Food That Time Forgot: Onion Pie 

Add a touch of 18th century flavor to pretty much any dish www.townsends.us/products/kitchen-pepper

"It's hard to imagine a Dinner was just cheese, liquid and bread" Me: 😅👀

When my parents got married in 1934 in the village mum came from women would still make a steak pie and take it to the bakers in the morning, when the baker had finished with their oven for the day they would put things that had been brought in into the oven to make use of the residual heat it meant that folks who worked in the Mills or mines could come home to a hot meal.

I've noticed that the local geology plays a big factor into how they use onions. Onions are much stronger and pungent if the soil is sulfur rich. Regions that are rich in sulfur treat them as a strong flavoring compound that can be used more like a spice. Sulfur poor areas treat it more like an apple, using it like a sweetener in dishes. As an example, the Vidalia sweet onion can be practically eaten raw like an apple since it is so sweet and mild, but if you grew it anywhere other than the low sulfur basins in Georgia, it would taste like a regular onion.

I've always found that apples, onions, and potatoes go really well together. Think latkes with applesauce.

Bakers also served the job of "renting out" their ovens even in modern times! During the 30s and 40s, many home ovens were very small compared with today's ovens, so larger items wouldn't fit. My grandparents had a bakery in Philadelphia, and for Thanksgiving and Christmas, they baked hundreds of roasters of turkey, ham, and roast beefs for a small fee. People would bring in their roasters already prepared the way they wanted it, which would be tagged and the customer would say when they wanted to pick it up! Grandmom and Grandpop would then roast everything according to the proper schedule.

Onion pie is still made several times a year at our home. It was my grandmother’s favorite so we still make it on holidays and in the summer when we have an over abundance of veggies from the garden.

In Switzerland we just don't close the pie. Our version of onion pie is still a very common dish you can also get at take-aways, in supermarkets and in bakeries. Hot or cold.

I've eaten potato pancakes with shreaded caramelized onion and apple sauce, so it's no surprise all those flavors go together. ❤

This is a surprisingly wholesome dish. Potatoes for carbs, eggs for proteins, apples and onions for micronutrients. Tasty, filling and nutritious - who needs more?

Reminds me of a lot of humble Chinese dishes. Pancake with onion. Noodle soup with onion. Bun with onion. A lot of poor Chinese food was a staple grain seasoned with onion.

The pie really is the hearty big brother to the sandwich, never has the convenience of being able to eat a whole meal in such compact form been matched.

You've found your "flow" excellent presentation!

"It is so good and it shouldn't be" got me 😂

I love this guy's authenticity. Really makes it a great and enjoyable experience to watch.

My grandma used to make Zwiebelkuchen (Onion cake), with the same ingredients, though a little finer, for special occasions. You just brought the idea back. I will try this myself 🙂

I'm spanish, my family and I eat a salad made of exactly that ingredients. Potatoes, apple onion and eggs with some olive oil or mayo and its great!. It reminds me of some german kartoffelsalat.

This reminds me of the potato pot pie recipe that my mon used to make. She would boil diced potatoes and onions in a minimal amount of water, seasoned with salt and pepper. There was a lot of onions. When they were cooked, she would add some evaporated milk. She would top it all with biscuits (cut or drop), and bake it until the biscuits were golden. I can almost taste it :-)

Remind me of certain North African city where they take their food to the local bath house, where they bake it by sticking it in the coals used to warm the baths

You mentionned Québec's earthen oven. In some country roads named for farmers called 'rangs', you sometimes had an communial earthen oven built next to the road since they were far away from their town. Those that are closer to it would heat in up in the morning and they would get paid in bread and pies left next to it by the other farmers that used it that day.

I'm old enough to rememeber taking trays of stuffed vegetables and vegetable pies to the baker. This was Northwestern Italy in the 1970s, at our summer house back at the village. It was fun to help Grandma make the pies or vegetables, then wrapping the trays in kitchen towels, and walking to the baker together.

