Buttered Onions Another Way
Learn about this recipe from our Historic Foodways staff, then try it at home.
Eighteenth-century cookbooks sometimes listed a mother recipe followed by several variations. Here, the original recipe was simply called “Buttered Onions.” This one combines onions and apples which sweeten while they cook. Serve it as a side dish with roasted chicken or over pork chops as a chutney.
Learn how we make this recipe in our kitchens based on the 18th-century description below, then use our 21st-century translation to try the recipe at home!
Watch How It's Made
18th Century
Slice some Apples, and mince your Onions, but more Apples than Onions. Bake them with Bread, tying a Paper over the Pan: When baked butter them, adding Sugar and boiled Currants. Serve them on Sippets, and strew over them fine Sugar and Powdered Cinnamon.
— “Adam’s Luxury and Eve’s Cookery: Or, The Kitchen-Garden Display’d . . .Herb and Root." p. 150
21st Century
Ingredients
- 3 medium Granny Smith or other baking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
- 1/3 cup fresh currants or dried currants plumped with boiling water
- 2 medium onions, minced
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1-2 tsp. cinnamon
- toast points, for serving
Instructions
- Combine the minced onions, apples, currants, sugar and cinnamon in a buttered ovenproof pan with lid. Dot the top with butter. Bake covered in a 375-400°F oven for 15—20 minutes or until tender.
- Serve hot with toast points.
Set down your drink here
Colonial Williamsburg’s weavers were inspired by this blanket, which dates to 1780–1820, to create striped coasters. Learn how to "diy" your own coasters at home.
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