Properties Of The Onion
From Mrs. Beeton's household management (1907).
A historical recipe
Mrs. Beeton's household management, by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton (1907).
United Kingdom
Known as a British recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.
From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Printed in United Kingdom: that says where the book was made, not where the dish comes from.
Ingredients 1 ingredient
Cook safely
Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.
- Hot oil. Never put water on an oil fire: turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or a damp tea towel. Pat food dry before it goes into hot oil, and lower it in gently, away from you.
- Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
- Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
- Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.
Method
Chef Wood
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- The onion is possessed of a white, acrid, volatile oil, holding sulphur in solution, albumen, a quantity of uncrystallizable sugar, and mucilage, phosphoric acid, both free and combined lime, acetic acid, citrate of lime, and lignine.
- Of all the species of allium, the onion has the volatile principle in the greatest degree ;
- and hence it is impossible to separate the scales of the root without the eyes being affected.
- The juice is sensibly acid, and is capable of being, by fermentation converted into vinegar, and mixed with water or dregs of beer yields by distillation an alcoholic liquor.
- Although used as a common esculent, onions are not suited to all stomachs ;
- some persons cannot eat them either fried or roasted, whilst others prefer them boiled, which is the best way of using them, as by the process they then undergo they are deprived of their essential oil.
- Afany people who cannot eat onions in a pie or stew, when they are put in raw, find them quite digestible if they are first scalded for a quarter of an hour.
- Anaemic persons, and those of a consumptive tendency, frequently evince a great liking for onions, and they prove a most useful food for such invalids.
- 1547.— ONIONS, SPANISH, BAKED.
- (Another Method.) Ingredients.
- — Spanish onions, brown sauce (see Sauces, No.
- 233 )> butter or fat, salt.
- Method.
- — Peel the onions, put them into cold water, add a teaspoonful of salt, boil gently for £ an hour, then strain.
- Have ready in a baking-dish some hot butter or hot fat, baste the onions well, place them in a moderate oven, and bake for i£ hours, basting frequently.
- When done they should be well browned.
- Serve in a hot vegetabledish with the sauce poured over them.
- Time.
- — About 2 hours.
- Average Cost, from 2 d.
- to 3d.
- per Ib.
- Seasonable from October to April.
Plating
Cookware for this recipe
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Frying pan
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Saucepan
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Chef's knife
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Vegetable peeler
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Sieve
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Pastry brush