Here in Bavaria, the Zwiebelkuchen, or Onion Cake is still a very common dish nowadays. We season it with Kümmel

Onion Pie makes a lot of sense. Similar to your prior video on Onion Soup. I imagine this was a valuable addition to the lives of so many people of less means. I love exploring the history of the common folk.

That combination of ingredients is still fairly common in Switzerland (eg Rösti, although the egg is mostly just a binder)

My great-grandmother living in London, England, used to take their roast beef and drop it off at the bakers on their way to church on a sunday morning and pick it up after church, perfectly done. She had no oven at home.

I've made this pie numerous times. It is SOOO GOOD! And it's easy to make, too. I encourage anyone to try it.

Funny, I've been baking this type of Onion Pie all the time during the picking season and when I sell them at our market they fly.

The smile on your face and then saying "that is so good, and it shouldnt be" priceless.

3:36 There were also communal ovens in France in use into at least the 1960s. “Village in the Vaucluse” is a very readable sociological study that describes this.

I was at Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago and tried the onion pie at the Kings Arms.

A word about the title "Primitive Cookery". In those days primitive had a slightly different meaning, more like basic or simplified. Today the same book might well be titled "Cooking for Dummies" lol.

Thanks Ryan for breaking down that recipe from way back when to something we can understand today and come up with something so edible and tasty plus being nutritional to boot. Hope to have this some day, thanks again. Fred.

Ryan's smiling face as he tasted the pie told us everything! Looks absolutely delicious, now I need kitchen pepper! Great video! 🤗💕✨

WOOOOOOOOOOOO Now my baked onion has a dessert!!!

My mom and grandma used to cook some old recipes handed down from their family . We are from Appalachia. Im surprised ive never had this. Sounds pretty good though. We have wild apples here that are not much for eating off the tree but good for baking. They are not sweet like grocery store apples. Might try this with those.

“That’s so good…. And it shouldn’t be.” Makes me almost want to try it! Loving these videos!

The cooking and the back story, plus your courage to make it and eat it, is why I love your show. Keep up the great work!

I love onion pie (from South Germany, I think someone else mentioned it, too). What my sister also used to make was a similar pie, but with potatoes, pears, and cheers. So yummy!

Big fan mr Townsend from 🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩

Onion pie is extremely interesting idea how to bake something out of nothing. I would love to try eating it

I have yet to attempt Stewed Crab. Waiting for a sale on the main ingredient 🙂

YES! I enjoy videos from this guy. I feel like I’m talking to someone in my living room about 18th century cooking. I live in Americas historic triangle so I love this stuff.

when we think of apples i believe we assume they're sweet.. but apples back then could have had a neutral or bitter flavor with little sweetness to it.. good for absorbing flavors more like a potato fruit.

Big man Ryan, TRYING to hold back a smile as he was chewing his first bite of that pie, was amazing!

I don’t often comment on RU-vid but I had to for this. Phenomenal video super chill and personal while still being engaging, educational, and informative. Great job.

Such a good presenter. So confident and positive.

