[Sca-cooks] Onion-riffic

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 16, 2009, at 4:55 PM, Christiane wrote:

> 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.

Check out period and modern recipes for escabeche, which is usually  
some variation on the theme of fried fish, onions fried in the same  
oil, then finally, vinegar and spices boiled with the oil, with the  
hot pickle then poured over the fish and onions in a crock.

See also porrey chapeleyn, which is onions fried and cooked in almond  
milk as a pottage, with a garnish of faux onion rings made of fried  
pasta dough.

I STR Platina speaking of roasted onions served as a warm salad with  
vinegar, oil and herbs.

And, of course, we've got a bunch of medieval stews under the heading  
of "civeys", probably so named for their onion-ey sauces. Sometimes  
they also contain liver and/or blood, and modern versions (still eaten  
in France today) seem to concentrate more on the blood-thickened sauce  
than the onions.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter