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“Who’s caramelizing onions? Probably someone who knows the secret to happiness—turning tears into sweetness, one slow stir at a time! Or maybe they’re just trying to make their kitchen smell like a five-star restaurant while secretly burning their grilled cheese.” 😄 — Bostock Electronics
I had someone arrive at a BBQ, saw me frying some onions, and ask “Are you going to caramelise those onions?”
Yes mate. The onions I’m frying for a few minutes while the burgers cook, gonna be nice and caramelised in seconds, just you watch.
Every time I do a Bunnings BBQ for the community centre, it’s women run, we get the onions on ASAP because they need time to cook, and we’ll have people buying a plain onion sandwich in addition to a snag, because caramelised onions are so good!
Every time I volunteer to help my partners football club run a sausage sizzle, I’m saying “put the onions on, they take longer” and I’m told by the guys “I’m a man, I know how to BBQ, go away little girl, go hold the sign and be pretty”
Then everyone buying a snag is complaining about crunchy raw onions, and the guys are saying “why did we buy so many onions?” (because you were supposed to cook them down so they shrink!)
These same men will unironically say “women belong in the kitchen” then won’t take cooking advice from a woman.
(also, the footy guys always giving me flak for deglazing the BBQ plate with water to help the onions cook down faster. They’ll just keep adding oil, once saw a Rotary Club use 1L of canola oil to half cook 5kg of onions, when we’ve never needed more than 200ml to fully cook onions, because onions need water to cook down!)
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Who up caramelizing they onions
Remember, it takes at least 45 minutes to caramelize an onion. If you’re doing it for less than 45 minutes, then you’re just cooking it.
I know it’s not exactly the same as a low temp for a while. But you can get pretty good results with a high temp, just need to deglaze more frequently, usually with water until they’re almost done. Then wine and/or balsamic is good.
45 minus to fully caramelize.
If you don’t want them that dark you don’t have to cook them that long.
Sure, you can use non-caramelized onions. You just won’t get that sweetness.
Just add more sugar.
What kind of hooligan adds sugar
I know you’re joking, but the only way I can see it taking that long is if you put whole onions into an oven set to 180° to 200° F.
In a frying pan, one can easily caramelize an entire large frying pan of onions in about 30 minutes, or even faster if you decide to use physics to your advantage, and add a small amount of water to your pan and caramelize your pan of onions within 14 minutes. This is an advanced technique that requires some experience to try to use. Much like making a Dark Roux in 15 minutes.
… That explains a lot
30 minutes
https://youtu.be/Ovqhzil3wJw?feature=shared
We start our caramelized onions in a covered nonstick skillet over high heat with ¾ of cup water. The water and steam help the onions quickly soften. Then we remove the lid, lower the heat to medium-high, and press the softened onions into the bottom and sides of the skillet to allow for maximum contact with the hot pan. Instead of finishing with sugar or honey as many recipes call for, we add baking soda, which speeds up the reaction that converts flavorless inulin (a polysaccharide present in onions) to fructose.
My face smells like onions for 3 days straight after cooking something with onions for more than 20 minutes. It should be much more terrible to have just onions in the pan
That’s a non-starter then. Nothing is worth a 3 day onion facial.
I’m sorry you feel that way.
What I wouldn’t give for one of those!
5-8 hours. Slow cooker is the only way to go, imo.
Slow cooker, on the back porch, if making a batch of them. Otherwise just low & slow in the skillet. A comment farther up says ‘many recipes call for sugar’ but I have never seen that. The onions that make your eyes water when you cut them, and a little salt & olive oil.
Only way I’ve done em. I am basically incapable of standing in front of the same pot for 45 mins. Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking, but some of the really tedious styles, especially if also monotonous, I can’t do. I’d get distracted by something eventually.
Standing? Naw, low & slow simmers fine with just occasional wang’jangling. Although it helps being close enough to catch a wiff for the reminder.
no I don’t think you have to fuck them
I always say if you want to seem like a genius in the kitchen just sauté some onions
I usually start my meals by sauteing onions and without fail whoever is in the house will say “Ooo, that smells good what is it?”
Literally just onions
That’s probably why they call it an aromatic.
Saute onions and garlic, then decide what you’re making for dinner
Garlic makes your meal taste thicc. Trying to force myself into a lite and airy phase. Not sure why… think I’m just wanting to lose weight, not as if that’s how foods work though. Garlic isn’t fattening haha
Garlic makes your meal taste thicc. Trying to force myself into a lite and airy phase.
Try making toum.
Saute carrots, onions, and celery. Everyone will think you’re making something incredible. And, fortunately, you’ll have the base to follow through, if you so desire.
I do need more dishes in the back of my pocket that start with mirepoix. If y’all got favs, pop a holler.
Got me thinking it’s time for chicken pot pie again…
I use it for a lot of stuff. I roast pork on top of mirepoix, I make soups with it, pasta dishes, I make it alone with lots of butter and herbs and then blend it and use it as a rich sauce, I don’t blend it and then serve it as a side with chicken and fish (adding rice is an option here), add bell peppers and make gumbo, use it as a base for braising basically anything… I do truly just start a mirepoix when I don’t know what to make, then, once it’s started, I dig around for other ingredients. It’s so forgiving and really just makes almost anything more savory and flavorful.
