SC - Another Novice Recipe Challenge

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stephen Bloch wrote:
> 
> Katerine writes:
> 
> > >"Benes yfryed. Take benes and see6 hem almost til 6ey bersten. Take and
> > >wryng out 6e water clene. Do 6erto oynouns ysode and ymynced, and garlec
> > >6erwith; frye hem in oile o6er in grece, & do 6erto powder douce, &
> > >serue it forth."
> > ...
> > Onions are always boiled
> > before using (at least parboiled) in medieval recipes, though why I
> > couldn't tell you.
> > ...
> > Take two onions.  Mince and boil, then strain out and add to beans.
> 
> I too have seen a lot of medieval recipes that say "onions parboiled and
> minced".  I notice that Katerine has chosen to reverse the order of the
> verbs in her redaction, perhaps because parboiled whole onions are REALLY
> HARD TO CHOP!  The outermost layer gets really slippery and a bit slimy.
> Yet the recipes CONSISTENTLY say "ysode and ymynced" or the equivalent,
> always in that order as far as I've noticed.  Any ideas?

1. Don't peel them before boiling them. When you finally do peel them,
make sure you go 	
		past any slippery membranes to the actual flesh.

2. Let them cool off completely before peeling and chopping them.

3. Use a good, sharp knife.

I suspect that the whole idea of parboiling onions is based on either
the breath aspect ;  ), some medical aspect (possibly there are an
excess of melancholic humours, or some such), or it may just be that the
variety of onions used might have been closer to some fibrous wild
variety, and a good parboiling might have been needed to make sure they
were soft.

Adamantius 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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