Clean the onions, throw them in boiling water, add the parsley, thyme, clove, bay-leaf, nutmeg, garlic, salt, and pepper; boil twenty minutes, drain the onions only, and throw away the seasonings. Put the butter in a stewpan on a good fire, and when melted sprinkle in it the flour; then add the onions, cover with half broth and half white wine, boil gently till well cooked and the sauce reduced, serve warm. It is a very wholesome dish.
Hand-Book of Practical Cookery (1884).