Food That Time Forgot: Roasted Onions
Key points from the YouTube transcript about 18th-century roasted onions:
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Unexpected Popularity: A previous, seemingly insignificant video on roasted onions unexpectedly became very popular, prompting a deeper exploration of the topic.
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Onions as Staple Food: Onions were a crucial part of the 18th-century diet, especially for the poor, due to their affordability and flavor. They were used in many dishes but rarely as a standalone dish.
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Medicinal Origins: Recipes for roasted onions appear centuries earlier in medicinal texts (16th-17th centuries), used to treat colds and congestion. This highlights a common theme where many foods began as medicine before becoming everyday food. Other examples include sugar and garlic.
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“Primitive Cookery”: A mid-18th-century cookbook, “Primitive Cookery,” dedicated several pages to onion recipes, showcasing their importance even in primarily vegetarian/non-meat-centric cooking due to meat’s high cost.
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1808 Recipe: The video focuses on a simple roasted onion recipe from Hannah Glasse’s 1808 cookbook, “A New System of Domestic Cookery,” requiring only roasting with the skin on and serving with salt, butter, or alongside other vegetables. The recipe itself is remarkably simple, lacking detailed instructions.
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Cooking Method & Variations: The video demonstrates roasting whole onions (yellow, red, and Vidalia) at 350°F until tender, noting that cooking time varies depending on onion size and type (45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes). The aroma during baking is highlighted as a good indicator of doneness. The onions can be eaten simply with salt and butter.
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Taste & Texture: The video emphasizes the delicious taste and subtly different textures between onion varieties, all maintaining some pleasant firmness even after roasting.
In short, the video explores the surprisingly significant role of onions in 18th-century cuisine, tracing their history from medicinal use to a staple food, culminating in a simple yet flavorful recipe demonstration.