I love the sense of community as much as the collective sense of humor. You give wing man energy in the most positive way I can express. Always there for the assist.
Surprise! I nuke mine with a smidge of butter to get them started. They are clear when they hit the pan for caramelizing.
Had no idea about the baking soda. I would have been worried it would leave an off flavor.
Depends on the dish. For something onion forward it might leave a taste. But if you use the right amount (like literally a tiny pinch) in something like a tomato sauce, you can’t taste it at all. Most people way overestimate how much is needed. I’m not a fan of the chicken wing recipes with baking soda/powder for this reason but when onions are a secondary ingredient it’s a really useful tool. When done with restraint.
Not really if you neutralise it afterwards with acid. The major drawback is texture because the alkalinity destroys the structure of vegetables and turns them into smush.
I spend the day caramelizing an ungodly amount of them then freeze them into portions. That way you only have to spend hours on them once for months worth of caramelized onions
I do this but in the crock pot. Stick of butter on the top, leave the lid cracked, stir periodically. Works a treat and I can do it on the back deck if I don’t want the house to smell like onion (rare!).
I definitely do some salt. I might also add some Worcestershire sauce or molasses if I'm in the mood.
Yellow onion is perfectly fine. The crockpot isn't the best method for caramelizing onions, it's merely the lowest maintenance method.
If you start with them covered, you can get a great onion broth! Or crack the lid and cook it longer to get an onion jam.
I spend hours just to make one pot of majadra. I then freeze portions of majadra for my son, who loves it. I am very interested in any hacks to speed it up. It takes me hours and hours to caramelize like 10 onions; the rest of the dish is a cinch.
All mixed together. Theyre not really crispy as the majority is mixed in with the rice and lentils as they cook; only a small amount goes on top after it cooks as a garnish.
This is my sister's recipe (which I use):
-At least 3 large onions (the more, the better)
-2 cups rice
-1 cup lentils
-Plain yogurt
-Salt
-Pepper
-Turmeric
-Chicken bouillon cube
Cook sliced onions in vegetable oil until browned. At the same time, boil lentils in water for 15-20 min. When both are ready, cook the uncooked rice for about a minute with a little oil with salt, pepper, turmeric, and chicken bouillon. Add lentils with their water, 2/3 of the cooked onions, and any additional water if needed for the rice. Bring to a boil over med-high heat, reduce heat, and cook for another 20 min or until the water is absorbed. Garnish with remaining onion and serve with yogurt.
Since this is my sister's recipe, I'm sorry there is not a quantity for the turmeric, but it's fairly a lot. The more onions and the darker, the better. If you cook the lentils until they are soft, use the same amount of water to cook the rice as you normally would. I like to make the lentils a little more al dente and then add a little more water to the rice mixture. I absolutely love this recipe but don't forget the yogurt on top!
ETA I typically double or triple the recipe, hence the 9 onions, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially on your first try!
Thank you so much! It’s close enough to briyani without the carb load so I’m gonna give it a try. I just got a bunch of fresh Tumeric (for juicing and freezing) so it’ll be great to try with fresh ones instead of powder.
If you want caramelized onions without having to stand at the stove for 45, you can throw them in a crock pot for a few hours. You still need to watch them so they don’t burn, but it’s less active than the traditional method.
You can get pretty nicely caramelised onions in about 15-20 min, just not a lot of them.
Something that works well for sugar, but haven’t tried is yet with onions is DAP (diammonium phosphate) I’m a bit afraid of ammonia smell but should speed up the process and not disintegrate them.
The pectin (and the sugar in onions) is why you can make onion jam.
There is a little hotdog stand in Maine that serves steamed dogs with their homemade onion jam and mayo. Best hotdogs I've ever had.
Are you talking about Wasses by chance? I moved away from Maine probably 10-ish years ago, but Wasses still to this day had some of the best hotdogs I've ever had.
>water
Yep, I will shamelessly peddle Lan Lam every time this topic appears and people try arguably 'dumb' (i say this with all the love) things to caramelize their onions faster, like baking soda.
Microwave them, or add water in the beginning. That's it.
https://youtu.be/rzL07v6w8AA?si=fQMVBIPAaIXm339n&t=30
She's amazing and his quickly become a second Kenji Lopez-Alt for me: clear, concise cooking materials/videos with a penchant for testing multiple methods to point to as evidence. I could listen to Lan Lam talk about anything, really!
The real hack is the OVEN
I’m a veteran onion caramelizer, but I’m a busy woman. I don’t got that kinda time. So how does one make sufficient onion to go alongside 300~ piroshki, for Christmas dinner? OVEN!
Slice maybe..20. Maybe 30 onions. Big foil roasting pans. Too much butter (1.5 sticks per pan, fight me about it, you’ll thank me later). In oven at 350, stir or shake pan every ehhhh 15 min. Take them out when you think they look done enough.
BAM. Finito. Freeze portions, if you are making them for multiple meals.
I apologize, I don’t actually know. I’m one of those awful people who uses no recipes and writes nothing down. I’m always cooking many other things at the same time. Maybe 45 minutes? Maybe an hour?
I use this trick for disappearing onions into unblended sauces, because I've got fussy kids who "don't like onions". They do like onions. They just don't like bits.
I've noticed that onions that are wetter when I cut them don't caramelize well. The cells are too saturated and they dissolve even without cheating.
I haven't found a work around for this yet. I'm wondering about drying them in a low temp oven. Unfortunately it's already 106* outside so I'm not turning my oven on any time soon.
Interesting! When I last caramelized onions, a giant pot full of onions turned into basically a smear of the most delicious onion gunk on the bottom of the pot, but they didn't disappear. How did your soupy nothing taste?
Carmelized onions work because the sugar of the onion burns on the hot surface and then you deglaze and the small burnt foot particles mix into your liquid.
You just cooked everything evenly. Entropy baby. That onion flavor is equally distributed in your cooker.
My cheat is to keep adding broth/wine/whatever liquid you got so your can be more hands off. Hear it start frying? Dump a 1/2 cup of something in the pan, give it a stir and back to whatever you were doing. Takes as long as caramelizing it properly, just with a lot of wiggle room. Plus if you're using stock or wine they absorb so much flavor!
I’ve slowly carmelized them and added water, which broke down into a beautiful oniony sauce. It was part of a pasta dish so totally OK, but I was also a bit surprised.
I guess while we're on the topic of onion, does anyone here ever cook red onion in any way? I've never cooked with them and don't think I've ever had a dish with cooked red onion. Always raw or pickled
They can look pretty in things like quiche or rice, anything that is lighter colored. The flavor does mellow out a bit from cooking but they are basically interchangeable with yellow onions at the very least. i have seen chili recipes that call for red onion.
Yeah I use em often for Mexican beans. Just diced and Sauted a little before the beans go in. Pretty interchangeable with other onions once cooked.
Now to be fair I have that red onion on hand for Horiatiki and hot dog topping and need to use the rest up. If I'm buying onions to cook with yellow are way cheaper and white are better for Mexican cuisine.
Onions really stand apart when raw, not so much when cooked. *(except shallots)
15 minutes ago I noticed for maybe the first time ever ever that an entire sweet onion I carmelized for like 40 minutes has shrunk down to about 3-4 TBS.
I start damn near everything with sautéing some onions, idk why I haven’t noticed this until now. Probably because I don’t just carmelize onions alone *all* that often
I cook too much of everything anyway
Yeah caramalizing less than 3 onions is a waste of effort imo. I often just do the whole bag, 8+, and freeze what I'm not using. Always less than you think. One caramelized onion isn't even enough to top two steaks in my house
Yes, I did it the same way, baking soda + a little water to break down the onions, it turns them into onion goo and completely breaks down all cell walls.
Though I will say, it makes a DELICIOUS jam this way
Even in smaller amounts, the baking soda trick has led to unpleasantly mushy caramelized onions for me.
I haven't found anything that works better than patience for making caramelized onions (although I do put a lid on early in the cooking - the steam helps the big pile of onions soften more quickly so I don't have to worry about sticking. Once soft, lid off, heat up to boil out water, and turn the heat back down when the pan starts to go dry)
In a pot roast recipe I make you brown onions early on and they wind up just dissolving eventually during the simmering process to become the sauce. Sooo good!
I grill mine with a smidge of sugar- I call it quick caramelize. I guess grill isn’t even the word- they go in the pan with butter and some sugar, and sweat, then brown, then they have a similar taste to caramelized onions if I need them in a recipe. Takes less than a half hour!
Pretty amazing, but once it cooled down it was virtually impossible to pry out of the saucepan. It almost would have been best as a stand-alone sweet/savoury treat.
None-ions
From the island of Nunya
What kinda operations they runnin over there at Nunya?
Nunya business
:)
Amen
I believe it's something to do with beeswax, but I'm not involved in those operations so I can't say for sure.
I so respect you coming in for the setup.
Can’t have an alley without the oop 😉
I love the sense of community as much as the collective sense of humor. You give wing man energy in the most positive way I can express. Always there for the assist.
Hahah thanks homie, I was always a better passer than I was a scorer in my high school basketball days
You welcome homie. I was trash athlete but voted captain because I was so positive to everyone and encouraging. So, me and you, real know real 🤣
Yessirrrrr
But is there left beef?
Gone-ions
offions
None onion left beef
Surprise! I nuke mine with a smidge of butter to get them started. They are clear when they hit the pan for caramelizing. Had no idea about the baking soda. I would have been worried it would leave an off flavor.
It does. I tried it once but wouldn’t do it again.
Depends on the dish. For something onion forward it might leave a taste. But if you use the right amount (like literally a tiny pinch) in something like a tomato sauce, you can’t taste it at all. Most people way overestimate how much is needed. I’m not a fan of the chicken wing recipes with baking soda/powder for this reason but when onions are a secondary ingredient it’s a really useful tool. When done with restraint.
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Yes, it tasted odd to me. It wasn’t super strong but I won’t be using that method again.
But did it effect the taste of the onions?
Yeah, it tasted odd to them. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was enough that they aren't going to do it again.
Interesting. Does the baking soda affect the flavour?
Surprisingly it does, enough that they won't do it again.
Not really if you neutralise it afterwards with acid. The major drawback is texture because the alkalinity destroys the structure of vegetables and turns them into smush.
It works great. Pick the smallest amount you can and half that bit.
I spend the day caramelizing an ungodly amount of them then freeze them into portions. That way you only have to spend hours on them once for months worth of caramelized onions
I do this but in the crock pot. Stick of butter on the top, leave the lid cracked, stir periodically. Works a treat and I can do it on the back deck if I don’t want the house to smell like onion (rare!).
To me the smell of onion (or garlic) cooking is one the the world's best smells
During cooking yes, but the smell can linger and get weird also when you do a lot of them.
So you just slice them up, add butter, and let them go? Do you find any particular onion variety works better for this?
I definitely do some salt. I might also add some Worcestershire sauce or molasses if I'm in the mood. Yellow onion is perfectly fine. The crockpot isn't the best method for caramelizing onions, it's merely the lowest maintenance method. If you start with them covered, you can get a great onion broth! Or crack the lid and cook it longer to get an onion jam.
I spend hours just to make one pot of majadra. I then freeze portions of majadra for my son, who loves it. I am very interested in any hacks to speed it up. It takes me hours and hours to caramelize like 10 onions; the rest of the dish is a cinch.
Can I know if you freeze the crispy onions separately or is it mixed together? Thanks!
All mixed together. Theyre not really crispy as the majority is mixed in with the rice and lentils as they cook; only a small amount goes on top after it cooks as a garnish.
Ok thanks! I saw your post about majadra and googled the recipe so I was thinking of trying to make some.
This is my sister's recipe (which I use): -At least 3 large onions (the more, the better) -2 cups rice -1 cup lentils -Plain yogurt -Salt -Pepper -Turmeric -Chicken bouillon cube Cook sliced onions in vegetable oil until browned. At the same time, boil lentils in water for 15-20 min. When both are ready, cook the uncooked rice for about a minute with a little oil with salt, pepper, turmeric, and chicken bouillon. Add lentils with their water, 2/3 of the cooked onions, and any additional water if needed for the rice. Bring to a boil over med-high heat, reduce heat, and cook for another 20 min or until the water is absorbed. Garnish with remaining onion and serve with yogurt. Since this is my sister's recipe, I'm sorry there is not a quantity for the turmeric, but it's fairly a lot. The more onions and the darker, the better. If you cook the lentils until they are soft, use the same amount of water to cook the rice as you normally would. I like to make the lentils a little more al dente and then add a little more water to the rice mixture. I absolutely love this recipe but don't forget the yogurt on top! ETA I typically double or triple the recipe, hence the 9 onions, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially on your first try!
Thank you so much! It’s close enough to briyani without the carb load so I’m gonna give it a try. I just got a bunch of fresh Tumeric (for juicing and freezing) so it’ll be great to try with fresh ones instead of powder.
