The French and the Onion!

photo by ana traina

The French Onion
According to Alexandre Dumas, in his Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine (1873), the French province of Brittany was famous for growing onions. In some years, one town, Roscoff, would send thirty or forty ships laden with onions to England. An enterprising townie asked a visiting Englishman to translate for him the phrase “the English onion is not good”. Three days later the Frenchman left for London with a sloop laden with onions. Upon arrival, he headed straight to the busiest market and displayed a placard on which was written in big letters: THE ENGLISH ONION IS NOT GOOD. Underneath, he placed a little barrow full of French onions. After a fight with an Englishman to gain the right to sell his French onions, Londoners bought all of his onions that day. From that time even until the 1970’s, French onion-sellers from Brittany would bicycle around English towns peddling their wares.

Onion Johnnies
Many older Exonians have memories of "Onion Johnnies" in Exeter, as late as the 1960's.

One warehouse on the quay was used to store French onions, along with a gaggle of onion sellers and their bicycles. "Onion Johnnies" would arrive by boat from Roscoff, carrying their loads of onions. When a group arrived, one half would be given the role of making up the troches or strings of onions, being careful to display well the Pen Capitaine, or the best quality onions to greatest effect. A troche of onions would weigh 100 kilos.

They were then taken onto the streets and byways of England on a bicycle, to be sold, door to door. The first pre-bicycle Onion Johnny is said to be Henri Olivier who first arrived in England in 1828. They would enter England through various ports and travel the length and breadth of the country, including Scotland.

So many BITS OF ODDS AND ENDS: In France, above the Loire, butter and onions rule; in the South they are more likely to be eaten as a vegetable than used for its flavor in cooking. Onion tart and onion soup are typical dishes of northern France.

In Paris, there is said to be a religious sect of Worshippers of the Onion, duly registered with the authorities.

A French Soubise sauce, made with onions and often thickened with rice, is named after an 18th-century prince of the Soubise family. The sauce was usually served with lamb or mutton.

In French cuisine glazed (or caramelized) onions form part of several classic garnishes: 

Bourguignonne with glazed onions, fried mushrooms and bacon dice,

Nivernaise with glazed onions, carrots and turnips, braised lettuce and boiled potatoes 

Bourgeoise with glazed onions, carrots and bacon dice.

Men eat 40 percent more onions than women, so cook with lots of onions to make your man happy. (according to the USDA)

During the Middle Ages onions were worth so much that they were used to pay rent and were given as wedding gifts.

On one trip, Captain James Cook refused to sail until each man in his crew had eaten 20 pounds of onions, because he knew that their high content of vitamin C would prevent scurvy on the long voyage ahead.

The onion was an ancient symbol of eternity because of the concentric circles that it contains. For this reason, Russian and other orthodox churches are designed with onion domes, a bulb-shaped dome with a pointy top.

Turkish legend has it that when Satan was cast out of heaven, garlic sprouted where he placed his left foot, an onion where he placed his right foot.

Countless folk remedies ascribe curative powers to onions: An onion under the pillow is thought to fight off insomnia; and chewing a raw onion sterilizes the mouth and wards off colds and sore throat. During World War II, Russian soldiers applied onions to battle wounds as an antiseptic.

Pick a Peck of Pickled Onions Recipe!

Pickled onions anyone! I’m making jars of pickled onions as Holiday gifts – they’re inexpensive to make, involve no actual cooking, and are always appreciated by those who like them (although of course you need to inquire that your intended recipient wouldn’t turn a certain shade of nightmare green just at the mere thought of them). They need to be made now as they need time to mature, but once ready will keep for many months. You can use old jam jars for a nice rustic version. 

The process takes a couple of days but you only need to be doing some work for about an hour of that time.

Ingredients

Pickling onions or shallots.
Pickling vinegar (malt vinegar)
225g Sea Salt (not table salt)
2.8 liters/ 4 pints Water
Pickling spices. You can either just buy ready-selected pickling spices or you can put together a teaspoon each of mace, cinnamon, allspice berries, black peppercorns and 4 cloves and 1 chili.

The Cooking

First, a note: don’t use copper or iron pans for this – the acid reacts with the metal which spoils the color and flavor. Also, you need to sterilize your jars to avoid the pickles going all black and moldy. This is quite simple – wash them in hot soapy water and then dry them in the oven on a low heat.

To begin with you need to brine the onions. Heat the salt and water slowly until the salt has dissolved. Allow this to cool and meanwhile peel the onions. You can make them easier to peel by plunging the skin-on onions into boiling water for one minute  Once cooled and peeled, prick the onions to allow the liquid to soak into them and put the onions in the cooled brine.

Put some kind of weight on top of the onions to make sure they’re all submerged in the brine – I used a plate with a mug full of water on top. Now you simply set it aside for a couple of days and go about your business.

After a couple of days, drain the onions and pat them dry. Pack them into your sterilized jars and pour over the vinegar and sprinkle in a couple of teaspoons of the mixed pickling spices. And Abracadabra, just like that!

After 4 weeks they should be edible, but you may want to wait a couple of months to be sure. Eat them yourself with some strong cheddar, or stick a ribbon on the jar and give them to your friends as a present. Friends love pickled onions.