
Who the Hell Uses Onion Juice? - peterwwillis
http://markbittman.com/who-the-hell-uses-onion-juice/
======
beat
I caught the pungent odor of John Thorne's writing right away. If you dig
this, he has published several books that are basically collected essays,
digging into some ingredient or recipe this way (I have read Simple Cooking,
Outlaw Cook, and Pot on the Fire).

One nice thing about his books is he has these sort of dreamlike fantasies
about what a food is _supposed_ to taste like, and pursues recipes based on
this imagination. That means that, unlike a lot of cookbooks, just about every
John Thorne recipe is amazing (his pecan pie is the best I've ever tried,
because he directly tackled the problem of cloying sweetness and gummy
texture).

Highly recommended if you care about food.

~~~
ghaff
>what a food is supposed to taste like, and pursues recipes based on this
imagination.

They're much more utilitarian about it but this is basically the Cooks
Illustrated/ATK approach as well. My main complaint is that it can lead to
really fussy recipes though I think they've toned that down a bit in recent
years.

~~~
ska
I find this complaint very surprising - in my experience CI generates
simplified, sometimes oversimplified, recipes for most things. They are geared
towards easily accessible ingredients and minimal techniques, after all.

~~~
ghaff
I agree the techniques are fairly simple and they tend to keep ingredients
straightforward. When I say they tend to be fussy, there often seems a fair
bit of cooking things different ways, using a fair number of bowls etc. It's
not a big deal and I actually tend to like them as a rather mainstream if not
especially exciting source of recipes.

But, as I say, I think they've also focused a bit more on prep time of late.

------
michaelbuckbee
What I find most interesting about this is just what a difference there is
between cooking at that time and today in terms of what is 'plain', 'spicy',
'savory', etc.

I had a conversation with my dad (currently in his late 60s) about what eating
was like growing up and he said: "Well, we didn't have any spicy food." and I
asked: "Like what? Mexican? Schezuwan? Thai?" and his answer was: "Any food
with garlic".

~~~
jackhack
Ha! Great story. And to think I was disappointed the other night because I
couldn't find the exact type of hot pepper I was after and had to settle for
habaneros. We are living in a golden age of food. Yet wars were fought over
access to black pepper.

It's difficult to believe, but just 100 years ago a food as commonplace as
spaghetti with tomato sauce was considered somewhat exotic; at the least
predominately an ethnic Italian dish.

Even 50 years ago, chicken was considered an 'occasional' meat. Cornell
university is famous for a basting sauce, as a result of an effort to
encourage more domestic consumption of chicken.

I wonder if Pad Thai, bulgogi, or stretchy Turkish ice-cream will be
considered everyday foods in another 50 years.

~~~
pikchurn
> I wonder if Pad Thai, bulgogi, or stretchy Turkish ice-cream will be
> considered everyday foods in another 50 years.

I'll have to try stretchy Turkish ice-cream sometime (where do you find that?)
but Pad Thai and bulgogi are already everyday foods you can find on every
corner of every strip mall in the part of America where I live.

~~~
rolleiflex
By the way, since ‘Stretchy Turkish Ice Cream’ is a handful, it is called
‘Dondurma’. It is a form of gelato, but stretchier, and with a different
flavour set. The city of Maraş is famous for it.

~~~
therein
Important to note that native speakers would refer to the stretchy ice cream
as "dovme dondurma", which roughly translates to "beaten ice cream".

The distinction seems to be: > Two qualities distinguish Turkish ice cream:
hard texture and resistance to melting, brought about by inclusion of the
thickening agents salep, a flour made from the root of the early purple
orchid, and mastic, a resin that imparts chewiness.[citation needed]

> The Kahramanmaraş region is known for maraş dondurması, a variety which
> contains distinctly more salep than usual. Tough and sticky, it is sometimes
> eaten with a knife and fork.[citation needed]

~~~
digi_owl
Could have sworn that HN had an article a while back about Japanese icecream
that had similar additives, for the purpose to slow the melting.

