A Collection of Fannie Farmer Onion Ideas

The onion belongs to the same family (Lily) as do shallot, garlic, leek, and chive. Onions are cooked and served as a vegetable. They are wholesome, and contain considerable nutriment, but are objectionable on account of the strong odor they impart to the breath, due to volatile substances absorbed by the blood, and by the blood carried to the lungs, where they are set free.

The common garden onion is obtainable throughout the year, the new ones appearing in market about the first of June. In large centres Bermuda and Spanish onions are procurable from March 1st to June 1st, and are of delicate flavor.

Shallot, leek, garlic, and chive are principally used to give additional flavor to food. Shallot, garlic, and chive are used, to some extent, in making salads.

Boiled Onions

Put onions in cold water and remove skins while under water. Drain, put in a saucepan, and cover with boiling salted water; boil five minutes, drain, and again cover with boiling salted water. Cook one hour or until soft, but no broken. Drain, add a small quantity of milk, cook five minutes, and season with butter, salt, and pepper.

Onions in Cream

Prepare and cook as Boiled Onions, changing the water twice during boiling; drain, and cover with Cream or Thin White Sauce.

Scalloped Onions

Cut Boiled Onions in quarters. Put in a buttered baking-dish cover with White Sauce I, sprinkle with buttered cracker crumbs, and place on centre grate in oven to brown crumbs.

Glazed Onions

Peel small silver skinned onions, and cook in boiling water fifteen minutes. Drain, dry on cheese-cloth, put in a buttered baking-dish, add highly seasoned brown stock to cover bottom of dish, sprinkle with sugar, and bake until soft, basting with stock in pan.

Fried Onions

Remove skins from four medium-sized onions. Cut in thin slices and put in a hot omelet pan with one and one-half tablespoons butter. Cook until brown, occasionally shaking pan that onions may not burn, or turn onions, using a fork. Sprinkle with salt one minute before taking from fire.

French Fried Onions

Peel onions, cut in one-fourth inch slices, and separate into rings. Dip in milk, drain, and dip in flour. Fry in deep fat, drain on brown paper, and sprinkle with salt.

Stuffed Onions

Remove skins from onions, and parboil ten minutes in boiling salted water to cover. Turn upside down to cool, and remove part of centres. Fill cavities with equal parts of finely chopped cooked chicken, stale soft bread crumbs, and finely chopped onion which was removed, seasoned with salt and pepper, and moistened with cream or melted butter. Place in buttered shallow baking-pan, sprinkle with buttered crumbs, and bake in a moderate oven until onions are soft.

Boston Baked Beans

Pick over one quart pea beans, cover with cold water, and soak over night. In morning, drain, cover with fresh water, heat slowly (keeping water below boiling-point), and cook until skins will burst, — which is best determined by taking a few beans on the tip of a spoon and blowing on them, when skins will burst if sufficiently cooked. Beans thus tested must, of course, be thrown away. Drain beans, throwing bean-water out of doors, not in sink.

Scald rind of three-fourths pound fat salt pork, scrape, remove one- fourth inch slice and put in bottom of bean-pot. Cut through rind of remaining pork every one-half inch, making cuts one inch deep. Put beans in pot and bury pork in beans, leaving rind exposed. Mix one tablespoon salt, one tablespoon molasses, and three tablespoons sugar; add one cup boiling water, and pour over beans ; then add enough more boiling water to cover beans. Cover bean-pot, put in oven, and bake slowly six or eight hours, uncovering the last hour of cooking, that rind may become brown and crisp. Add water as needed.

Many feel sure that by adding with seasonings one-half tablespoon mustard, the beans are more easily digested. If pork mixed with lean is preferred, use less salt.

The fine reputation which Boston Baked Beans have gained has been attributed to the earthen bean-pot with small top and bulging sides in which they are supposed to be cooked. Equally good beans have often been eaten where a five-pound lard pail was substituted for the broken bean-pot.

Yellow-eyed beans are very good when baked.

Orange Salad

Cut five thin-skinned sour oranges in very thin slices, and slices in quarters. Marinate with a dressing made by mixing one-third cup olive oil, one and one-half tablespoons each lemon juice and vinegar, one-third teaspoon salt, one-fourth teaspoon paprika, and a few grains mustard. Serve on a bed of watercress.

Fannie Farmer Apple Pie

4 or 5 sour apples
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Few gratings lemon rind

Line pie plate with paste. Pare, core, and cut the apples into eighths, put row around plate one-half inch from the edge, and work towards centre until plate is covered; then pile on remainder. Mix sugar, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice, and grated rind, and sprinkle over apples. Dot over with butter. Wet edges of under crust, cover with upper crust, and press edges together.

Bake forty to forty-five minutes in moderate oven. A very good pie may be made without butter, lemon juice, and grated rind. Cinnamon may be substituted for nutmeg. Evaporated apples may be used in place of fresh fruit. If used, they should be soaked over night in cold water.

Chicken Soup with Wine

3 lb. fowl
1 onion, sliced
2 quarts cold water
2 stalks celery
2 slices carrot
Bit of bay leaf
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons Sauterne wine
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon beef extract
1 cup cream
Salt
Pepper

Wipe and cut up fowl. Cover with water, and add carrot, salt, peppercorns, celery, and bay leaf. Bring quickly to boiling-point, then let simmer until meat is tender. Remove meat and strain stock. Chill, remove fat, reheat, and add wine, beef extract, and cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Fannie Farmer Julienne Soup

To one quart clear Brown Soup Stock, add one-fourth cup each carrot and turnip, cut in thin strips one and one-half inches long, previously cooked in boiling salted water, and two tablespoons, each, cooked peas and string beans. Heat to boiling point.

Tomato Soup with Stock

1 quart Brown Soup Stock
1 can tomatoes
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1 small bay leaf
3 cloves
3 sprigs thyme
4 tablespoons butter
Onion, Carrot, Celery, Raw Ham -- 1/4 cup each, cut in dice
Salt
Pepper

Cook onion, carrot, celery, and ham in butter five minutes, add flour, peppercorns, bay leaf, cloves, and thyme, and cook three minutes; then add tomatoes, cover, and cook slowly one hour. When cooked in oven it required less watching. Rub through a strainer, add hot stock, and season with salt and pepper.

Brown Soup Stock

6 lbs. shin of beef
1 sprig marjoram
3 quarts cold water
2 sprigs parsley
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
6 cloves
1/2 bay leaf
3 sprigs thyme
Carrot, Turnip, Onion, Celery -- 1/2 cup each, cut in dice

Wipe beef, and cut the lean meat in inch cubes. Brown one-third of meat in hot frying pan in marrow from a marrow-bone. Put remaining two-thirds with bone and far in soup kettle, add water, and let stand for thirty minutes. Place on back of range, add browned meat, and heat gradually to boiling point. As scum rises it should be removed. Cover, and cook slowly six hours, keeping below boiling-point during cooking. Add vegetable and seasonings, cook one and one-half hours, and cool as quickly as possible.