[Sca-cooks] Ember Day Tart

[Philippa Alderton]

--- Robyn.Hodgkin at affa.gov.au wrote:
 Without
> thinking, we all peel the onions and
> quarter/chop/slice them.
>
> But did they?  The recipe clearly states that the
> onions are parboiled then "hewed small" afterwards.
> It seems reasonably possible they would have
> parboiled the onions whole. So, why quarter them?
>
> It is also a possibility (that we never think of)
> that they may have done so without even peeling the
> onions first. Would it make a difference? Perhaps,
> perhaps not, but certainly onion skins are used to
> make clothing dyes so potentially the onion skin
> could colour the rest of the onion in cooking.

Well, one of the things to check would be if cooking
whole with peel then cutting or chopping, cooking
whole without peel, then chopping, or quartering with
and without peel make any qualitative difference.

I recall that I was originally taught to peel and boil
potatoes whole, then took up quartering and later
slicing them, for mashed potatoes. Even more recently,
I discovered that some folks boil them whole first,
then peel, then mash. Having tried all of these
methods at one point or another, my opinion is that
slicing them first leaves a tad more water in them,
although quartering doesn't, and peeling after boiling
makes no difference whatsoever. My preferred method
now is to slice them first, then boil, and I'll leave
the skins on and mash them when I'm doing them for
myself and the skins are thin because I like mashed
potatoes, but that's far more of a qualitative
difference than all the others.

So try it all ways, and come to your own confusions
;-)

Phlip

=====
Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

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