"onions and garlic"

[Amy West]

At the risk of being too literal, how are onions and garlic thought
of/treated in colonial cooking? Onions as desirable because they can
be carmelized and can add some sweetness to a dish? Garlic less so
because it adds sharp aroma/flavor? Is it another version of "carrot
and stick" possibly? Or are both undesirable because they're both
stinky?

---Amy West

>  >>"the representatives, though they send to the king for ships and men,
>>>yet address him at the same time for their old charter. That is their
>>>onions and garlic."
>>>
>>>My only thought is that the writer is using the phrase ironically --
>>>while onions and garlic frequently appear together harmoniously in
>>>food dishes, here the two messages are not compatible.
>>
>>I don't know much about it, but of course I can make a perhaps naive
>>speculation.
>>
>>Without knowing the broader context, I would speculate that "onions
>>and garlic" form an inseparable unit here, meaning either (1) simply
>>"seasonings" or (2) "strong-smelling/piquant/obtrusive seasonings". I
>>would not think that "onions" is being opposed to or contrasted with
>>"garlic". I.e., I would speculate that "request for ships and men"
>>implicitly = "meat [and potatoes/turnips/etc.]" or so (the expected,
>>the basics), while "request for the charter" = "[plenty of] onions
>>and garlic", an addendum which makes the overall dish more
>>"flavorful", perhaps more so than the king would prefer.
>
>The request from the Assembly (lower house) of the Massachusetts
>legislature was for military assistance in fighting the French and
>their Indians.  The request for the charter was for restoration of
>the original charter (1629) of the Massachusetts Bay colony, which
>conferred more power to the people and the Assembly, and thus greater
>independence from the king and Parliament, than the current charter
>(of 1691).  These two requests would not be an inseparable unit; they
>are quite discordant.
>
>Joel

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