I read this article years ago, and it's one of my favorites. As a home cook I immediately judge a recipe and its author by whether they give realistic cook times for onions. I'm glad someone put...
I read this article years ago, and it's one of my favorites. As a home cook I immediately judge a recipe and its author by whether they give realistic cook times for onions. I'm glad someone put the lie to Big Fast Dinner.
The conclusion of the article, that the best time to caramelize onions is yesterday, is accurate in my experience. Take a weekend afternoon and do a large bag of onions with some butter as the...
The conclusion of the article, that the best time to caramelize onions is yesterday, is accurate in my experience. Take a weekend afternoon and do a large bag of onions with some butter as the fat, then put them in large Ziploc bags in a thin layer and chuck those in the freezer. The butter and generally not very high water content makes them have a consistency when frozen akin to fruit leather and you can just rip off a chunk. You need a surprisingly small chunk of deep mahogany caramelized onions to get that flavor into your dinner.
Hear hear! I came here for this. A little bit of water and a see through lid for a frying pan saves so incredibly on time with so many things vegetable. From mushrooms to cabbage, wok to potatoes....
Hear hear! I came here for this.
A little bit of water and a see through lid for a frying pan saves so incredibly on time with so many things vegetable.
From mushrooms to cabbage, wok to potatoes. I want my food properly cooked to get the nutrients and flavor, and to avoid indigestion.
Thanks for this! I've been wanting to make french onion soup in this cold weather but the one time I did, I did it the old school way before which took... a lot... of time.
Thanks for this! I've been wanting to make french onion soup in this cold weather but the one time I did, I did it the old school way before which took... a lot... of time.
One of the best interpretations for caramelizing onions was something along the lines of "for as long as you are willing." The author of the recipe provided a time range of about 20 minutes, but...
One of the best interpretations for caramelizing onions was something along the lines of "for as long as you are willing." The author of the recipe provided a time range of about 20 minutes, but insisted that the longer you caramelized them the more in depth the flavors of the dish would be.
The "recipe internet" is just like most of the rest of the internet. Interested in clicks. Those clicks lead to ad impressions, which leads to, wait for it, money in the site owner's bank account!...
The "recipe internet" is just like most of the rest of the internet. Interested in clicks. Those clicks lead to ad impressions, which leads to, wait for it, money in the site owner's bank account!
It's why they all come up with stories to open the recipe with (boosts SEO), why they chase trends and look for exciting topical ingredients (captures SEO), and why they'll use kitchen platitudes and warm-fuzzy memes (dresses captured SEO clicks up in a friendly fashion). Even wrong memes and platitudes, like "quickly caramelize onions." They can't just say "saute the onions" or "lightly fry the onions for a few minutes." They want everything they put on the page (or insta, tweet, tiktok, whatever) to have pop and zing and algorithmic pull.
They're lying. Everything above is just about why they're lying, and/or how they're going about lying. But they're just lying. And most of them aren't even dedicated cooks, who work out their own recipes through trial and adjustment. If you find a site, that posts seven or more times a week, and they're not directly tied to a dedicated kitchen with a staff, how can they possibly be posting unique, tested, verified recipes?
They can't? Sorry, I mean they can't. But the algorithms require they maintain engagement, draw returning traffic. So they post daily, schedule specials around homecoming or Super Bowl or holiday cookouts. And so on. They find a recipe elsewhere online, glance it over, have their "content contractor" spin off five hundred words about "on cold mornings when I'm looking for a blah blah blah" they slap on the recipe and whamo, up it goes on the site.
Honestly, anyone who actually looks into cooking, reads into it, learns some (even as a beginner) should pretty quickly come across the caramelize onions thing. It's a meme at this point. Like the article. Any actual cookbook will tell you it takes hours to properly reduce onions. Even if you combine some techniques (like steaming or whatever), physics still means it takes time for the heat to enact the desired change in the onions.
Then there's the folks I just spent the holiday months watching post in /r/cooking. Stuff like "Hi, I've never cooked for more than myself, but now seventeen inlaws are coming over for Turkey Dinner. I need a full menu, with recipes, and if you could post on Youtube cooking each one with steps for me that'd be super."