6:24 I could watch this content all day😅 It would just run in the background, talking about buying preparing, cooking and or baking whatever all day long. It transports me from these trying times to when I was very young. We were never allowed in the kitchen but my grandfather was a chef at the Pfister hotel and my grandmother was a baker. Everyone in my family was a fabulous cook or baker but it was always, “You kids go outside and play. If you come in, you stay in!” 😅 We stayed OUT. Also, no one ever measured anything. Since they used their hands as instruments, they knew exactly how much to put in of each ingredient, just based on their hand size. It was always “a pinch of this” and “a pinch of that”. The first pie that I’d ever made had a great crust, but it fell apart at the base. It was hollow, and like looking into one of those magical easter eggs that were made of crystallized sugar and had little flora or fauna sculpted in sugar in them. That was very traditionally German. Both sides of the family were German. So we ate the most iconic of foods at all times. Poor or not. But unlike my effort to bake a huge, sky-high apple pie, it was always foods of substance that filled your belly and comforted you. ❤ Thanks for making us feel at home while taking us into the historic past and helping us through these difficult baking issues. 😂 If you had medieval music and an antler candle chandelier (please not real) above you, we would feel as if we are still in a plague year. Everyone would have been plastered, too. I’m also glad for multiple of other advances in all sorts of things. Sanitation- I would have been more like Florence Nightingale, boiling or bleaching everything in pots in the sun. It was not that many years ago that medicine has gone from being aware of pathogenic microbes to being protected from them. These were such laborious times, so people didn’t have time to lose. Whatever was the fastest, cheapest, most fulfilling staple you could get, and that was likely bread, beer and vegetables and maybe some kind of game if you were lucky. Whole grains would have been consumed at a great rate. They had to harvest something every season. Young children were in the way. Older children worked. That was tradition. 6:15 I do not have memories of seeing them prepare crusts, but I remember how it felt. That was definitely something they’d let us experience. Everyone had all just cut the butter in without a wide pastry cutter. 6:27 That pie looks TASTY! I’m surprised you didn’t pre-bake the crust or wash it! That fat content of your butter must have been super high and caloric. Savory pie. Wow. Looks delicious! 👏Looked beautiful, too! I think you should re-create this pie and add steak, bacon and cheese. 😅

You are a good narrator, it's been a while I struggled to follow any videos, with yours, none the struggle.

Another really intetesting video. I like your presentation, too. Great work.

Just made this recipe and it’s really good! So simple but so satisfying. It smells so amazing too. I like to imagine my ancestors enjoying it. Will make this again for sure! Thank you!

Thanks, I really enjoy your cooking videos and I appreciate the time you put into the research to form the story.

You bring a wonderful interest and enthusiasm to everything you present. This looks like a recipe worth trying (or at least adapting) now that we are finally in fresh garden season here in Alberta. Great way to turn the early stuff into meals, while waiting for root vegetables to grow.

I truely enjoy the Kerr cooking episodes! Well done, young man. Hello from the Tyree.

What i love most in those recipes is the community sense around them, all people taking care of each other

Creamed onion and bacon pie is a favorite in my house.

Ryan, Thanks for the history and cooking lesson and video. It's absolutely amazing.

There is so much information in just the first few minutes. I love this channel and the people!

Reminds me of Lancashire Butter Pies which are still very popular here in Lancashire in the UK. Fully encased Pastry pie filled heavily with potatoes and plenty of onions and a good dollop of butter.

Thank you, Ryan! Excellent content!

What a lovely presentation. :) Thank you for this! God bless you lot!

I love these videos. Can't get enough of them!

this channel is amazing. astonishing work guys, also you're my favorite chef in this channel!

About a decade ago my grandma in Spain would still bring large trays for asado to her sister who was the baker and after a few hours would take it back home. Others did so as well. At the time she still had a wood fired oven so it was amazing.

you look so happy when tasting the pie, I have to try it! thanks!

Your voice and passion for the arte of cookery makes food sound so appealing.

Apples and onions are a great combination. I often make sautéed sliced apples and onions as a side dish. It’s delicious.

Really excellent presentation, sir!!!

Great video! Thanks for sharing this bit of history about the food from days gone by.

Love this channel a lot. You guys are awesome.

Good sir, I just made your recipe, to the letter, except I used a modern oven, ha. It's delicious. The mixture of tastes is remarkable. Oh man, so good! Thankyou!!

I love this! Thank you guys

Thank you for doing these recipe videos.

Great recipe, fantastic job Ryan! 😊

Made an onion "pye" this afternoon and just had a piece... I sure am grateful to live in this time period. And I sure am grateful for Townsends for reminding me, and teaching me about the old days!