------
ctdonath
_in those days lots of kitchen shelves were not a necessity: a grocery order
was a phone call away, and the milkman and the Cushman’s Bakery man came to
the back door._

For all our enthralled praising of ordering online, remember it's been
available in some form for a long time. Massive Sears catalogs (complete
houses included), daily milk deliveries, grocery deliveries, etc ... today we
just have more to choose from, and can use magic glass slates to do it.

~~~
kazinator
In those days, it wasn't so global. I got bike parts a few months ago from
Chain Reaction; that's in Ireland. I'm on the West Coast of Canada.

------
bryanlarsen
It's a great narrative and you should read it, but if you don't want to the
TLDR is that it's just what it sounds like, and was generally used wherever
you'd use minced garlic today.

~~~
greglindahl
I also found it interesting that the stuff you buy in a bottle is much tamer
than making it from scratch.

~~~
exhilaration
My aunt from Pakistan shook her head when she saw jars of minced garlic and
minced onion in our pantry. She said making those ingredients from scratch
dramatically improves the flavor of Indian food.

~~~
rsynnott
I never understand those. How hard is it to cut up or mince your own garlic?

~~~
toomanybeersies
When I used to live in a house with 6 other people, we went through astounding
quantities of minced garlic.

Peeling enough garlic for a 7 person dinner is actually quite time consuming.

~~~
astura
>Peeling enough garlic for a 7 person dinner is actually quite time consuming.

If it takes you more than 10 seconds you're doing it wrong

[https://youtu.be/0d3oc24fD-c](https://youtu.be/0d3oc24fD-c)

~~~
tallanvor
That requires you to have two bowls of the same size, and that's two more
dishes that have to be washed.

~~~
astura
Obviously you don't have to use bowls, an old pickle/sauce jar works too. You
don't really have to wash it either, just put a drop of soap in it, bit of
water, shake for 2 seconds, and rinse.

So including cleanup you're talking 20 seconds

------
isaaclyman
This reminded me, I keep wondering why the tamarind fruit has been left out of
Western cuisine. You find trace amounts in Worcestershire sauce and the
occasional Indian dish and you can get tamarind juice/candy at some Mexican
places if you know what to look for, but by and large it's unheard of and
unobtainable. Pity, too, it's got such a nice texture and flavor when prepared
correctly.

I know tamarind trees aren't native to the Western hemisphere, but that hasn't
ever stopped us before.

~~~
mark-r
I had a recipe for Pad Thai that called for Tamarind paste, and I couldn't
even find it at at an Oriental grocery.

~~~
colordrops
What part of the country are you from? I'm guessing not a big city based on
the term "Oriental". No offense taken :) It can be found in many of the Asian
markets in Los Angeles.

~~~
gtr
Most likely the UK. Here Asian means Indian subcontinent, and Oriental is East
Asian, and supermarket will typically have Oriental in its name somewhere.

~~~
mark-r
Nope, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Maybe it's an age thing.

~~~
mark-r
No, it's not me. I drive past two groceries on my commute, one called
"Groceries of the Orient" and the other "Asian Direct Oriental Market".

------
PunchTornado
Onion juice gives chills through my body. When i was a kid and a bit ill, my
mother made me onion juice as medicine. The worst thing i ever drank or ate.
Me and my siblings usually tried to hide our cold just because of onion juice.
Judt boiled onions and you were supposed to drink it because my mom read it in
some magazine where it said it is good for curing a cold.

~~~
schlowmo
You poor one. My mother also gave me "onion juice" when I got a cold, but
there was one big difference: The onions were cooked with tons of rocked
candy. I have to admit that it was my favorite medicine.

Maybe you should try that recipe to cure your onion juice trauma ;)

~~~
kxs
I used to get a lot of sinus infections, to remedy this, I drank for an
extended period of my life cooled "onion juice" (onion + water + honey, cooked
for ~1h). My whole family was disgusted by it, but I somehow enjoyed it.

------
gkya
There is the "çi börek" from Eskisehir in Turkey, a fried pastry with minced
meat inside, where they use actual onion juice (juicing the onion like you
would juice an apple, basically) to season (and also partially cook) the meat.