The last time I made it (Saturday), I ended up transferring it to a roasting pan, then roasted pork. I took off the pork when it was done, then while it rested, I deglaced the pan with white wine, put a portion into a pot, added ketchup, vinegar, etc. and used an immersion blender to make a bbq-style mirepoix sauce. Shredded the pork and made pulled pork. It was a huge hit with the family. I know mirepoix-bbq sauce sounds a little weird, but it was incredibly good.
It’s an very versatile base, which, I think, is why different food cultures all have a version of it. And you can do a lot of different things with the same base just by changing the technique. Smaller or larger chop, longer or shorter sautee, add ingredients to change the character (classically, tomato paste to make a pinçage, but you can also swap it to a Holy Trinity or sofrito very easily), and so on. It’s a great thing to play around with.
This is inspiring! I’ll have to give some of these a go.
Thanks for the thoughtful write up. 😊 Already excited to get a bit more adventurous with it!
Haha, I can cook but I don’t really know what I am doing. It usually starts with some oil and garlic or onions in a pan, then I figure out what to actually cook. But if someone walks in at just that step they think you’re some culinary genious.
Haha, I can cook but I don’t really know what I am doing.
Bruh, don’t sell yourself short. If you know how to just throw shit into a pan and have it come out both edible and tasty (or even only the first one), you have a decent idea of what you’re doing.
Being able to do that is a skill that takes work, and is something my wife has worked hard to develop. He k, just knowing what spices go well together or with what meats is a skill in and of itself.
I saw somewhere there exists a saying along the lines of ‘start sauteing onion, add some garlic, then you figure out what you are going to cook.’ When my wife and I have time to actually cook, this is basically what we do. everything is better with garlic and onions, from German to Korean. The rest is just details.
Apparently it’s a Ukrainian saying
Having an Asian extended family, I think it’s universal.
Absolutely universal because garlic and onion are amazing for any tongue.
And people who dislike garlic or onions are always super sus, because no the fuck you don’t. You just think you don’t like it.
I knew someone who said she was “allergic to onions if she could see them”… that is not how allergies work dumbfuck, you are just a super basic removed with no taste.
I knew a guy who said he was allergic to diced or sliced tomatoes. Happily ate ketchup and red pasta sauce.
That guy was also a super basic removed with no taste ;)
I mean don’t get me wrong, I don’t really like tomatoes either. But I’m not a giant tool about it, and just say “I’m not really a fan of fresh tomatoes, but I’ll try it”
What a weiner. People are so weird.
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I like to add them to mac and cheese
Best way to stop a small argument? Saute onions in olive oil then add some garlic. Guarantee a head will poke around a door frame and all arguments melt away.
hedge magic
So how do you do it?
I’m asking because I learned not a long time ago to somewhat heavily salt the onions beforehand (in olive oil ofc) and it’s great. Burst for some minute or three, keep hot while stirring til done (hard, melted, …).
I don’t put garlic in it though, I’d put that in the rest of the food if I do.
I made a big batch yesterday (4 large onions).
Butter and olive oil. Add onions. I add water at the beginning so I don’t have to pay as much attention as the beginning. Once the onions are soft, turn it low and take your time. Only stir occasionally.
I used the instant pot yesterday and it was super easy.
4 large onions
So, like, 6 tablespoons of caramelised onion?
3 if you are lucky
Yeah in normal countries but in America they have huge onions
Also high-sugar varieties like Vidalia and Candy onions. Don’t knock us for our onions - at least our onion farmers aren’t dropping bombs on brown people.
The larger the onion, the more water is in it and the less it tastes, from my experience.
I never realized Americans had particularly big onions, but a lot of them are bigger than my fist and definitely full of flavor. Now something like a shallot is small and delicious but it’s a different flavor.
What do you do you with a big batch? Saving some for later or just gorge on sautéed unions?
I needed some for käsespätzle, and it’s one of those things where if you make it a little little might just as well make a lot. It will get used. Caramelized onions go well with just about everything.
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Sauteed onions in olive oil for 10 minutes is delicious, but it’s not caramelized onions. They’re talking about something completely different.
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Really I just lightly spray some canola oil in the pan and add sliced onions and heat.
When you think they’re ready, stir them up and let them cook for another half hour.
The only thing I get from that story is that adults and peer pressure sucks. Eat that candied onion and enjoy it as much as you want, fuck those those stupid “grown-ups”.
Little Anon Starting Early
I have a 3 year old nephew and if you gave him a caramel onion like that I think he’d either eat it happily or ask for a plain onion instead. That kid loves himself some onions.
You can caramelize onions in five minutes, but the onions won’t be very satisfied afterwards
Now I want to try some apples and onions with a caramel glaze.
Might work with pork chops.
It would absolutely work with pork chops. It’s even better with a walnut crust.
