[Sca-cooks] Onion-riffic

Christiane christianetrue at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 16 13:55:44 PDT 2009


In doing more historical research about Sicily (yeah, I know, my obsession knows few bounds), I was thinking about the role of onions in the cuisine. The quote from ibn al-Hawqal, where he calls Palermitani "dimwitted" because of all the onions they ate, led me to a citation of ibn al-Awwal's book about agriculture, in which he supposedly describes the specific methods of onion farming around Palermo (need to read the translation in another book). Apparently their onions were pretty famous. Then there's the recipe in the Anonymous Andalusian, called "A Sicilian Dish," which calls for one rat'l of meat to three rat'l of onions. If a rat'l is a pound, that's three pounds of onions in this recipe to one of meat. This dish might as well be called, "onions flavored with meat"!

Poking around, I found a modern-day recipe, pisci ca cipuddata, "fish soused with onions." Cipudda is Sicilian for onion. Fried fish layered in onions cooked with vinegar and sugar, and mint or bay, kept in crocks and served at room temperature. Not coriander, saffron, and celery leaves as called for in the 13th century al-Baghdadi recipe, but mint and bay grow wild on the island and for the poor, a lot easier to obtain. And the al-Baghdadi recipe doesn't call for all those onions. Those crazy onion-loving Palermitani! I guess when you're so successful in growing them, you have to find ways to use them up. I know of the medieval Muslim view of garlic and onions being an aphrodisiac, so no wonder why ibn Hawqal was so scandalized by the rampant onion-eating of the Sicilians.

Were there other medieval dishes that put such an emphasis on the onion over the other ingredients? The plethora of onions in "A Sicilian Dish" makes me wonder; I know there are many recipes that use onions in a sauce, but it's not the focus of the ingredients. And I am not sure about the origin of "cipolline," onions pickled in vinegar and sugar or honey, popular as an appetizer today. 

(Incidentally, hurray the Internet; it threw up at me today Charles Perry's redaction of Spanish sikbaj from 1992, the lamb version: http://articles.latimes.com/1992-07-16/food/fo-3391_1_spanish-cooking?pg=2 The article also has his lamb meatballs, chicken liver mousse, and other things. Tasty!)

Adelisa di Salerno








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