Melted Onions Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

How do you melt onions? ›

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.

Around 10 Minutes: Onions will start to soften and turn translucent in spots. They will release a lot of liquid into the pan. Around 20 Minutes: Onions will be very soft and starting to break down. Some onions will start to show spots of caramelization and you may see some fond starting to build up in the pan.

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.

You can use either oil or butter to caramelize onions — but ideally, you use a combination of both! I like to use olive oil, and this cooking fat tolerates heat particularly well. Meanwhile, butter adds a distinctly rich flavor to the caramelized onions.

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.

Color Change: One of the most noticeable signs of cooked onions is a change in color. Raw onions are usually white or light-colored, while cooked onions become translucent or golden brown, depending on how long they're cooked. Transparency: As onions cook, they become translucent, meaning you can see through them.

Submerge Them in Cold Water

Soak them for at least 15 minutes (longer is even more beneficial), properly drain, and eat away! Submerging them in cold water takes away that intense, sharp bite from the raw onion. The cold water helps the enzyme that causes onions to have their pungent flavor to leach out.

Sweet Onions – Walla Walla and Vidalia are the most common kinds of sweet onions. These onions lack the sharp, astringent taste of other onions and really do taste sweet.

Does caramelizing onions make them sweeter? ›

When onions caramelize, one of the main things that happens is the sucrose, or natural sugar hidden within their cells, is transformed into other, simpler forms of sugar, including glucose and fructose. Those sugars taste sweeter than sucrose, which accounts for the increase in sweetness as the onions caramelize.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place sliced onions in a 9x13-inch casserole dish. Add olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 1 hour.

To soften the taste of raw onions, slice them thinly or cut them into larger chunks and soak them in very cold water for about 15 minutes. This will soften the taste, making them ideally suited for a salad.

Instead of spending 15 minutes trying to soften onions in a pan (only to scorch them!), try this microwave method. Pop chopped or sliced onions in a bowl, add a spoonful of water, cover with a plate and microwave on high for 3-4min. Carefully remove (the bowl will be very hot) and uncover.

Onions lose their bite and melt in your mouth when they're sliced and roasted with butter and fresh herbs and then tenderized further by braising in broth. Serve alongside roasted chicken or cook them in vegetable broth for an easy, elegant vegetarian side dish.

Yes, you can cook onions in the microwave without any oil or butter. Onions naturally contain a high water content, so they will steam and cook in their own moisture. This method is a healthier option and can still yield deliciously cooked onions.