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To Fry Onions
Wash and slice them. Chop fine, put in a frying-pan and cover with water. Simmer till the water is dried up, then fry brown with a large slice of fat pork. Add pepper and salt.--Mrs. S. T.
A two-stage onion method: water first to soften and sweeten, fat afterward to brown. The technique is sound and still worth using; only the vessel and the pork need translation.
- The hingeDo not let the pan go dry and then walk away. The moment the water evaporates the onions begin to catch, and the browning stage takes only a few minutes of steady stirring.
- "Cover with water"The recipe says to cover, though a shallow depth in a wide skillet is enough for the purpose; a long simmer in a lot of water tends to leave the onions slack rather than tender.
- Fat porkIn nineteenth-century American recipes this usually means salt pork rather than a fresh cut. Bacon works, though it brings smoke the original would not have had; rendered lard or a spoonful of drippings is closer.
- ChoppingThe instruction to slice and then chop fine gives something close to a coarse mince, which softens considerably during the simmering.
- Salt timingSalt pork carries its own salt. Taste before adding more, at the very end.
- Quantity and yieldThe recipe gives no amount. Three or four medium onions, about 1 lb, is a reasonable batch for a side dish.
- PanA heavy skillet, most likely cast iron in a household of this date, holds heat through the transition from simmering to frying. A thin nonstick pan will steam rather than brown.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1878, gathered contributions from some 250 Virginia housewives, which is why so many entries end with a set of initials rather than a name. The method here reflects a kitchen where salt pork was the default cooking fat, kept in a barrel and cut from as needed. Boiling onions before frying them is an old European practice, generally explained as a way to soften the sharp sulphur compounds in strong storage onions — the water carried off some of that bite before the fat went in.