scorch the bacon and sugars in the onion before the center is tender, and the sauce may reduce too fast.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, ham, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, ham, mushroom, 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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