Cooking Tips & Tricks: Caramelizing Onions

There are a couple of things that you learn in culinary school about adding flavor to food. The first is that the most basic flavoring combination (the one used most often) is the combination of 50% onion, 25% carrot, and 25% celery. It is used in everything: a base for roasting meat, stocks, sauces, soups, etc. The next thing that they teach you is that the stuff that sticks to the pan when you are cooking is gold. It's called fond. (I don't know why. I think it's stupid, too. Ok, so my editor just informed me that it means "bottom" in French. All this time I thought he was making weird comments about my cooking...) You use it for sauces. If you don't, you are missing the best part. (Unless you burnt it to a crisp. Thank you for not using it when you do that.)

I've decided to share a way to use both of these tips (in a way). Today we are caramelizing onions. I love onions. I love them as onion rings. I love them as the bite in my salads. I love them in or on just about everything. I love them even more when they are caramelized. That just means that we are slowly pulling the sugars out of the onion and letting them coat the onion and transform them to an almost sweet addition to... you guessed it. Just about anything.

The first step is to learn to cut the onion. Onions, like meat and wood, have a grain. Once you peel them and cut them in half, you can see the grain. There are two ways to cut the onions at this point. (In addition to dicing them, that's for another day.) If you cut against the grain, you are using what is called a salad cut. The slices are easy to separate and is what you would use if you wanted onion slices in your salad (you do, by the way). If you cut with the grain, you are using the sauté cut. I use this cut 95% of the time.

The next step is pretty easy. There is one really important part to this step! TAKE IT SLOW. Caramelized onions were not meant to be done in 15 minutes or less. They need time to relax in the pan so they feel comfortable enough to release all of their sugars. You don't want them panicking and holding out on you. Trust me.

Heat your pan to medium low heat and add butter. (You can use cast iron or stainless steel - I prefer cast iron because I am more comfortable with it. Stainless steel seems to get too hot for me even at a low temperature.) Throw in your onions. Let them sit there. Stir them about 5 minutes later to make sure your pan isn't too hot. If they are browning too quickly, turn down your heat. Stir them every 5 or ten minutes after that. Every time you stir scrape up the fond on the pan and let it mix in with the onions.

I did both cast iron and stainless to show you the difference in color. (*See note)

The first photos will be of the cast iron.

And now the stainless steel.

(I know this last one looks burnt. It's not. Just read on.)

They will go from raw onion to translucent to blonde to light brown to dark brown to black. Don't let them get to black. It's that easy! If you are me, you're tasting the onions every time you stir them to make sure they are turning into what you want. (The sugar content is different in onions because of their ages, and you will want to know that in a little while.) Fine. I taste them because they are delicious and I want to.

After your onions are between light brown and dark brown, you are going to want to salt them. This brings out the moisture and helps transform the fond to a liquid that coats the onion. When they brown another 5 minutes or so, you can add chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, or water. The onions will lighten in color once you add the liquid. Don't be scared. Everything will work out. Let the onions soak up the flavor. There are times that I've used old onions that just aren't sweet enough at this point. That's what brown sugar is for. Just a little. Once the liquid has reduced to coat the onions, you are done.

I used chicken stock in the cast iron pan and balsamic vinegar and chicken stock in the stainless steel pan. Just so you can tell the difference in color. Come on over if you want to taste the difference.

Use caramelized onions as a topping for burgers or sandwiches. You can add them to stir fry or soup. You can add them to pizza or casseroles. They will make an excellent layer of flavor to just about any dish.

*Note: I should apologize for the photos. I forgot about doing my blog post so I hurried through the process to get pictures that would be close to what you would be experiencing. Don't judge. It's after 3 AM and I am caramelizing onions for you. You're welcome.