Onions occupied an intriguing middle ground in 18th-century English and North American cooking: commonplace enough to be grown and purchased in quantity, yet potent enough that cooks sometimes deliberately reduced their flavor before adding them to a dish. That tension gives this culinary history a useful organizing idea. Rather than treating the onion merely as a humble staple, the presentation explores how cooks manipulated its intensity, preserved it, incorporated it into sauces, and combined it with ingredients that may seem unusual to modern diners.
The historical overview provides worthwhile context without allowing background information to overwhelm the cooking. The host describes onions as having a long history in Britain, discusses different varieties available during the period, and points to large-scale cultivation and trade, including onion production in Connecticut. References to an 18th-century article about acreage devoted to onion seed and to Matthew Patton's diary help make the broader claims about popularity more concrete. Some assertions, such as onions probably arriving in Britain with the Romans, are presented with appropriate uncertainty, although the historical sourcing is generally mentioned rather than examined in depth.
An especially interesting detour concerns the onion's place in folk medicine. John Wesley's Primitive Physic is described as recommending onions for ailments ranging from ear problems and baldness to piles and possible skin cancer. Importantly, the host does not treat those historical remedies as medically effective, explicitly acknowledging uncertainty about whether onions helped with any of them. That distinction allows the material to illustrate historical beliefs without turning those beliefs into modern health advice.
The discussion of cooking technique is arguably more revealing than the individual recipes. Some preparations repeatedly soaked or partially cooked onions and discarded the liquid to moderate their intensity, while another technique involved studding a whole peeled onion with cloves, simmering it in a dish, and removing it afterward. Alongside pickled onions, a simple cold green-onion condiment and the richer Robert sauce, these examples demonstrate considerable versatility. The presentation is strongest when it uses such details to challenge the assumption that historical English onion cookery was uniformly plain.
The onion pie provides the most substantial demonstration. Layers of potatoes, onions, apples and boiled eggs are seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg and mace, enriched generously with butter, enclosed in pastry and baked. The host sensibly scales down what he estimates would have been a roughly five-pound original, while also acknowledging an interpretive choice where the historical instructions are unclear about the eggs. His assumption that they should be boiled is plausible within the preparation he demonstrates, but it remains an interpretation rather than something definitively established by the quoted recipe.
A second preparation of cooked onions and apples served over toasted bread with sugar and cinnamon is simpler but arguably more surprising. Its deliberate combination of savory onion with fruit, sweetness and spice reinforces the larger point that familiar ingredients can behave very differently when viewed through historical recipes. The host's tasting reactions communicate genuine enthusiasm for both dishes, although repeated comments about how good they smell and taste provide subjective impressions rather than much detailed analysis of texture, balance or how strongly the onion actually registers against the apple, butter and spices.
The approachable presentation ultimately works because historical explanation and practical cooking remain closely connected. There is enough specificity to make the onion feel culturally and economically significant rather than merely ubiquitous, while the recipes turn that history into something viewers could conceivably explore themselves. The expansive implication that the onion is among history's most important foods is not rigorously demonstrated through comparative evidence, but the narrower case—that it was a durable, prolific, versatile and widely used ingredient with culinary and folk-medicinal roles—is communicated much more convincingly.
Pros
- Connects onion cultivation, storage, trade, folk medicine and cookery into an accessible historical overview.
- Specific period references and recipe sources give the discussion more substance than a purely anecdotal food history.
- Clearly avoids presenting historical onion remedies as proven medical treatments.
- Demonstrations of flavor-reducing techniques and clove-studded onions reveal unexpectedly sophisticated uses of a familiar ingredient.
- The onion pie and sweet-savory onion-and-apple preparation make unusual historical combinations tangible and memorable.
- Acknowledges uncertainty when interpreting unclear elements of the historical recipes.
Cons
- The sweeping importance implied by the premise receives less comparative historical support than the narrower discussion of 18th-century onion use.
- Several historical claims are summarized without enough sourcing detail to evaluate them closely.
- Tasting sections rely heavily on enthusiastic reactions rather than precise descriptions of flavor and texture.
- The final encouragement to experiment arrives after only two full cooking demonstrations, leaving several intriguing preparations merely described.
A seemingly ordinary ingredient becomes an effective window into 18th-century agriculture, culinary technique and everyday beliefs, with the unusual recipes providing the most memorable evidence of its versatility. The historical case occasionally reaches beyond the depth of evidence presented, but careful handling of uncertainty, engaging demonstrations and genuinely surprising flavor combinations make this a strong piece of practical food history.
