Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Stuffed Onions
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cut the tops off the onions and scoop out the centers, leaving about a half-inch thick shell.
In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, bread crumbs, melted butter, egg yolk, poultry seasoning, stock or cream, salt, and pepper.
Stuff the onion shells with the mixture, rounding them slightly.
Bake and serve
Place the stuffed onions close together in a small baking pan.
Pour stock or boiling water into the pan to reach half the depth of the onions.
Cover the pan and bake for 1 hour, basting occasionally.
Uncover and place on the upper rack for a few minutes to brown the crumbs if necessary.
Serve as a garnish for roast pork or in a vegetable dish with Drawn Butter Sauce.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 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
- Sausage or cooked meat
- Provides the savoury, rich body of the filling.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and give the filling a light, soft structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the filling and helps the crumbs brown.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
- Onions
- Act as the edible cups that soften and turn sweet as they bake.
The step that matters
Basting during the covered bake. Onions are mostly water and can dry out at the edges over an hour in the oven. Basting with the pan liquid keeps the shells moist and the filling tender while the onions cook through.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, butter, egg, cream, pepper):
- Asparagusfits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, butter, egg, cream, 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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