Melted Onions Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Can you melt an onion? ›

Melt the butter in the stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions. Keep your eye on the onions and stir often at the beginning to allow all the slices to have contact with the bottom of the pot so they start to release their liquid. In about 45 minutes they should have released a good amount of liquid.

I love non-stick pans for making pancakes and eggs, but they're not the best pick for caramelized onions. Instead, I recommend using a cast-iron skillet. As the onions cook, a delicious fond will develop on the bottom of the pan. If you scrape it up and stir it into the onions, it will make their flavor even richer.

Melt butter in a small pan and add sliced onion. Cook on medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring. Add sugar and stir through for a further 15 minutes until very dark brown in colour. This recipe is excellent mixed with Red Wine Jus Gravy!

Our Test Kitchen likes to use butter when caramelizing onions, as it offers the richest flavor. If you avoid dairy or don't have butter, you can caramelize onions in other fat such as margarine or olive oil. Add the onion slices. It's okay if they overlap a bit here because they'll shrink as they cook down.

Once the water is boiling or close to it, put a lid on the pan so the onions can steam. This essentially massively speeds up the process of wilting the onions, which can be the first 15-20 minutes of the sautéing process.

Sautéing vs caramelizing

Sautéing is about softening and lightly flavoring the onions, while caramelizing is about developing a rich, sweet complexity. Unfortunately, you can't swap one out for the other without changing the flavor profile of your dish.

Usually caramelized onions start with thinly sliced onions, but you can also work with diced or chopped onions. To caramelize, just place a heavy pan over medium low heat and heat up some butter or olive oil.

Some recipes say it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour to caramelize diced onions, while others recommend 30 to 40 minutes for thin slices.

Why can't I caramelize onions? ›

A few reasons could be that you sliced them too thick or too thin. You haven't cooked them long enough. Your heat isn't at the right temp, use between medium and medium-low. Adding too many onions at once can actually cause them to steam because of too much moisture, instead of caramelizing.

Caramelize the onions: Heat about 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the onions and stir to coat. Let cook, stirring every 5-10 minutes, until deeply caramelized, about 1 ½ - 2 hours.

Unlike mushrooms, which shouldn't be salted until after they've browned, you should always salt onions before you start cooking them. Onions won't begin to caramelize until all the water in them has evaporated, and using salt will speed up that process, Caicedo explains.

You'll see some people add sugar to the recipe, which is done to speed it up. Doing this is caramelising the sugar, not the onion. The onions get plenty sweet enough on their own if you take your time with it. From a health perspective it's much better not to add extra sugar.

When you cook onions they go through some obvious physical changes. First, they get hot and release moisture, at which point they become slightly translucent. Keep cooking them and they begin to brown and sweeten because their sugars caramelize. In time they darken and the sweetness intensifies.

Onions release amino acids that react with sugar as they heat up. It's this chemical reaction that creates wonderful flavors and changes in color. And if you've tasted caramelized onions before, you've experienced this magic first hand.

To get the melt-in-your-mouth texture, the onions need to be covered tightly and need a heaping helping of the secret ingredient: time. The combination of the long cook time and securely-wrapped onions will make them fall-apart tender and irresistible.

They can be eaten cooked or raw and are a staple food worldwide. In addition to their flavoring abilities, onions are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber and offer several health benefits. But these properties can sometimes change depending on whether you cook your onions or eat them raw.