Right now, chefs around the world are standing in their kitchens slicing and dicing onions and weeping collectively. Those tears are the price they pay for that heartwarming stew, heady stir-fry, savory custard tart, earthy bread or mouth-watering salsa that will soon grace their tables.
All thanks to the humble onion.
Onions are the second most produced vegetable in the world, surpassed only by tomatoes, which are botanically a fruit. Julia Child famously said that she found it “hard to imagine civilization without onions.” Her friend and fellow TV cooking pioneer James Beard, who often professed his enthusiasm for onion sandwiches, considered the ubiquitous vegetable “a thing of beauty in itself, and certainly a gastronomic delight that should never be taken for granted.”
In his new book ‘The core of an onion’ Mark Kurlansky presents a lively collection of fun facts and lore to help us better appreciate the significance of this plebeian pantry staple in our kitchens and throughout world history.
Kurlansky also offers insight into how cooking with onions has evolved over the centuries with recipes from ancient texts, including the 18e century onion soup favorite of King George II and the lemon tart made with pureed cooked onions that won first place in the cooking competition at the 1987 Vidalia Onion Festival.
Kurlansky is known for choosing a seemingly mundane, singular subject – often, but not always, edible – to unravel a global story. His 1997 book, “Cod: A Biography of a Fish That Changed the World,” became an international bestseller that has been translated into 15 languages. “Milk!” “Paper: Paging Through History” and “Salt” are among his other titles.
I called Kurlansky at his home in New York City to learn more about removing those layers.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
CNN: What prompted you to embark on this onion odyssey?
Mark Kurlansky: I thought onions were underrated. They’re always there, and everyone uses them. You know, there’s a difference between something that is ordinary and something ordinary. Onions are common, but actually something extraordinary. They are very unusual – both organic and gastronomic. And because of these unusual properties, they are used almost everywhere in the world. One of their unusual properties is that they can grow anywhere: in tropical, arid and even arctic climates.
CNN: Do people really eat onions whole?
Kurlansky: In certain places in the world it is common to eat onions whole, and not even sweet onions. Especially in parts of Central Europe. I remember traveling by train through what was then Yugoslavia, and people were just sitting around munching onions.
CNN: That’s kind of hard to imagine.
Kurlansky: Certain people have done it and they are always looked down upon. It is often considered low class. It even appears in ‘Don Quixote’, where (the mad knight in the 17th century novel) tells Sancho Panza (the illiterate farm laborer who becomes his squire) that he looks very low when he eats onions.
The English in the Middle Ages and even later talked about what backward people the Scots were. I went to Scotland and you can’t believe these people; they just sit around chewing onions. And when the Arabs controlled Sicily, they claimed that the people of Palermo were very stupid and backward because they ate raw onions. Onion on bread was a food for the poor people in London, and in many places actually. Portugal too.
CNN: You also developed a taste for this combination early in life?
Kurlansky: Onion rye – yes! Supposedly I took a loaf of onion rye, hid under the bed and ate it. I remember loving the onion rye. I don’t remember the “under the bed” part. It could be true.
CNN: I don’t consider onions to be something that children like.
Kurlansky: I did! I may have been a strange child. When I was a kid, vichyssoise soup was one of my favorite things. I love vichyssoise! This cold creamy (potato-leek) soup with small green stripes of chives on it.
CNN: Do you come from a cooking family?
Kurlansky: My mother was always in the kitchen cooking something. We were a family of six and she cooked every night. She did a ton of baking. We had cakes and pies in the house all the time. And her mother also cooked a lot. They came from Lithuania and my grandmother moved to the Lower East Side of New York as a child, so she actually grew up on the Lower East Side. She always cooked Jewish food. And made a lot of strudel.
CNN: How and when did you come into contact with Basque culture?
Kurlansky: In the 1970s, when Franco was still in power in Spain, and Spain was like a 1930s fascist state giving out fascist greetings, all that. And no one wrote about it anymore. So I went to all these American newspapers and…. said I want to go to Spain and write about the resistance against the last fascist government. And everyone said great! No one did anything to resist, except the Basques. I’ve been there and it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s a fascinating culture, so I became completely engrossed in it. Really great salt cod dishes – better than anywhere else.
CNN: Onions are part of almost every cuisine. Are there any differences you’ve observed about onions in the different places you’ve lived?
Kurlansky: There are differences, and there are things that are true everywhere. Everyone who makes a stew starts with onions. There is something Andalusian that making a stew without onions is “like trying to sing a song without a tambourine.” And then there are curious local things everywhere. The extensive Hungarian stuffed onions. And the Basques use onions instead of rice as a filler to make blood sausages. Blood and onions are Basque, but also Catalan. And something Hungarian, and it’s also in some French dishes. It’s something that keeps popping up.
CNN: Your recipes are fascinating to read, but not exactly designed for the modern kitchen. Have you made one?
Kurlansky: I’m just saying this is an interesting recipe. I can’t guarantee this will be a great dish. There is a Peruvian version called encebollada, which is one of my favorite onion dishes (and literally means ‘onion’). And if you look at the recipe, you’ll notice that it’s almost the exact recipe for ceviche, but with onions instead of fish. It looked like poor people’s ceviche.
CNN: I could see how the texture of the marinated onions could look fishy.
Kurlansky: I like to make a bunch of it and keep it in the fridge and put a spoonful on different dishes. It brightens the plate and is a great seasoning. Onions and lime are two of the strongest flavors, so you put them together and let them fight it out. But it is beautiful how the red pigment from the red onions is released by the acid from the limes and gives the whole thing this bright fuchsia color. It brightens everything up, both visually and taste-wise.
With encebollada there is a lot of controversy about whether you should sprinkle coriander over it or not. And of course, cilantro just tops it off like ceviche, right? But a bit of bright green on top of the bright fuchsia is actually just perfect.
CNN: Do you have a favorite onion?
Kurlansky: For raw onions, I like red. For cooking… I get every kind of sweet onion available. For certain things you need stronger onions. And for certain cuisines. Onions in India are quite strong because it is a warm climate. So if you want to make Indian food that tastes pretty much like it tastes in India, you need to come up with strong onions.
CNN: Let’s talk about crying while cutting onions. Some methods to prevent this are quite creative, such as lighting a match or biting the handle of a wooden spoon.
Kurlansky: Most don’t work. The simplest solution, which is almost never suggested, is to simply wear glasses. It’s not 100%, but it helps. And you can get onion glasses.
CNN: You should also cover your nose.
Kurlansky: You do! The nose leads to the eyes. That’s why wearing glasses doesn’t quite work. Another thing that has some science involved is chopping onions under running water. It doesn’t quite work, but the reason it helps somewhat is because what happens when you cut an onion is the onion fights back by releasing this sulfuric acid, which is drawn into the water. When the water hits your eyes, it turns into sulfuric acid, which is why it stings. But if you have another water source, it will divert some of that gas.
Susan Puckett is the former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and author of “Eat Drink Delta: A Hungry Traveler’s Journey Through the Soul of the South.”
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