Are you a fan of onion rings? Then this day is for you, as 22 June is National Onion Rings Day. This side-dish generally consists of sliced onion dipped in batter or bread crumbs and deep fried, but a variant is made with onion paste. Onion rings are sometimes accompanied by tomato sauce, mayonnaise or other sauces. Here are some fun facts about onion rings:
The origins of the onion ring are unknown, but in 1933 a recipe for deep-fried onion rings dipped in milk then dredged in flour and fried appeared in an advertisement in The New York Times Magazine.
Although a recipe for French Fried Onions appeared in New York’s Daily Times on 13 January 1910, the paper does not claim to be the originator of the recipe.
One claimant to the invention of the onion ring is the Kirby’s Pig Stand restaurant chain, founded in Texas in the early 1920s. The once-thriving chain, whose heyday in the 1940s saw restaurants in over 100 locations across the United States, also claims to be the originator of Texas toast.
The restaurant A&W is credited with popularising onion rings in fast food restaurants, introducing them to its menu in the 1960s.
John Mollard’s 1802 cookbook The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined (page 152) includes a recipe called Fried Onions with Parmezan Cheese. The recipe suggests cutting onions into 10mm thick rings, dipping them into a batter made of flour, cream, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese, and then deep frying them in boiling lard (which is nothing other than pork fat!). It further suggests serving them with a sauce made of melted butter and mustard.
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