I hope you enjoy it! I've never used the fresh turmeric and I am not a good cook so I have no idea how that will affect it.
Thank you! Works the same just much more potent.
Holy shit as someone who freaking loves caramelize onions but hates the extra step I love you for commenting this!!!! Blessed be, kind Redditor!!
If you want caramelized onions without having to stand at the stove for 45, you can throw them in a crock pot for a few hours. You still need to watch them so they don’t burn, but it’s less active than the traditional method.
Pressure cooker / instant pot too maybe
Yep, pressure for half an hour then simmer out the water. You don't have to stir until half the water is gone.
You can get pretty nicely caramelised onions in about 15-20 min, just not a lot of them. Something that works well for sugar, but haven’t tried is yet with onions is DAP (diammonium phosphate) I’m a bit afraid of ammonia smell but should speed up the process and not disintegrate them.
Cheaters never prosper.
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is no place sacred???
Onions are held together with pectin. Baking soda dissolves pectin (essentially). Today I learned that 45-60 mins = a million years.
The pectin (and the sugar in onions) is why you can make onion jam. There is a little hotdog stand in Maine that serves steamed dogs with their homemade onion jam and mayo. Best hotdogs I've ever had.
Are you talking about Wasses by chance? I moved away from Maine probably 10-ish years ago, but Wasses still to this day had some of the best hotdogs I've ever had.
No, this was Flo's in Wells.
Happened to me too. Never use more than a pinch. I think the baking soda destroys the cell structure of the onions. A bit of it makes them more tangy.
I've done it too. You're not alone, OP! Many of us learned the hard way.
You can really just do it with the water and not have to worry about them breaking down too much. The water alone will cut the time in half to a third
>water Yep, I will shamelessly peddle Lan Lam every time this topic appears and people try arguably 'dumb' (i say this with all the love) things to caramelize their onions faster, like baking soda. Microwave them, or add water in the beginning. That's it. https://youtu.be/rzL07v6w8AA?si=fQMVBIPAaIXm339n&t=30
Oh wow. This is actually helpful! I sense I will be watching more of her videos - she's so calm and clear.
She's amazing and his quickly become a second Kenji Lopez-Alt for me: clear, concise cooking materials/videos with a penchant for testing multiple methods to point to as evidence. I could listen to Lan Lam talk about anything, really!
She rules!
and you should!
The real hack is the OVEN I’m a veteran onion caramelizer, but I’m a busy woman. I don’t got that kinda time. So how does one make sufficient onion to go alongside 300~ piroshki, for Christmas dinner? OVEN! Slice maybe..20. Maybe 30 onions. Big foil roasting pans. Too much butter (1.5 sticks per pan, fight me about it, you’ll thank me later). In oven at 350, stir or shake pan every ehhhh 15 min. Take them out when you think they look done enough. BAM. Finito. Freeze portions, if you are making them for multiple meals.
Can you share, what is the total cooking time in the oven?
I apologize, I don’t actually know. I’m one of those awful people who uses no recipes and writes nothing down. I’m always cooking many other things at the same time. Maybe 45 minutes? Maybe an hour?
No worries as I am the same! Thank you for giving me an estimate!
I am the worst about it 🤣
Can they be cooked at a lower temperature but longer time, say like 3 hours at 225°. See where I'm going with this?
Could I add them directly to the pan once frozen? Like a cube of it? Xx
Yep! In most dishes I can think of. They warm up pretty quick and the texture will be fine
Wow this is great advice, thank you :) xx
Sounds like you made onion butter, which is the greatest condiment known to man
[Three hours to caramelize](https://imgur.com/gallery/keeR0mr) a huge batch (nearly 10 pounds) properly but totally and unapologetically worth it.
I use this trick for disappearing onions into unblended sauces, because I've got fussy kids who "don't like onions". They do like onions. They just don't like bits.
I've noticed that onions that are wetter when I cut them don't caramelize well. The cells are too saturated and they dissolve even without cheating. I haven't found a work around for this yet. I'm wondering about drying them in a low temp oven. Unfortunately it's already 106* outside so I'm not turning my oven on any time soon.
If it's 106 out - just leave them uncovered outside.
Stick 'em outside and make sundried onions?
Sweat them. Lay them out in ring on paper towels for a few hours or overnight
Love this thread. Now I want caramelized onions more than anything.
Too much baking soda also makes it taste like shit.
