Recipes

Onion Pie

Date

Jan. 9, 2022

Learn about this recipe from our Historic Foodways staff, then try it at home.

This recipe is a Historic Foodways favorite. The apples and onions sweeten the potatoes and eggs, and the butter and seasonings tie everything together. This is a pie, which means it has a top crust. A ten-inch pie pan works best.

Learn how we make this recipe in our kitchens based on the 18th-century description below, then use our 21st-century translation to try the recipe at home!

18th Century

Wash and pare some potatoes and cut them in slices, peel some onions, cut them in slices, pare some apples and slice them, make a good crust, cover your dish, lay a quarter of a pound of butter all over, take a quarter of an ounce of mace beat fine, a nutmeg grated...

— Glasse, Hannah, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy” p. 259

21st Century

Ingredients

4 small Yukon Gold potatoes
2 large Granny Smith apples
2 medium yellow onions
8 large eggs
3 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly cracked pepper
½ to 1 grated nutmeg
½ to 1 tsp. mace
4 oz. butter
Frozen puff pastry or homemade pie crust

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Boil and slice the eggs.
Pare and slice the potatoes, apples and onions. Slice everything ¼ inch thick. Place the apples and potatoes in a bowl of water to prevent oxidation.
Roll out the bottom crust and set it into the pie pan.
Mix the salt, pepper, nutmeg and mace to together in a single bowl.
Drain and dry the apples and potatoes with a towel.
Begin the layers from the bottom up with potatoes, then eggs, then apples and then onions. Sprinkle each layer with a little of the seasoning and little bits of butter. Continue filling and seasoning the pie until you are out of ingredients.
Put a top crust on the pie and crimp the edges. Cut 4 or 5 slashes on top crust to allow steam to vent out.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the crust is a nice golden brown.