SC - medieval beverages

[Mark.S Harris]

Brid asked:

>>... about the onions, does anybody know if the
>>"sweet" onions that are available now, would have been available in >>period.
>>There are references to people eating onions raw and whole... were >>they eating
>>the nice mild tastey ones or the hot, tear your eyes up ones?

and Stefan replied

> The sweet onions are a recent hybrid, so no, they are not period. > Can you post more details on these referances? I thought we had > decided earlier on this list, that one of the reasons onions are almost > always parboiled in medieval recipes was to make them less strong.


Hmmm... or it may just be a matter of taste.

Just out of curiosity, would anyone know how recently the "sweet onion" hybrids came into general use?  I have an OOP but factual reference to the eating of whole, raw onions.

My grandfather, born in Wales and passed away in Minnesota in the early 1940s, was known "all his life" to have eaten onions "just like apples, peeled, whole and raw."  This practice continues to the present day via my uncle Jim (age 63) and his son James, both of whom won't sit down to a meal unless there are fresh cut onions on the table.  My father didn't pick up on this habit so much, although he does like raw onions on sandwiches, etc.  

So unless hybrid sweet onions were available to the peasant class in Wales in the late 1800s, which I doubt, then there *is* an argument for the eating of whole raw onions; perhaps not in period, but... 

Just my US$.02...

	- kat

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