Lies Told About Caramelizing Onions

Tom Scocca is upset with celebrity chefs and recipes that tell you to caramelize onions in ten minutes. You can sauté onions in *ten minutes, but caramelization takes around 45 minutes, meaning "the best time to caramelize onions is yesterday."

But if you take the time to do it right, you'll be rewarded with some mighty delicious cooked onions. The article at Slate looks into how chefs come up with their timetables, which are different from what goes on in your kitchen. Link -via Metafilter, where you can find a lengthy but helpful discussion on onions.

(Image credit: Flickr user Esteban Cavrico)

*Actually less than ten minutes, but the linked article is only about caramelization.

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

Even telling that one can sauté onions in 10 minutes is a lie.

Sauté, in its original french term, means cooking in a pan on super high temperature. Sautéing onions takes no more than 3 minutes. If it takes 10 minutes, it's not sautéing as your oven is definitely not at the maximum setting or close to it.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Note that J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats actually did find a faster way to fully caramelize onions. About 20 minutes, with the same scientific result happening (and, according to my experience, a tastier result).
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Alton Brown's "Food Lab" page on the Serious Eats website has an extensive write-up on carmelizing onions.

He goes into great detail about the chemistry involved, including the Malliard reaction, which occurs more quickly in alkaline conditions. By adding a little baking soda, a person can shorten the time from 45 minutes to 15-20 minutes, according to him.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Lewis you don't saute in an oven you do it in a pan over a ring. To saute you transfer heat rapidly from the pan to the food, if you did it an an oven the heat would be coming from the surrounding air.

I find that a lot of people confuse sauteing with sweating, which could be where somebody would get the idea that it would take 10 minutes to saute onions.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I'm no chef, I admit. When I wrote that, I was trying to used an example of what your onions would be IF you cooked them for way less than the time required for caramelizing. Mea culpa. I usually just fry my onions a little and then pour in tomatoes.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Commenting is closed.

Email This Post to a Friend
"Lies Told About Caramelizing Onions"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.


Success! Your email has been sent!

close window

This website uses cookies.


I agree
Learn More