Why do we cook with onions???

[Part 2]

Onions on pizza is wrong, they don't cook fast enough, eurgh crunchy half cooked onions, yku yuk yuk.

 

[dilute micro]

I've always wondered the same thing about mirepoix.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

I've always wondered the same thing about mirepoix.

Yebbut you don't make a mirepoix for every meal, only if doing a pot roast. And in any case it is made of an assortment of root veg not just one.

Onions are fabulous, I like them all, the white ones the red ones, shallots, spring onions (scallions to the Norherners) and even pickled onions. When cooked they form the basis for lots of meals and raw with salads or on cheese sandwiches give a bit of kick to the flavour. Long live the onion.

I like garlic too which is related but a whole different thread for someone to start.

 

[gentlegreen]

My "holy duo" is stir-fried onions and white cabbage - with the onions maybe a little caramelised. I'll could almost live on this, with soy sauce and tahini, maybe a little mango chutney.

 

[Blagsta]

How can anyone not like onions? Bloody weirdos.

 

[gentlegreen]

How can anyone not like onions? Bloody weirdos.

My dad used to include them with "foreign muck"

Doubtless he also saw them as "working class" too... I seem to remember that apart from potatoes, all he ate was frozen peas and a restricted range of other green veggies.

 

[moon]

I have about 10 million leeks growning in my garden so decided to use them in place of onions...

Is that why the Welsh grow so many leeks?? Cos its too wet to grow onions??

 

[danny la rouge]

God bless you, onion. Mrs Chris can't say it right, she says 'ungyung' it's ever so amusing; oh we laugh!

Round here it is pronounced ingin.

 

[trabuquera]

I believe that onions are the world's most ubiquitous ingredient - every cuisine on earth uses them and the only groups which deliberately rule them out on religious/ethnic/class grounds are the Jains in India (who ban them 'cos pulling them up will kill tiny living things) and very very upper-class Hindus ('cos they give you bad breath and are believed 'common' and belonging the lower castes.)

If onions were good enough for every culture from the Ancient Egyptians on, they ought to be good enough for you! (/stops channelling mother)

Wikipedia claims "Roman gladiators used to be rubbed with onions" before fighting. wtf?? pre-marinated meat? or to test they wouldn't turn out to be big crybabies in the arena?

 

[clandestino]

???
Why does almost every dish known to man start with frying onions??

what is the history of onions etc etc

anyone know??

They add flavour. I don't like onions on their own - hate big bits of onion in stews, would never have onions on a burger or whatever, hate the taste. But I've tried cooking without them and it's just not as good. If you chop them up finely enough then there's no onion flavour, but they do enhance other flavours.

 

[miss_b]

Wikipedia claims "Roman gladiators used to be rubbed with onions" befor
e fighting. wtf?? pre-marinated meat? or to test they wouldn't turn out to be big crybabies in the arena?

They add flavour.

Solved!

 

[Greebo]

Seeing as I can smell traces of onion in frozen food, I can also smell and taste it in unfrozen food, no matter how finely you chop it. Some of you seem to use onion in the same way that a Canadian I know who can't use any alliums at all uses a few drops each of maple syrup & soy sauce to add that dark sweet-savoury flavour and taste to everything cooked at home.

IMHO if the ingredients are really good quality, they don't need "improvement" or "enhancement". I don't see why onion is included even in things which are overwhelmed by it, except maybe to save money.

In this life, the only allium I can safely handle (let alone eat) in even moderate amounts is garlic. Not fussy, nothing to do with needing to learn to like the taste. Merely a complex biochemical chainreaction resulting in migraine. Exposure (even being downwind of a hot dog stall for a few minutes) can take hours out of my life. Not asking for sympathy, I'm just fed up with the attitude of onion-using bigots.

Cookery lessons and school dinners were like russian roulette. I've rewritten nearly every savoury recipe I've come across (except for recipes which have onion as the main ingredient, these are ignored completely). Not just leaving out onion, but thinking about why it's there in the first place (bulk, colour, texture, sting, sweet, savoury?) then working out what can take its place. If you think this means bland, boring, or flavourless, then you're wrong.

 

[DotCommunist]

Onions on pizza is wrong, they don't cook fast enough, eurgh crunchy half cooked onions, yku yuk yuk.

whats wrong with you man, a crunchy onion is nice!

 

[Y_I_Otter]

What accounts for the near-universal appeal of onions and garlic is probably their ability to unite very different flavours into a pleasing whole.

 

[MysteryGuest]

The question should be, why do we ever not cook with onions?

I don't. Or not very often. Garlic yes, onions no.



I'm really pleased that the internet has given me this chance to make my views on this matter more public.

 

[Part 2]

whats wrong with you man, a crunchy onion is nice!

cold crunchy onion in salad, sandwich etc is fine

half cooked semi crunch is not on!

Does the smell of roasting onions remind anyone else of coffee?

 

[Maggot]

Onions on pizza is wrong, they don't cook fast enough, eurgh crunchy half cooked onions, yku yuk yuk.

Roast them first. Much better.

whats wrong with you man, a crunchy onion is nice!

I love cooked onions, but don't like them raw in salad etc - too strong. Spring onoions are fine though.

 

[Madusa]

Does the smell of roasting onions remind anyone else of coffee?

no.

 

[softybabe]

I love cooked onions, but don't like them raw in salad etc - too strong. Spring onoions are fine though.

ha! got neat trick for you...put some salt on yer cut onions, rinse salt away and add said onions to yer salad...perfecto! not strong, nice crunchy onions, no onion breath either

 

[Maggot]

ha! got neat trick for you...put some salt on yer cut onions, rinse salt away and add said onions to yer salad...perfecto! not strong, nice crunchy onions, no onion breath either

Here's another trick: Make the salad without putting any onions in, in the first place.

 

[softybabe]

Here's another trick: Make the salad without putting any onions in, in the first place.

*puts Maggot's invite to her salad party in the bin*

 

[Gromit]

Rice is the staple food in china, potato in the UK (or at least it used to be) and onion is the staple in india.
There were riots and protests not so long ago when the price of onions went up.

I saw a program all about onions, apparently they have all sorts of special stuff in them which makes em really good for us.
I never use to like onions as a kid but i love em as an adult. Mmmm onion.

 

[softybabe]

I never use to like onions as a kid but i love em as an adult. Mmmm onion.

do u like onions in salads?

 

[Gromit]

do u like onions in salads?

I've had to work up to raw onion but yes i like em in salad so long as they aren't too overpowering.

Why? Are you making me a salad Softy?

 

[ymu]

Rice is the staple food in china, potato in the UK (or at least it used to be) and onion is the staple in india.
There were riots and protests not so long ago when the price of onions went up.

Staple foods are usually carbohydrates - potatoes, yams, rice, grains and derivatives of these such as pasta and noodles. They're the bit of the meal that fills you up (and provides a relatively slow energy release over the next few hours). In India, rice and bread would be the staple foods.

There were riots when the Egyptian slaves building the pyramids didn't get their garlic rations, but garlic isn't a staple food either.

 

[softybabe]

I've had to work up to raw onion but yes i like em in salad so long as they aren't too overpowering.

Why? Are you making me a salad Softy?

might do..

just find it weird if peeps dont like onions in their salads...salad for me is incomplete without onions