Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/221

 VEGETABLES. 199

ONIONS STEWED.

COOK the same as boiled onions, and, when quite done, turn off all the water ; add a teacupf ul of milk, a piece of butter the size of an egg, pepper and salt to taste, a tablespoonful of flour stirred to a cream ; let all boil up once and serve in a vegetable dish hot.

ONIONS BAKED.

USE the large Spanish onion, as best for this purpose ; wash them clean, but do not peel, and put into a saucepan with slightly salted water ; boil an hour, replacing the water with more boiling hot as it evaporates; turn off the water and lay the onions on a cloth to dry them well ; roll each one in a piece of buttered tissue paper, twisting it at the top to keep it on, and bake in a slow oven about an hour, or until tender all through ; peel them ; place in a deep dish and brown slightly, basting well with butter for fifteen minutes ; season with salt and pepper and pour some melted butter over them.

FRIED ONIONS.

PEEL, slice and fry them brown in equal quantities of butter and lard or nice drippings ; cover until partly soft, remove the cover and brown them ; salt and pepper.

SCALLOPED ONIONS.

TAKE eight or ten onions of good size, slice them and boil until tender. Lay them in a baking-dish, put in bread crumbs, butter in small bits, pepper and salt, between each layer until the dish is full, putting bread crumbs last ; add milk or cream until full. Bake twenty minutes or half an hour.

A little onion is not an injurious article of food, as many believe. A judicious use of plants of the onion family is quite as important a factor in successful cookery as salt and pepper. When carefully con- cealed by manipulation in food, it affords zest and enjoyment to many who could not otherwise taste of it were its presence known. A great many successful compounds derive their excellence from the partly concealed flavor of the onion, which imparts a delicate appetizing aroma highly prized by epicures.

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