Have you ever tried a recipe that turned out to go horribly wrong, or maybe the end product, despite being good, just wasn’t worth the effort? What was that recipe, and what about it made you say “NEVER AGAIN”?
I ask this as I am actively trying to remove the stench of onions from my Instapot lid’s silicone ring after making French Onion Soup in it (so far steaming it with white vinegar on the steam setting, soaking the ring in a water/baking soda bath overnight, and baking it at 250 degrees F for 20 minutes have all done nothing, so I ordered a new one, I give up). And I realized that cutting all the onions and waiting hours for them to caramelize and now this damn smell issue just isn’t worth it. Plus I still have frozen soup in the freezer because I can only eat French Onion soup so many days in a row.
NEVER AGAIN.
FYI, the trick to making caramelized onions is boiling the onions. After you cut up your onions and add them to your pan, add a small amount of water, enough that the water will cook out after a few minutes. The water will steam the onions and cook them more quickly, which will them make them faster and easier to caramelize.
Here’s a video to demonstrate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovqhzil3wJw
This trick works well to make mushrooms more flavorful and all sorts of other foods!
You can also cheat by adding some sodium bicarbonate.
oo, I didn’t know this trick, thanks!
Doesn’t taste quite like real caramelize onions, but it’s close enough for when you’re rushing
The flavor is not as rich, and too much baking soda will make them slimy.
It’s a good ‘I really want Crêpes but it’s already 7pm’ thing.
haha, good to know - thanks!
Instead of water you can add a bit of beer to cook the onions. You don’t taste the beer at the end but it brings a bit more flavors at the end.
yesss! and any broth really could work here in substitute for more flavor, but beer and onions is a bomb combo, especially with brats
Wine also. White is more subtle, red will give it a sort of balsamic vinegar type aftertaste.