#899 The smell of frying onions

Get past the tears and sniff it in

According to our egghead pals over at Wikipedia, the onion has a long and glorious past. For instance, get this:

•Ancient Egyptians used to worship onions. That’s right — they believed their spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternal life. They also used to bury their dead with onions, figuring that the strong smell would eventually bring them back to life.

• In Ancient Greece, the athletes used to munch on onions because they thought it would lighten the weight of their blood. Remember: this was before Atkins.

Roman gladiators were rubbed down with onions to firm up their muscles. Probably also helped them slip out of tough bear hugs and sleeper-holds, too.

• Okay, last one: in the Middle Ages, onions were more valuable than a new jousting sword or a decent moat subcontractor. People paid rent with them and gave them as presents. Doctors even prescribed them to move bowels, stifle coughs, lift erections, and kill headaches. Seriously, imagine a big bag of onions wedged between the eye drops and skin cream at the drug store. That’s what it was like back then.

Anyway, given that illustrious past of the almighty onion, I sort of feel like they don’t get enough credit these days. We don’t worship them like we used to, but maybe we should. After all, they’re still cheap, healthy, and easy to store. And they really do have a lot of healthy properties. Plus, and here’s the best part, they smell delicious when they’re frying in a sizzling glob of butter.

Yes, when you walk into a house and smell those onions frying, it’s a beautiful moment. Partly because they smell delicious, partly because it means someone’s cooking dinner, and partly because now you have to solve the mystery of what’s cooking. It could be anything, really: perogies, sausages, curry, maybe a stir fry? The point is that the house smells great and you can’t help but start salivating.

So next time you’re frying up a pan full of onions and sniffing up that delicious aroma, just remember to stop for a second and think about its proud and noble heritage. Because they’ve come a long way to be part of your dinner tonight. And they’re happy to be here.


worship-the-onionPhotos from: here and here


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18 responses to “#899 The smell of frying onions

  1. Whenever I tell someone that what they’re cooking smells AMAZING, they’re sauteeing onions and garlic. Always.

  2. I disagree on that one, onions fryng are awesome, but nothing compared to the smell of a bakery in the morning.

  3. Emmy

    Omg I just realised someone other than myself knows about pierogi! (that’s the correct plural btw). They are one of my favourite foods :D And the smell of frying onions definitely is a good one! Not on my list of favourite smells, but I’ll think of their noble history next time I see one :)

    • wendy

      You know there’s a true blooded Ukranian in the house when….b/c spelling it right is as important as the way it’s pronounced, made and tastes:) VERY important! As are in our traditional vegetarian borscht, vereneki and pedehe recipes. And remember pronunciation always rolls off the tongue better with butter and onions!

  4. wendy

    The lovely little boy looks like my Russian cousin Victor, circa 1966:)

  5. Jason

    Every time I start cooking a meal by frying onions my daughter compliments me on how good dinner is smelling even though it is only the onions cooking so far.

  6. lifestyletea

    Yess!!! spot on. Loved this post.

  7. Max

    Aye, the noble onion. There are just so many foods one can cook with them.

  8. haha thats so funny my sister makes her sautied onions all the time and sometimes i just hav to walk by and take a big long whiff:)

  9. Oh my God, we’re into the 800s. Which means I’ve now left a randomly pointless comment on all 101 of Neil’s redone posts. AWWW YEAAAH.

  10. Pingback: Thirty Six Awesome Things (Part 1) | TravelJonez

  11. Pingback: Perogies « Chef Doru's Blog

  12. Pingback: Perogies | Chef Doru's Blog

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