Onion

HISTORY

The ancient Egyptians regarded the spherical onion bulb as a symbol of the universe. The onion symbolized eternity to the Egyptians who for over a thousand years buried onions along with their Pharaohs and used them as funeral offerings. They saw eternal life in its anatomy because of its circle-within-a-circle structure. When King Rameses IV died in 1160BC, he was entombed with onions in his eye sockets.

The Egyptians believed that mixing half an onion with the foam from beer would give them eternal life.

Both large peeled and slender, immature onions were included on the banqueting tables of the ancient Egyptian feasts, but priests were forbidden from eating them.

In 500 BC India, the people employed the onion as an effective medicine as it was found to be good for the heart, eyes and joints, promoted the discharge of urine and aided digestion.

The ancient Greeks used onions to fortify athletes for the Olympic Games. Before competition, athletes ate large quantities of onions, drunk onion juice and rubbed onions on their bodies.

Mixed onions By © User:Colin / Wikimedia Commons,

General Ulysses Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments amongst his Union Civil War soldiers. He wired the following message to the War Department on May 11, 1864: "I will not move my army without onions." In response the U.S. government immediately sent three trainloads of onions to the front.

Onions are the only crop to be completely banned from trading futures. In 1955, two onion traders, Sam Siegel and Vincent Kosuga, cornered the onion futures market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by crashing the price of a 50lb bag of onions to lower than the cost of the bag that carried them. This drove many onion farmers into bankruptcy. Farmers and buyers were so angry that President Eisenhower banned the entire market on August 28, 1958.

FUN ONION FACTS

The onion is named after a Latin word meaning large pearl.

Onions make you cry because they contain a chemical irritant called Syn-propanethial-S-oxide which stimulates a gland in your eye.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

Peeling onions. By Marco Verch - Zwiebeln schälen, Wikipedia

If you put onions in the freezer 15 minutes before cutting them then you will not cry.

Onions shouldn't be stored with potatoes because onions emit ethylene gas that spoils potatoes.

An apple, onion and potato all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged.

Onions have no flavor, only a smell.

Compared to fresh onion, commercial onion powder is around ten times stronger in flavor.

Barbers are not allowed to eat onions between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. in Waterloo, Nebraska.

By law, in Bourbon, Mississippi, one small onion must be served with each glass of water in a restaurant.

Source Food For Thought by Ed Pearce