Cooking Method: Easy Caramelized Onions
Dec. 13th, 2009 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaI love caramelized onions—onions that have been well-cooked, so the sulfurous harshness of raw onions is completely gone, replaced by a complex sweetness and a deep onion flavor and a hint of richness. But they're not easy to make. For a long time, I could only make caramelized onions in one of two ways: either cooking on very high heat and needing to stir them a lot (and still having them scorch half the time -- and scorched onions are not so tasty), or cooking on low heat, with no risk of burning but also an incredibly long, multi-hour cook time, and sometimes with the onion never quite cooking through anyway, so bits of it wind up not quite the right silky caramelized-onion texture.
Fortunately, Cooks Illustrated came to the rescue with an onion caramelizing method that has worked, faultlessly, every time, and without taking too long.
Easy Caramelized Onions
You can scale this up or down without any modifications besides multiplying by .5, 2, 3, 4, whatever. One medium onion—one batch—will make about a third of a cup of caramelized onions.
Slice the onion. For long onion pieces—like for piling on a hamburger or a sandwich—you can just cut the onion in half and then slice from root to tip, making long half-circles. For medium pieces, you can quarter the onion and then slice from root to tip. You can dice or mince, but bear in mind that the smaller the pieces are, the more likely the end product will be onion jam rather than discrete pieces of caramelized onion. (Which might be exactly what you want!)
In a sturdy frying pan, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. (Alton Brown tip: to easily tell when your oil is hot enough, add a couple of popping corn kernels to the oil. When they pop, the oil is ready.) Add the onions and keep cooking over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, for five minutes. (Don't worry, this is the only time you'll need to stir constantly.)
At the end of five minutes over high heat, your onions should be just beginning to brown, but not blackening at all. If they're still all pasty, continue for another 3-5 minutes, but as soon as you get some color, even just a little, you can stop with the stirring.
Turn the heat down to... hm, medium-low. Really, what you want is a temperature where the onions hiss softly but don't sizzle. Add the butter—butter adds rich flavor and aids the browning, but if you're vegan or can't have the cholesterol, an equal amount of vegetable oil will also work—as well as the salt and sugar. (Sugar is scorned by purists, but I find that it plays nicely with the onions and encourages beautiful, even browning.) Stir until the butter melts, then set the timer for ten minutes and let it cook, undisturbed, until the bell goes ding.
When the timer goes off, check the pan and give it a good stir. If the onions seem to be overbrowning, turn the temperature down; if nothing seems to be happening at all, turn the temperature up. Then set the timer again for ten minutes and ignore it until the timer goes off.
Basically, you're going to continue with this until the onions are as caramelized as you want. This is up to you: they can be anywhere from dark blonde to mahogany, and will get smaller and sweeter and more intensely-flavored the longer you cook them. They'll also become softer, so if you want your caramelized onions to hold together and have some bite, pull them earlier. You can cook from anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour, depending on how dark you like them.
What to do with caramelized onions? All kinds of things. They're good on sandwiches and burgers, or as the base for soups, or to make sauces both thicker and more complex; they taste wonderful mixed into pilafs or risottos, or on pasta, or alongside meat dishes. They can add a rich, unctuous flavor to dishes without adding very much fat. I use them all over the place—now that I know how to reliably make them.
Fortunately, Cooks Illustrated came to the rescue with an onion caramelizing method that has worked, faultlessly, every time, and without taking too long.
Easy Caramelized Onions
You can scale this up or down without any modifications besides multiplying by .5, 2, 3, 4, whatever. One medium onion—one batch—will make about a third of a cup of caramelized onions.
- 1 medium onion, yellow or white (red will work the same, but will turn a funny color)
- 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 tbsp butter (or more vegetable oil, if you're vegan)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar (optional, but recommended)
Slice the onion. For long onion pieces—like for piling on a hamburger or a sandwich—you can just cut the onion in half and then slice from root to tip, making long half-circles. For medium pieces, you can quarter the onion and then slice from root to tip. You can dice or mince, but bear in mind that the smaller the pieces are, the more likely the end product will be onion jam rather than discrete pieces of caramelized onion. (Which might be exactly what you want!)
In a sturdy frying pan, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. (Alton Brown tip: to easily tell when your oil is hot enough, add a couple of popping corn kernels to the oil. When they pop, the oil is ready.) Add the onions and keep cooking over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, for five minutes. (Don't worry, this is the only time you'll need to stir constantly.)
At the end of five minutes over high heat, your onions should be just beginning to brown, but not blackening at all. If they're still all pasty, continue for another 3-5 minutes, but as soon as you get some color, even just a little, you can stop with the stirring.
Turn the heat down to... hm, medium-low. Really, what you want is a temperature where the onions hiss softly but don't sizzle. Add the butter—butter adds rich flavor and aids the browning, but if you're vegan or can't have the cholesterol, an equal amount of vegetable oil will also work—as well as the salt and sugar. (Sugar is scorned by purists, but I find that it plays nicely with the onions and encourages beautiful, even browning.) Stir until the butter melts, then set the timer for ten minutes and let it cook, undisturbed, until the bell goes ding.
When the timer goes off, check the pan and give it a good stir. If the onions seem to be overbrowning, turn the temperature down; if nothing seems to be happening at all, turn the temperature up. Then set the timer again for ten minutes and ignore it until the timer goes off.
Basically, you're going to continue with this until the onions are as caramelized as you want. This is up to you: they can be anywhere from dark blonde to mahogany, and will get smaller and sweeter and more intensely-flavored the longer you cook them. They'll also become softer, so if you want your caramelized onions to hold together and have some bite, pull them earlier. You can cook from anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour, depending on how dark you like them.
What to do with caramelized onions? All kinds of things. They're good on sandwiches and burgers, or as the base for soups, or to make sauces both thicker and more complex; they taste wonderful mixed into pilafs or risottos, or on pasta, or alongside meat dishes. They can add a rich, unctuous flavor to dishes without adding very much fat. I use them all over the place—now that I know how to reliably make them.