I shop half the onion into little pieces and the other half into big pieces so the parts that dissolve end up just flavoring the parts that survive
Interesting! When I last caramelized onions, a giant pot full of onions turned into basically a smear of the most delicious onion gunk on the bottom of the pot, but they didn't disappear. How did your soupy nothing taste?
There are no shortcuts to excellent food
This MF never heard of the microwave
Applebees and Chef Mic(rowave) would agree
And David Chang
Microwave is a tool. Not a shortcut
Would've saved more time by just being patient lol That's what can happen when taking shortcuts
Is there ever a reason you would want to do this deliberately?
Carmelized onions work because the sugar of the onion burns on the hot surface and then you deglaze and the small burnt foot particles mix into your liquid. You just cooked everything evenly. Entropy baby. That onion flavor is equally distributed in your cooker.
My mom gave me her recipe for goulash. The instructions say to cook the onions until they disintegrate. I guess you achieved that
My cheat is to keep adding broth/wine/whatever liquid you got so your can be more hands off. Hear it start frying? Dump a 1/2 cup of something in the pan, give it a stir and back to whatever you were doing. Takes as long as caramelizing it properly, just with a lot of wiggle room. Plus if you're using stock or wine they absorb so much flavor!
Baking soda does the same to cranberries by the way
I’ve slowly carmelized them and added water, which broke down into a beautiful oniony sauce. It was part of a pasta dish so totally OK, but I was also a bit surprised.
I guess while we're on the topic of onion, does anyone here ever cook red onion in any way? I've never cooked with them and don't think I've ever had a dish with cooked red onion. Always raw or pickled
They can look pretty in things like quiche or rice, anything that is lighter colored. The flavor does mellow out a bit from cooking but they are basically interchangeable with yellow onions at the very least. i have seen chili recipes that call for red onion.
Yeah I use em often for Mexican beans. Just diced and Sauted a little before the beans go in. Pretty interchangeable with other onions once cooked. Now to be fair I have that red onion on hand for Horiatiki and hot dog topping and need to use the rest up. If I'm buying onions to cook with yellow are way cheaper and white are better for Mexican cuisine. Onions really stand apart when raw, not so much when cooked. *(except shallots)
They’re amazing in wedges oven roasted with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Ok now that I think of it, I've grilled them several times on kabob skewers and you're right, they are amazing! My faculties are deteriorating
15 minutes ago I noticed for maybe the first time ever ever that an entire sweet onion I carmelized for like 40 minutes has shrunk down to about 3-4 TBS. I start damn near everything with sautéing some onions, idk why I haven’t noticed this until now. Probably because I don’t just carmelize onions alone *all* that often I cook too much of everything anyway
Yeah caramalizing less than 3 onions is a waste of effort imo. I often just do the whole bag, 8+, and freeze what I'm not using. Always less than you think. One caramelized onion isn't even enough to top two steaks in my house
Yes, I did it the same way, baking soda + a little water to break down the onions, it turns them into onion goo and completely breaks down all cell walls. Though I will say, it makes a DELICIOUS jam this way
Even in smaller amounts, the baking soda trick has led to unpleasantly mushy caramelized onions for me. I haven't found anything that works better than patience for making caramelized onions (although I do put a lid on early in the cooking - the steam helps the big pile of onions soften more quickly so I don't have to worry about sticking. Once soft, lid off, heat up to boil out water, and turn the heat back down when the pan starts to go dry)
In a pot roast recipe I make you brown onions early on and they wind up just dissolving eventually during the simmering process to become the sauce. Sooo good!
Can I take this approach with my spouse? Asking for a friend. Ha ha.
I did that once. It was no longer onions but onion goo.
This is what they mean in India when they say "kill the onions." Sometimes it is more desirable than others.
I grill mine with a smidge of sugar- I call it quick caramelize. I guess grill isn’t even the word- they go in the pan with butter and some sugar, and sweat, then brown, then they have a similar taste to caramelized onions if I need them in a recipe. Takes less than a half hour!
Use sugar cuz, carmelization.
I had a housemate years ago who would use too much sugar with her onions, and would it would literally turn into toffee - hard, sticky onion toffee.
....How'd it taste?
Pretty amazing, but once it cooled down it was virtually impossible to pry out of the saucepan. It almost would have been best as a stand-alone sweet/savoury treat.
I always use whiskey or red wine instead of water, never heard about the baking soda trick. I'll have to try it.