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Onions, Stuffed
Take three moderate-sized Spanish onions. Peel and trim them neatly, but be careful not to cut off too much of the tops, for fear the onions fall to pieces. Scoop out the hearts of the onions, mince them finely, and mix with them four ounces of lean beef or pork and one ounce of fat bacon (chopped small), a table-spoonful of chopped parsley, three table-spoonfuls of grated bread-crumbs, two ounces of butter, a little salt and cayenne, and the yolk of an egg well beaten. Stuff the onions with the meat, and put them into a saucepan side by side, and with them half a pint of good gravy, two apples, pared, cored, and chopped small. Stew the onions until they are perfectly tender, and turn them over once or twice, so that they may be thoroughly cooked all through. Thicken the sauce with a little flour and butter, add pepper and salt and a table-spoonful of brandy, and serve the onions on a hot dish with the gravy poured round them. If the acid flavour is liked, the strained juice of a large fresh lemon may be poured over the onions a few minutes before they are taken off the fire. Time, three hours to stew the onions. Probable cost, 1s. 3d. Sufficient for three persons.
A Victorian braise that behaves like a small meatball wrapped in onion. Nothing here is difficult, but the vessel, the liquid and the stated time all want adjusting.
- Keep the root end intactThe hinge of the dish: trim the base flat but leave the root plate uncut, and take only a thin slice off the top. That plate is what holds the layers together through a long wet cook. Scoop from the top with a melon baller or teaspoon, leaving two or three outer layers as the shell.
- Spanish onionsThen as now, the large mild yellow onion. "Moderate-sized" here simply means a large onion; the filling has to divide between three, so choose the biggest that will sit side by side in the pan.
- Half a pint of good gravyAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. "Gravy" here means brown meat stock or the strained juices of a roast, not a thickened sauce — use a well-flavoured beef stock. It should come partway up the onions, not cover them.
- Three hours is too longThree hours may be longer than needed -- The time suits a stewpan left to tick over slowly. On a modern hob the onions may be tender and the stuffing cooked well before three hours; start checking at about 90 minutes, since an overcooked shell collapses and the filling turns to paste.
- Check the stuffing, not the clockMinced beef or pork packed inside an onion heats slowly. Test the centre of one with a probe and look for 160F before serving, which arrives well inside the stewing time.
- The two applesCooking apples of the period were sharp — Bramley-type fruit that breaks down completely and both sweetens and cuts the onion. A modern sweet dessert apple will not do the same work; use a tart cooking apple, or add the lemon juice the recipe offers as an alternative.
- Thickening"A little flour and butter" means beurre manié: knead equal weights, perhaps ½ oz each, and whisk it into the strained simmering liquid in small pieces. Lift the onions out first so they are not knocked about.
- Yield and costThree onions, three people, as stated. The 1s. 3d. is late-Victorian shopping money and tells you this was a cheap made-dish, stretching a quarter-pound of meat across a whole course.
Stuffed onions belong to the large Victorian family of "made dishes" — preparations built to make a small quantity of meat look like a course. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery was an alphabetical household reference sold to the same expanding middle-class readership as Beeton, and its habit of printing a probable cost and a number of persons served for each entry reflects a kitchen run to a budget by a cook answerable to a mistress. The combination of onion, apple and a spoonful of brandy, and the optional lemon juice at the end, suit a taste for sharpness in savoury dishes.