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.

Kenji Lopez-Alt put together a “quicker” method that, he claimed, made caramelized onions in 15 minutes, or about a third of the time. The trick, according to Kenji, is that you use a higher heat, but regularly deglaze with water, so the onions don't burn.

Heat the oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté for 5 minutes or until starting to soften. Add the salt, reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 50 to 80 minutes, stirring every few minutes, or until the onions are very soft, golden brown, and caramelized.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, cook and stir until lightly browned. Sprinkle in the sugar, and continue cooking until onions are deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth and vinegar and season with paprika.

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.

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.

Once your onions begin to soften and take on a golden hue, you'll want to reduce the heat from medium to medium-low or even low for the remainder of the cooking process. The sugars in the onions require time and gentle heat to caramelize; cooking them over high heat will take you straight to burnt.

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 you've finished cooking the onions to desired doneness, deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of water (for extra flavor, you can also use vegetable or chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, red, white or Madeira wine, beer or brandy).

Why do you add sugar to caramelize onions? ›

If you need to caramelize onions quickly, adding sugar or a pinch of baking soda (to raise the pH level and help them brown quicker) can help to speed up the caramelization process but truly they aren't a dish that cooks up quickly. If using baking soda I'd suggest about 1/4 tsp per pound of raw onions.

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.

Not cooking the onions long enough.

→ Follow this tip: Cook times will vary depending on the number of onions you're cooking and the type of onion (its sugar content and age), but plan to cook caramelized onions for 40 to 50 minutes (at least) until they have a dark-brown, rich color.

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

You may be cooking them on too high a heat, leading them to caramelize before all the liquid they release has evaporated. Try lowering the heat and giving them more time. Some onions are wetter than others, so you need to keep an eye on them and see how much liquid they release.

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.

Onions are almost always cooked in some kind of fat, although they can be softened in a small amount of liquid.

Your onions have gone bad if they have dark brown spots, are squishy to the touch, or are secreting moisture. Your onion may also be bad if it's sprouting. However, some people simply cut the sprouts off and eat the rest of the onion.