The Lie of Caramelized Onions (1 Viewer)

[Twyst]

Fun fact, you actually CAN significantly increase the speed at which you can caramelize onions by raising the Ph which accelerates the maillard reaction. The easiest way to do this is adding a little baking soda. Same principle can be used to quick caramelize in a pressure cooker due to the fact that you can brown at lower temperatures with increased Ph. I do find there is a trade off with onions and find the texture is a bit "off" and mushy

 

[superchuck500]

You people are weird.

Obligatory “what do you mean you people”

 

[HoustonSaint68]

Totally agree with OP. If I am making anything that involves caramelizing onions (fajitas, burgers...), the very first thing that I do is get the onions going. Way before anything else.

The very first thing EXCEPT for opening a beer or pouring a glass of wine, right?

All those other efforts take the wrong approach entirely. The trick isn't to try to change the laws of physics to get the onions to carmelize faster; it's to warp the passage of time by adding alcohol (to the cook, not the onions) at the beginning of the process.

 

[Saint_Ward]

Another culinary lie - if your local restaurant or pub has items with "truffle oil" in it, it's almost certainly bullshirt.

Your Truffle Oil Contains No Real Truffles - Tasting Table

It’s time to face the music: The truffle oil fries you’ve been paying a premium for aren’t actually that premium.

www.tastingtable.com

What about my Truffle Aioli?

 

[Sun Wukong]

Another culinary lie - if your local restaurant or pub has items with "truffle oil" in it, it's almost certainly bullshirt.

Your Truffle Oil Contains No Real Truffles - Tasting Table

It’s time to face the music: The truffle oil fries you’ve been paying a premium for aren’t actually that premium.

www.tastingtable.com

Also most wasabi you get outside of Japan, or at least in the west, is really just horseradish dyed green.

 

[mjcouvi]

it takes a long time to properly caramelize onions, thank you for bringing this to EE attention.

 

[Brad Mojo]

it takes a long time to properly caramelize onions, thank you for bringing this to EE attention.

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

I feel like Scorpius should be here.

I don't have a lot of experience here but I can give my two cents. My soup recipe, by Emerill, says to lightly caramelize the onions in 8-10 minutes over medium-high heat. It seems to work for me. Now several days ago I looked up various recipes to see if I can change anything and several said to take 40 minutes or so to caramelize them but I'm sure it also said on a low heat. So that's the extent of my knowledge but I do know that if I keep the onions rolling after 8-10 minutes it looks like they will burn as they all have a slight browning like the recipe calls for but part of that could be that the onions were julienned.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

Fun fact, you actually CAN significantly increase the speed at which you can caramelize onions by raising the Ph which accelerates the maillard reaction. The easiest way to do this is adding a little baking soda. Same principle can be used to quick caramelize in a pressure cooker due to the fact that you can brown at lower temperatures with increased Ph. I do find there is a trade off with onions and find the texture is a bit "off" and mushy

Mine look like a combo of the bottom two within 8-10 minutes.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

None of that is to say that I'm doing it right, just that based on the description of how it should look looks like I got them right. I could be wrong.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

I'm either making the soup again tonight or tomorrow. After I "caramelize" the onions I'll take a picture and upload it and y'all can tell me if that's a proper caramelize.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Just made a batch

Took close to 90 minutes

Quit lying to the people!

 

[sammymvpknight]

I agree 100%, I don't even like to smell "truffle" fries (which are actually just fries drizzled with some synthetic chemical - no thanks).

Actual truffles (like truffle butter where you can see the truffle chips) are another matter . . . but usually expensive.

Speaking of truffles. You’re from DC area right? This is pretty easily my favorite dish.