What a great tutorial 💙I’ve never made pie crust before and you emboldened me to give it a shot. So today I made Onion Pye following your video. It turned out spectacular. Who would have ever thought that such an odd combination would taste so good, and the pie crust was perfect - light and flaky. I served it with bread and butter pickles. Hubby loved it. Very grateful. Thank you 👍💙

“That’s so good! … but it shouldn’t be!” 🤣😂

These may not go back that far, but my grandmother made potato pie, crust, mashed potatoes and onion. She also made salmon pie from canned salmon. The key was the homemade crust. Lots of butter. Thanks Gram! Love you, RIP

Fantastic....and you even covered my panic on how to make the crust 👍🏼👍🏼

My mother used to make what she called "grilling baked potatoes." Think a washed spud, with an onion sized wedge cut out of the top. Fill that missing wedge with an onion wedge (cut the onion into wedges so you know how big to make the potato cutouts). Stick a clove into the onion. Put a little butter pat into a square of aluminum foil, place the potato on top, onion wedge and clove uppermost. Wrap the foil over the whole contraption. Place over indirect heat on your grill (temp ~350-400 degrees F), and expect it to take an hour or more to cook (depending on potato size). Add the meat you are grilling at the appropriate time. The potatoes are basically baked potatoes with a nice mellow onion flavor, and a hint of clove. And the butter tends to crisp up the skin, you you get a nice crunchy potato skin texture on the outside. I used to love these. Haven't made them in a while, trying to keep my carbs low, and baked potatoes just don't factor into a low carb diet... I do miss them...

Thanks for your video!

I really, really love your presentation style. So pleasant and easy to watch and informative! You gotta be careful not to outshine the progenitor!!

Russian salad has similar combination of ingredients: eggs, onion, apple, and potatoes plus some other stuff(carrots, pickles, mayo, mustard) diced up.

This was one of the first Townsend's recipes I made, must've been 2019, absolutely awesome

I love what you say at the beginning about looking at recipes through 21st century eyes. I bought a copy of Jane Austen's cookbook (technically her friend's cookbook, but they lived together) and most of the recipes seemed very unappetising

Wonderful young man, such a fun video

Love this dude!

Currently have this in the oven as this video inspired me to try it myself. I only changed up the eggs, as i didnt boil them beforehand but scrambled them up together with the spices and also added grated emmentaler cheese, and then just added the mixture in between the layers. Im really excited to try!

Ryan is an integral part of Townsends. His descriptive skills, the tone of his voice, and his overall presence make the content incredibly enjoyable to watch and listen to. He has a unique ability to captivate the audience and spark genuine interest in the topics presented. I sincerely hope that Ryan is well compensated for his significant contributions to the channel. In my opinion, his absence would markedly alter the essence of the channel, and not for the better. Thank you, Ryan, and everyone at Townsends, for producing such captivating videos.

Actually onion pie is still pretty popular in Germany. Not a variety with potatoes or apples though. It's a pie with a yeast leavened base and mostly onions and cream on top (or inside - so it comes as a tart or as a pie)

Love this channel

another amazing video on this amazing channel talking about an amazing story of an amazing food from a not so amazing time.

Time to make this again! I've made it several times since Jon made it years ago. So delicious and easy! Thanks Ryan, for the reminder.

Great video, looks yum🎉

Bouncing in the 18th century! Good stuff as always👍🏻

I made your kitchen pepper and love it! Thanks for the receipt.

When you were chewing - I was literally holding my breath waiting for your reaction 😂 Great video. Convinced me - I will try this!! I wonder if this could be premade and stored in the freezer to take place of the Lasagna?

I got to admit of all the gnarlier things i have seen you guys cook up I'd at least be willing to try this one. It has three of my favorite foods in it so it can't be all bad.

You guys have been making quality videos for over a decade. Lean into the historical stuff as much as you can. While you have the following, spreading this kind of knowledge is a calling that you have worked really hard for. Keep it up.

Great presentation sir.

I love that smile that creeps across your face as you try the pie. It's a smile that says: "Good stuff". 👍👍👍