The 19th-Century Origins Of Onion Rings

Voltaire once said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him," and the same could be said for onion rings. While there's certainly nothing wrong with any form of fried potato, like french fries or tater tots, as a side dish, there are times when an alternative is needed. Something just as savory but with a little more bite and a little more crunch. 

By taking thick, meaty halos of onion and battering them before dipping them in the fryer, whoever invented the onion ring did the culinary world a great service. (Could you imagine Burger King without the possibility of an onion ring finding its way into your bag of fries? One of life's little blessings, we tell you.)

But who did invent the onion ring, and when did they do it? As is often the case with the origins of food, the answer isn't entirely straightforward; in fact, it may be the case that more than one origin story is true.

Which do you think is older: onion rings or Abraham Lincoln? You'd assume it would be Lincoln, right? It's difficult to imagine a world where those two things coexisted, a world where, as Honest Abe prepared his Gettysburg Address, other people could plausibly chow down on the same side you'd get in your Jack in the Box order. It's strange, but it's true: Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, while the first recipe for onion rings appeared in 1802.

In his cookbook, "The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined," John Mollard wrote a recipe for fried onions. Sliced into half-inch circles (or "rings" — if you will), the onion would be dredged in a batter made of salt, pepper, flour, and Parmesan cheese before being cooked in hot lard. Mollard suggested a sauce made of mustard and melted butter, a combination that honestly sounds like it would go pretty hard even today. There's no evidence that the recipe was wildly popular or anything, but the fact remains that it was the first appearance of what we now know as onion rings.

Another claimant to the onion ring throne is the Pig Stand. Once a popular chain of diners in Texas, the Pig Stand is now defunct, with its last remaining location in San Antonio closing in 2023. But it claims to have invented no fewer than three different popular dishes: Texas toast, chicken fried steak sandwiches, and onion rings. The Pig Stand credits the creation of onion rings to a canny line cook in the 1920s who thought to batter and fry an onion — to more-or-less instant success.

It's true that the cook at the Pig Stand was hardly the first person to think of frying onion slices: even aside from Mollard's first recipe, American recipes for onion rings started to pop up in the early 20th century. But the world was a much smaller place back then, and information spread at a much slower pace. It's entirely possible, perhaps even likely, that the Pig Stand came up with onion rings independently, more than a century after an Englishman put it on the page.