~~~
makeset
Crimean Tatar national dish, through the diaspora in Turkey:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebureki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chebureki)

~~~
gkya
"National dish" is one of the silliest things nationalism has to offer. Food
does not have nationality.

~~~
kbart
It doesn't in current, cosmopolitan world, but for centuries different
cultures had original dishes not seen elsewhere. We still call such dishes
that originated during these times "national". What's wrong with that? It has
nothing to do with political ideologies. In English "national" might sound a
bit strange and I see "traditional" used more often, but in many other
languages it's literary called "national dish".

------
fuball63
"As with garlic, halfway measures can be worse than none at all."

I like this sentiment a lot.

------
kulu2002
Other uses of Onion Juice apart from cooking; 1\. Onion Juice + Honey =
Instant cough relief 2\. Applying Onion juice on bald head helps regrowing
hair. It is every effective.

[1] [https://www.livestrong.com/article/287051-how-to-use-
onion-a...](https://www.livestrong.com/article/287051-how-to-use-onion-as-a-
home-remedy-for-a-cough/)

[2] [https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-had-any-success-using-
onion...](https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-had-any-success-using-onion-juice-
to-regrow-their-hair)

~~~
mmjaa
Another _great_ use is for ear infections. During summer months after a lake
session or two, if one of our kids gets a sore ear we make a compress of onion
bits (usually quite juiced up) and place it over the affected ear. Quite often
- within minutes many times - this just solves the ear-ache and the kids go
back to the lake.

------
Jedd
I'm surprised that pickled onions didn't get a mention.

A standard pickled recipe looks a lot like the onion juice ingredients:
onions, vinegar, salt - but commonly includes some sugar (I suspect this is
historically a recent addition, given the age of this preserving method and
the scarcity of sugar more than a century ago).

Pickled onions (and eggs, herrings, etc) are commonly seen in British pubs -
scooped out and sold by the unit as a salty comestible in the age old
tradition of making your customers thirstier.

------
farseer
It's an age old remedy for an upset stomach caused by salmonella due to it's
anti bacterial properties. If you have the courage to drink it of course.

------
cestith
I sometimes use onion juice in stews, soups, hot sauces, barbecue sauces, and
other stirred items. It's a good addition to the pan for certain sautés as
well. I get mine by putting an onion through my electric fruit and vegetable
juicer.

A little does go a long way. Be careful about leftovers, as it can taste
stronger the second day when chilled in the refrigerator overnight in a mixed
broth.

~~~
neaden
How similar is it to the flavor of grated onions?

~~~
cestith
When it's fresh the flavor is pretty close but of course the texture is
different. I'd imagine pre-boiled with salt and vinegar it'd be stable longer.
It tastes fresher and more potent to me than onion powder or dried minced
onion which is more what I'd replace with it.

~~~
CobrastanJorji
I put onions in soups and stews all the time, but I just begin by sauteeing
the onion. How does using the juice instead change the flavor?

~~~
cestith
A sautéed onion is going to be more mellow than a raw one. The juice will be
more intense per weight and volume than the minced or diced raw root. It's
really a matter of a few drops for a pot of soup. In my chili I often use both
yellow and white fresh onions with the meat, plus onion powder as part of my
homemade chili powder, plus a few drops of onion juice in the sauce to simmer
down before combining the meat and sauce.

If you're really curious, there's no description I can give that would match
trying it. Just don't go crazy and add the juice of a couple whole onions to a
vegetable broth. Drops really will do the trick.

------
GordonS
If this is literally the juice from squeezed onions, then _I_ use it. It acts
as a great meat tenderiser and also adds a nice flavour - works great with
lamb! I believe this is fairly common in Iran.

------
netaustin
I had a similar “wtf” sensation when I encountered onion juice in a Michael
Solomonov (Zahav, Philadelphia) recipe I recently made
([http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/middle-eastern-lamb-
skewe...](http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/middle-eastern-lamb-skewers)). It
called for a whole pureed onion in the marinade, and the very idea stunned and
inspired me. The lamb was great; the funk cooked out but the harmony stayed.
It got me thinking the same thing this post does: where else is there onion
juice, figuratively speaking? Worthy, but driven out by a manipulation of
culture?

------
andrew_wc_brown
I hate this kind of writing, where I'm slogging through story to get to the
utility of Onion Juice.