Those are the people this "caramelize onions" and the rest of the memes are aimed at. You get out what you put in. If you're scrambling for "just the recipe" and have no cooking knowledge, you're gonna hit bumps. That's what happens when the road isn't smoothed out, when your suspension isn't adjusted to handle them.
Should the sites and everyone else not lie online? Yeah, but good luck stopping all them. Too much money to be made chasing algorithms. And "caramelize onions" is one of those meme buzz attractors that brings clicks.
Kind of like writing articles decrying "caramelize onions" brings clicks. In a week or whatever it'll be "what to do with leftover chicken wings from the Super Bowl party." Next month, "early spring greens; exciting ideas for your table."
The entire Internet is like those people who get in the elevator with you, and cannot countenance silence. There must be something to fill that space, and they'll fill it no matter how bland or stretched the attempt might be.
Seems like there is quite a lot of entertainment media that’s means to feel educational or useful. People who want to watch cooking or DIY videos but don’t actually care about following along. So...
Seems like there is quite a lot of entertainment media that’s means to feel educational or useful. People who want to watch cooking or DIY videos but don’t actually care about following along.
So it’s just easier and more effective to make up fake content for them.
You're spot on with the rest, but it would be fairly trivial to have a daily recipe site using remote cooks who develop and test recipes at home. It doesn't exist because it's more profitable to...
If you find a site, that posts seven or more times a week, and they're not directly tied to a dedicated kitchen with a staff, how can they possibly be posting unique, tested, verified recipes?
They can't? Sorry, I mean they can't.
You're spot on with the rest, but it would be fairly trivial to have a daily recipe site using remote cooks who develop and test recipes at home. It doesn't exist because it's more profitable to put in less effort, not because it wouldn't work.
I made this recipe, which called for caramelizing shallots and mushrooms together, last weekend. Following the directions and cooking in two batches, it easily took 45 minutes to get the mushrooms...
I made this recipe, which called for caramelizing shallots and mushrooms together, last weekend. Following the directions and cooking in two batches, it easily took 45 minutes to get the mushrooms to brown and the shallots to caramelize. The pot had a deep brown, slightly burnt-tasting fond by the end. While the resulting soup was good, I don't think even a professional kitchen and cook could have made it in less than an hour and a half. If I had to do it over, I'd brown the mushrooms and caramelize the shallots separately, even if it meant using two pans and boiling up the fond from each.
The Kitchn has a comparison test of methods for caramelizing onions, and concluded that the America's Test Kitchenrecipe (SLYT) came out best, even though it still takes 30 minutes.
I read this article years ago, and it's one of my favorites. As a home cook I immediately judge a recipe and its author by whether they give realistic cook times for onions. I'm glad someone put the lie to Big Fast Dinner.
The conclusion of the article, that the best time to caramelize onions is yesterday, is accurate in my experience. Take a weekend afternoon and do a large bag of onions with some butter as the fat, then put them in large Ziploc bags in a thin layer and chuck those in the freezer. The butter and generally not very high water content makes them have a consistency when frozen akin to fruit leather and you can just rip off a chunk. You need a surprisingly small chunk of deep mahogany caramelized onions to get that flavor into your dinner.
You can caramelize onions much faster than 45mins though by steaming them first to blast through the wilting phase, see https://youtu.be/Ovqhzil3wJw
Hear hear! I came here for this.
A little bit of water and a see through lid for a frying pan saves so incredibly on time with so many things vegetable.
From mushrooms to cabbage, wok to potatoes. I want my food properly cooked to get the nutrients and flavor, and to avoid indigestion.
Thanks for this! I've been wanting to make french onion soup in this cold weather but the one time I did, I did it the old school way before which took... a lot... of time.
One of the best interpretations for caramelizing onions was something along the lines of "for as long as you are willing." The author of the recipe provided a time range of about 20 minutes, but insisted that the longer you caramelized them the more in depth the flavors of the dish would be.
The "recipe internet" is just like most of the rest of the internet. Interested in clicks. Those clicks lead to ad impressions, which leads to, wait for it, money in the site owner's bank account!
