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Onion Iielish

A relish of thinly sliced Bermuda onions soaked in vinegar and cold water, then sprinkled with granulated sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Onion Iielish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the onions thinly crosswise.

  2. Soak the sliced onions in cold water mixed with vinegar for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Drain the onions a few minutes before serving.

  2. Arrange the onions in a dish and sprinkle heavily with granulated sugar.

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. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Onion + sugartop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Onion and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bermuda onions
Provide the main body and sharp flavor of the relish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that mellows the sharp bite of raw onion.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Soaking the sliced onions. Soaking in cold water and vinegar draws out some of the sharp sulfur compounds that make raw onion harsh. Draining before serving keeps the relish from becoming watery and diluted.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. 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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