~~~
srirachahot
Not everything has to be utilitarian; some things can just be beautiful.

------
t0mbstone
Wouldn't onion juice essentially just yield the same flavor result as onion
powder + water?

~~~
itomato
It would taste like reconstituted onion powder.

I'm not a food scientist, but one could say something like:

Intact alliums have no pungency, since the volatile products are only released
following the interaction of the enzyme, alliinase, with the
S-alk(en)ylcysteine sulfoxide (alliin, I) which occurs when tissue is damaged
or disrupted (Figure 1). The initial products of this enzymic hydrolysis are
ammonia, pyruvate, and an alk(en)ylthiosulphinate (allicin, II). The latter,
which possesses odor characteristics typical of the freshly cut tissue, can
undergo further nonenzymic reactions to yield a variety of compounds,
including thiosulfinate [III] and di- and trisulfides [IV]. These compounds
have slightly differing flavors and odors, and may impart a cooked note to
steam-distilled onion or leek oils.

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B012227055...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B012227055X008622)

------
jpm_sd
If you're interested in old-fashioned cooking and/or nautical history, this is
a fascinating read: [https://www.amazon.com/Lobscouse-Spotted-Dog-Gastronomic-
Com...](https://www.amazon.com/Lobscouse-Spotted-Dog-Gastronomic-
Companion/dp/0393320944/)

------
sideshowb
Who uses onion juice? Mr Scruff, in his merch

[https://ninjatune.net/images/releases/drinks-to-try-in-
this-...](https://ninjatune.net/images/releases/drinks-to-try-in-this-mug-
fabric-softener-main.jpg)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Scruff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Scruff)

------
feintruled
Wondering why this has come up - is it due to the recent fad among MRAs to
drink onion juice to supposedly boost their testosterone and make them more
manly?

[https://www.indy100.com/article/4chan-onions-pol-
testosteron...](https://www.indy100.com/article/4chan-onions-pol-testosterone-
juice-drinking-soy-boys-right-wing-politics-will-sommer-8066821)

~~~
tux1968
That article doesn't have a single reference to MRAs and speculates about it
being a 4chan troll to begin with.

------
mkbkn
Don't know if you know it, but using onion juice can help immensely in growing
hair, beard hair etc. It is a very effective remedy.

------
joezydeco
This reminds me of the old Paul Lukas magazine Beer Frame - The Journal of
Inconspicuous Consumption. Some of his writing made it to the web and on
Core77.com.

[http://www.core77.com/inconspicuous/](http://www.core77.com/inconspicuous/)

------
frgtpsswrdlame
This is a beautiful little story.

------
tomcam
Now if he can only find a justification for Clamato juice

~~~
always_good
Did you mean clam juice? Micheladas validate Clamato, though I'm not sure clam
juice is actually necessary in Clamato since Clamato tastes more like a
different take on V8 than something with clam in it.

------
qwerty456127
Some people use onion juice mixed with some oil as nasal drops to treat
running nose infections (dunno if it works actually).

------
perseusprime11
I heard Onion Juice is also good for your hair.

~~~
wsc981
I wonder if it will be a hit with the ladies.

~~~
deusum
Yes, but difficult to get a date.

------
ianai
I use both garlic and onion juice in my hash browns.

------
lifeisstillgood
Wonderful read - thank you

------
094459
Phew! for a moment, I thought this was some obscure new js framework :)

~~~
bduerst
I was expecting a new TOR client

------
elstere
I remember my mum giving me onion juice to drink as a remedy for sore throat
when I was a kid...I think the sheer thought of having to have the treatment
repeated cured my throat :)

~~~
Double_a_92
Mix it with honey for your kids...

