Request for a Recipe

[Copperhead-mi]

Could someone please provide me with a period recipe for creamed Bermuda onions?

 

[diane]

Bermuda onions have an interesting history, having come into the country via southern Texas from Grenada. Onions and the Civil War! Grant once refused to move his troops until he got some onions - whereupon he received 3 wagon loads of them. Onion juice was an important wound healer, too. I'll have to look up some more on the Grant story - ran across it while hunting! Will this recipe be all right?

Onions a la Crème (Virginia Cookery 1885) History

Boil a dozen fine, white silver-skinned onions in several waters, to take out some of the pungent taste, and then peel them, and dry them off in a cloth until cold enough to handle, and slice them; have ready a good pinto of grated bread-crumbs, a quarter of a pound of butter, and a teacupful of cream, or rich milk, if you have not cream. Distribute all these ingredients in layers of onion, and seasoning alternately, with the addition of pepper and salt, and you will have a dish much admired, by gentlemen particularly. Finish off with a thick layer of bread-crumbs; our on the cup of cream lastly, and bake for three-quarters of an hour. Mary Stuart Smith, Virginia Cookery-Book (New York: Harper & Brother, 1885), pp. 131-32.

 

[Allie]

Has someone been watching "They died with their boots on"? Or just a fan of Winfield Scott?

First you need Bermuda onions, which aren't sold commercially anymore because of their low yield. Reportedly sweet Texas onions are closest.

The earliest recipe I can find is 1913 and not Bermudas. I found another not dated one which I'm guessing is from the 20s. Diane's is probably your best bet, but I'll give you these for comparison.

Recipe 1:

Remove the skins from one dozen medium-sized onions, under water (to prevent the odor from penetrating the fingers) or grease the fingers before beginning to peel them. Drain, place them in a sauce-pan, and cover with cold water; bring quickly to the boiling-point and boil five minutes. Drain and cover with boiling salted water; let cook uncovered until tender (about one hour), but not broken. Prepare a thin cream sauce made as follows:

Cream Sauce

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups hot thin cream or milk
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped parsley

Instructions
Melt the butter in a sauce-pan; add the flour; stir to a smooth paste. Add the cream or milk; season with salt and pepper. Reheat onions in sauce; turn in hot serving-dish, and sprinkle with the parsley.

- See more at: http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/fiftytwo_sunday_dinners/creamed_onions_1.php#.dpuf

Recipe 2:

A cream sauce added to onions makes a very appetizing dish. In fact, most persons prefer creamed onions to any other method of preparation.

Sufficient to serve six.

Ingredients

• 1 pint stewed onions
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 1/2 cups hot milk

Instructions
Prepare the onions. When they are tender enough to be easily pierced with a fork, drain. Melt the butter, and add the flour, salt, pepper, and hot milk. Cook until the sauce thickens, pour over the stewed onions, heat together for a few minutes, and serve.

- See more at: http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/womansinstitute_vol2/creamed_onions.php#sthash.1AIbDdzC.dpuf

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Bermuda onions have an interesting history, having come into the country via southern Texas from Grenada. Onions and the Civil War! Grant once refused to move his troops until he got some onions - whereupon he received 3 wagon loads of them. Onion juice was an important wound healer, too. I'll have to look up some more on the Grant story - ran across it while hunting! Will this recipe be all right?

Onions a la Crème (Virginia Cookery 1885) History

Boil a dozen fine, white silver-skinned onions in several waters, to take out some of the pungent taste, and then peel them, and dry them off in a cloth until cold enough to handle, and slice them; have ready a good pinto of grated bread-crumbs, a quarter of a pound of butter, and a teacupful of cream, or rich milk, if you have not cream. Distribute all these ingredients in layers of onion, and seasoning alternately, with the addition of pepper and salt, and you will have a dish much admired, by gentlemen particularly. Finish off with a thick layer of bread-crumbs; our on the cup of cream lastly, and bake for three-quarters of an hour. Mary Stuart Smith, Virginia Cookery-Book (New York: Harper & Brother, 1885), pp. 131-32.

diane, Thank you very much. It's for a friend of mine who told me his grandmother used to make them years ago before she passed and had told him that it was an old civil war dish. She didn't leave a recipe that he was aware of and lately he's had a yearning to try some.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Has someone been watching "They died with their boots on"? Or just a fan of Winfield Scott?

First you need Bermuda onions, which aren't sold commercially anymore because of their low yield. Reportedly sweet Texas onions are closest.

The earliest recipe I can find is 1913 and not Bermudas. I found another not dated one which I'm guessing is from the 20s. Diane's is probably your best bet, but I'll give you these for comparison.

Recipe 1:

Remove the skins from one dozen medium-sized onions, under water (to prevent the odor from penetrating the fingers) or grease the fingers before beginning to peel them. Drain, place them in a sauce-pan, and cover with cold water; bring quickly to the boiling-point and boil five minutes. Drain and cover with boiling salted water; let cook uncovered until tender (about one hour), but not broken. Prepare a thin cream sauce made as follows:

Cream Sauce

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups hot thin cream or milk
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped parsley

Instructions
Melt the butter in a sauce-pan; add the flour; stir to a smooth paste. Add the cream or milk; season with salt and pepper. Reheat onions in sauce; turn in hot serving-dish, and sprinkle with the parsley.

- See more at: http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/fiftytwo_sunday_dinners/creamed_onions_1.php#.dpuf

Recipe 2:

A cream sauce added to onions makes a very appetizing dish. In fact, most persons prefer creamed onions to any other method of preparation.

Sufficient to serve six.

Ingredients

• 1 pint stewed onions
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 1/2 cups hot milk

Instructions
Prepare the onions. When they are tender enough to be easily pierced with a fork, drain. Melt the butter, and add the flour, salt, pepper, and hot milk. Cook until the sauce thickens, pour over the stewed onions, heat together for a few minutes, and serve.

- See more at: http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/womansinstitute_vol2/creamed_onions.php#sthash.1AIbDdzC.dpuf

Thank you, Allie. I'll pass this along. It's for a friend of mine who misses creamed Bermuda onions that his long passed grandmother used to make for him.

 

[diane]

diane, Thank you very much. It's for a friend of mine who told me his grandmother used to make them years ago before she passed and had told him that it was an old civil war dish. She didn't leave a recipe that he was aware of and lately he's had a yearning to try some.

I hope your friend is happy with the results! Sometimes it's a little different when you're older... My dad had a real craving for dandelion greens, he'd had them regularly as a kid and was hankering for some. So we picked a mess and cooked them according to how he remembered. Not the same!

 

[Northern Light]

I hope your friend is happy with the results! Sometimes it's a little different when you're older... My dad had a real craving for dandelion greens, he'd had them regularly as a kid and was hankering for some. So we picked a mess and cooked them according to how he remembered. Not the same!

Our taste buds change over time, and I think sometimes we "remember" things into more than they were, as we reminisce about our youths. As well, we often just cannot get the same ingredients as our ancestors used and we don't have the same pots.

 

[diane]

Our taste buds change over time, and I think sometimes we "remember" things into more than they were, as we reminisce about our youths. As well, we often just cannot get the same ingredients as our ancestors used and we don't have the same pots.

That is so true! Granny made great stew and for years I've tried to repeat it...nope, nope, nope! Close but not close enough...

 

[donna]

See recipe for Onion Custard. It is one from 1860 to 1861. It is like creamed onions. I just posted it in thread of its own.