It's why they all come up with stories to open the recipe with (boosts SEO), why they chase trends and look for exciting topical ingredients (captures SEO), and why they'll use kitchen platitudes and warm-fuzzy memes (dresses captured SEO clicks up in a friendly fashion). Even wrong memes and platitudes, like "quickly caramelize onions." They can't just say "saute the onions" or "lightly fry the onions for a few minutes." They want everything they put on the page (or insta, tweet, tiktok, whatever) to have pop and zing and algorithmic pull.
They're lying. Everything above is just about why they're lying, and/or how they're going about lying. But they're just lying. And most of them aren't even dedicated cooks, who work out their own recipes through trial and adjustment. If you find a site, that posts seven or more times a week, and they're not directly tied to a dedicated kitchen with a staff, how can they possibly be posting unique, tested, verified recipes?
They can't? Sorry, I mean they can't. But the algorithms require they maintain engagement, draw returning traffic. So they post daily, schedule specials around homecoming or Super Bowl or holiday cookouts. And so on. They find a recipe elsewhere online, glance it over, have their "content contractor" spin off five hundred words about "on cold mornings when I'm looking for a blah blah blah" they slap on the recipe and whamo, up it goes on the site.
Honestly, anyone who actually looks into cooking, reads into it, learns some (even as a beginner) should pretty quickly come across the caramelize onions thing. It's a meme at this point. Like the article. Any actual cookbook will tell you it takes hours to properly reduce onions. Even if you combine some techniques (like steaming or whatever), physics still means it takes time for the heat to enact the desired change in the onions.
Then there's the folks I just spent the holiday months watching post in /r/cooking. Stuff like "Hi, I've never cooked for more than myself, but now seventeen inlaws are coming over for Turkey Dinner. I need a full menu, with recipes, and if you could post on Youtube cooking each one with steps for me that'd be super."
Those are the people this "caramelize onions" and the rest of the memes are aimed at. You get out what you put in. If you're scrambling for "just the recipe" and have no cooking knowledge, you're gonna hit bumps. That's what happens when the road isn't smoothed out, when your suspension isn't adjusted to handle them.
Should the sites and everyone else not lie online? Yeah, but good luck stopping all them. Too much money to be made chasing algorithms. And "caramelize onions" is one of those meme buzz attractors that brings clicks.
Kind of like writing articles decrying "caramelize onions" brings clicks. In a week or whatever it'll be "what to do with leftover chicken wings from the Super Bowl party." Next month, "early spring greens; exciting ideas for your table."
The entire Internet is like those people who get in the elevator with you, and cannot countenance silence. There must be something to fill that space, and they'll fill it no matter how bland or stretched the attempt might be.
Seems like there is quite a lot of entertainment media that’s means to feel educational or useful. People who want to watch cooking or DIY videos but don’t actually care about following along.
So it’s just easier and more effective to make up fake content for them.
You're spot on with the rest, but it would be fairly trivial to have a daily recipe site using remote cooks who develop and test recipes at home. It doesn't exist because it's more profitable to put in less effort, not because it wouldn't work.
I made this recipe, which called for caramelizing shallots and mushrooms together, last weekend. Following the directions and cooking in two batches, it easily took 45 minutes to get the mushrooms to brown and the shallots to caramelize. The pot had a deep brown, slightly burnt-tasting fond by the end. While the resulting soup was good, I don't think even a professional kitchen and cook could have made it in less than an hour and a half. If I had to do it over, I'd brown the mushrooms and caramelize the shallots separately, even if it meant using two pans and boiling up the fond from each.
The Kitchn has a comparison test of methods for caramelizing onions, and concluded that the America's Test Kitchen recipe (SLYT) came out best, even though it still takes 30 minutes.
Mushrooms contain a lot of moisture, so doing it together probably retarded the caramelization from the added moisture being released from them.
I bet the water trick would work just as well with a mushroom and shallot mixture: https://youtu.be/rzL07v6w8AA?t=308
Previous discussions can also be found here.
This made me realize I have no clue how to caramelize onions. Guess I need to look it up and try.
Just follow America's Test Kitchen's recipe linked in this comment, and you'll be golden!