Who’s caramelizing pork chops?
Pork chop sandwiches!
Get the fuck out of here!
My god, did that smell good.
Now I want to try thin sliced apples in with my onions when I caramelize them for added sweetness.
Dice the apples. That’s a common way to do it for curry meatballs (curry sauce with meatballs served with rice and various toppings).
The apples make the sauce more filling and offsets some of the potential sourness of the onions/curry. It is all about the balance. I like to taste the sauce to perfection using salt, pepper, curry, sugar or syrup before adding the meatballs, but having apples in the sauce definitely makes it easier to begin with.
This sounds fantastic, and I love curry and I love to try cooking new things, thank you!
I wouldn’t cook them as long though 👍.
Can’t speak for caramel, but they’re excellent with potatoes, butternut squash, browned butter and sage.
I don’t know about caramel glaze, but you might want to try apple and or onion chutney.
Unless your cooking Italian. I had an Italian trek me once, it’s either garlic or onions but not both together
It’s weird, I watch a lot of Youtube videos about street food vendors in India and sometimes they brag about not using garlic or onions in their offerings. I don’t get how that could possibly be a selling point.
Indian food without garlic and onions is trying to be religiously inclusive. Jainism is a popular religion in India, which teaches nonviolence. Included in that belief is the idea that nothing should be harmed, even plants. As such, they seek to avoid eating any vegetables that are harvested by killing the plant. Onions and garlic both require that their plants be killed, so Jains try to avoid those. Instead, their food often contains hing, a smelly spice that hasn’t really caught on in the west. I haven’t tried it, but hose that have say that once cooked, hing somewhat resembles the taste of onions and garlic.
Ah, interesting.
It took me like at least an hour the other night for french onion soup.
on a stick. caramel onion on a stick.
Y’all, pinch of baking soda and you’ll have caramelized onions in no time flat. It’s amazing.
That breaks down the onions too much and then reacts with the fats in the pan to make soap.
3/10 do not recommend.
I tried “velveting” some beef the other day (basically marinating the meat in baking soda) and the result was absolutely disgusting, both in terms of texture and flavor. I wonder if maybe I didn’t wash off the baking soda sufficiently and got soap, although that wouldn’t explain the texture issue. The texture was similar to Chinese takeout beef but somehow not as palatable.
I’ve never had it break them down too much, nor create anything remotely soapy in flavor. Perhaps it chemically does create soap, I don’t know. But the end result is delicious and I’m a fifth the time.
Wait now, what? I wish to know more.
Yep, it’s jump starting a process key to flavors we all like called the Maillard Reaction
E: guess I’m technically correct about baking soda speeding up caramelization, but not in regards to what the Maillard reaction has to do with caramelizing. Whoops.
Maillard browning is not caramelization. Maillard is an insanely complex mess of different chemical reactions involving proteins, while caramelization is just sugar and heat.
Alkalinity speeds up the Maillard reaction significantly. Baking soda. Magic.
I agree, but the comment above recommends using it to caramelize onions. Maillard reactions can happen to onions for sure but the result of that is not caramelized onions.
Not to say baking soda couldn’t help, I don’t know the exact chemistry behind this stuff, but I do know that onion + maillard reaction does not yield caramelized onions
Huh, I guess I’d never really looked into the chemistry behind the distinction (which is strange because i am a chemist that loves food), but Maillard reactions involve the proteins, while caramelization involves the sugars. Though both are examples of nonenzymatic browning.
The good news is that the wiki page for caramelization says that either acidic or basic conditions speed up the caramelization processes, so i think we’re good to go in either front!
On that note, try adding a little splash of balsamic vinegar to caramelized onions 👌👌
Oh shit. That is so cool! I knew lye was used in making pretzels, but i didn’t know it was to get the Maillard browning to happen faster. The wiki page says that one way to reduce the formation of acrylamide, a carcinogen, is by adding carbon dioxide, which
is actually released when baking soda is dissolved in waterwill be released during cooking (edit: see reply chain below for discussion on this point)… IDK for sure if it’s enough to really help, but I’m gonna just roll with it and say it is because delicious food is delicious.Baking powder releases carbon dioxide. Baking soda just creates aqueous bicarb ions and a more basic solution (which is the key to a faster reaction).
Heating a solution of aqueous bicarbonate will release carbon dioxide, too. But since we have delicious onions and stuff in there too, let’s walk through my thought process: Baking powder is baking soda + weak acid + cornstarch (to prevent premature reaction). Since the speed-up for the Maillard reaction works by deprotonating amino groups to make them more nucleophilic, the acid-base reaction that releases CO2 when using baking powder will still occur with just baking soda + food (ie: the protiens in the food are acting as the acid). You’re probably right that using baking powder would produce more CO2, or at least produce it faster, but reducing carcinogenic side products for Maillard reactions via CO2 is a low-priority concern for me anyway. Just a fun curiousity that occured to me when reading the wiki page!
Sorry if my carbon dioxide subscripts don’t work. I don’t think my client supports all the fancy markdown, but i tried my best.
🤣
🧅
