Cooking Up History: Paper Bag Cookery - Stuffed Onions (1914)
Paper Bag Cooking
Paper Bag Cookery
Browsing through our digitized newspapers, we came across this cooking trend from the 1910s. In 1911, British chef Nicolas Soyer published Soyer’s Paper-Bag Cookery,in which he not only listed a variety of meals to be cooked in a paper bag but also wrote about an occasional burning or exploding paper bag. Despite the obvious dangers, paper bag cooking became popular in Wisconsin as well. On May 6, 1912, the Watertown Gas & Electric Company hosted a demonstration of paper bag cooking at their offices and attracted many curious home chefs (Watertown Weekly Leader) and a number of local newspapers printed recipes for this new culinary method. As with most trends, there was also mockery.
The Northern Wisconsin Advertiser wrote “Paper bag cookery and fireless cookers should be locked in a room together. They are both delusions” and the Washburn Times joked that “without having tried it we shouldn’t think a paper bag would taste good, no matter how it may be cooked.”
According to the Vernon County Censor (1917), paper bag cookery was merely a fad that disappeared just as fast as it had started: “We bought recipe books and no end of bags. We liked the fad for a while and then we forgot.”
With all this talk about cooking in a paper bag, we decided we had to try it and we chose one of the many recipes.
Stuffed Onions
Stuffed Onions
Originally, we found the recipe in a 1912 issue of the Manitowoc Pilot, but from experience with other obscure recipes, we knew that it could help to have a second recipe on hand to cross-reference. Recipe two was printed in the Wausau Pilot (1914).
Ingredients
- Medium-sized onions
- Stuffing
- Chopped ham, nuts, sausage, or ground meat and spices
- Butter
- Salt
- Pepper
Manitowoc Pilot 1912
Having this much room for interpretation, we were forced to make some executive decisions and gathered yellow onions, butter, salt, pepper, as well as ground beef and pork. After researching spices commonly used with meat in other recipes printed in the newspapers of the 1910s, we also bought parsley and dug some paprika out of the spice cabinet. We were also intrigued by the possibility of adding nuts to the stuffing and decided to give it a try – we also still had some pecans leftover from our Apple de Luxe recipe so what’s the harm?
First, we peeled the onions and parboiled them for 15 minutes, which turns the water a beautiful bright yellow. After letting them cool down in a bowl of cold water, we started coring the vegetable. You can use an
Wausau Pilot 1914
apple corer, but a knife also works perfectly fine. Either way, after the first cuts with a tool, using your fingers to pull out the inner layers of the onion is the easiest and fastest way to get the job done. Warning: They may not smell the most pleasant now, but it’s worth it.
We chopped up half of the onion insides, added them to the pork and beef, mixed in chopped pecans and parsley, and seasoned with paprika, salt, and pepper. Finally, we stuffed the onions with the mixture and turned to the trickiest part of the recipe: the paper bag.
Using an original – now rather musky – paper bag from the 1910s didn’t seem like the healthiest choice, nor were we sure about baking the glues, dye, and other additives in modern paper bags. After consulting the basics of paper bag cookery in the Northern Wisconsin Advertiser and reading that “the bag should be made of materials that guarantee its purity” we decided to make our own bag using parchment paper already made for baking (not to be confused with the asbestos baking paper readily available in the early 20th century. Who knew?). Because our baking parchment was already treated to prevent the food from sticking to it, we determined that we could skip buttering and continuously basting the bag as suggested in the recipes. Now we only had to figure out how to create a bag out of the parchment without using adhesives. Luckily, the newspaper also mentioned that “wire paper-clips, obtainable of any stationer” can be used to ensure “a hermetical closing.” Office supplies to the rescue!
We used a large sheet of baking parchment, placed the stuffed onions on one half, topped them with butter, folded over the other half and double folded two edges of the bag, securing them with paper clips. Before closing the third edge, we added a little water and then transferred the “bag” into a hot oven. We baked them at 420° F, but please consult your parchment paper box for the paper’s maximum temperature and try not to set fire to your oven.
After 45 minutes, we took out the bag and cut it open. We breathed a sigh of relief when we noticed that not only the paper bag had, in fact, not caught fire, but also the steam rushing out of the bag smelled much better than the parboiled onions in the beginning.
Things we noticed:
Even though it was boiled and steamed, the onion still had a crunch to it. (That’s a good thing!)
We are not used to onions being the vegetable component of a meal anymore. If you are not a fan of that much onion, pull more layers out and just add more stuffing.
The recipe can use a more modern approach to seasoning. Don’t be shy, add a little more.
We had to twist some arms but all Society staff members who dared to try a stuffed onion actually liked it.
The Recipe in 2020
Stuffed Onions
- 6 medium-sized yellow onions
- 2tbsp. butter
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parchment paper
- Paper clips
- Stuffing
- 1/2 pound of ground pork
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/4 cup pecans
- 1 1/2 tbsp. chopped parsley
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
Peel the onions and parboil them for 15 minutes. Let them cool in cold water and remove the centers (about half of the onion).
Chop half of the removed onion centers and add to a bowl with ground pork and beef, chopped pecans, chopped parsley, paprika, salt, and pepper. Mix well and stuff the onions. Place stuffed onions on half of a large sheet of baking parchment, top them with butter, and fold over the other half of the parchment to create a bag. Double-fold two edges and fasten with paper clips. Add ¼ cup of water and fold and fasten the third edge to seal the pouch.
Bake at 420° F (or, if lower, at the maximum temperature for your parchment) for 45 minutes. Make sure that the paper is not touching the heat elements of your oven and check on your paper frequently to avoid disaster.
Carefully remove the bag from the oven, cut open, and enjoy the aroma. Serve onion drizzled with the sauce left at the bottom of the bag, season to taste with salt and pepper.