Balsamic Caramelized Onions | The Best Caramelized Onions Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Which onions are best for caramelized onions? ›

You can caramelize any kind of onion, but yellow or Spanish onions tend to offer the most balanced-sweet-savory flavor profile and are the most versatile for different dishes. Sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla work too, but keep in mind that their flavor will become even sweeter once caramelized.

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.

No! Onions already contain natural sugars, which is why they're so perfect for caramelizing. This process brings out those sugars to make them more prominent. Adding more sugar would make them too sweet and mess with the flavor.

Salting caramelized onions is like the icing on the cake. They must have salt but don't make the mistake of salting the onions too early. Instead, salt them at the very end of the recipe. Salt makes the onions release moisture which can slow down the caramelization.

The first phase of the process is softening the onions so that they collapse into a tender mass while releasing a good deal of their liquid. If you cover the pan, you'll trap steam, which will speed up their softening, heat them more quickly, and help release their liquid more quickly.

When you add baking soda during cooking it changes the pH which increases the Maillard reaction causing the onions to brown more quickly. The higher pH also causes the onions to soften more quickly, which we cover below when we discuss the texture.

For most of the cooking process, the heat should be low or medium-low to prevent the onions from burning before they have a chance to soften and caramelize.

Fold onions with a spatula, scraping bottom of pan to ensure they don't stick or scorch. Cook, stirring every 5 to 6 minutes and reducing heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer, until liquid has evaporated, about 35 minutes.

Tip: the vinegar serves to deglaze the pan, adds acidity, and brings this recipe together by boosting the tangy and savory flavors of the caramelized onions. If the onions stick to the pan, that's fine.

You definitely want the flavor of butter in your onions—but butter has the tendency to burn. For insurance, use a combination of butter and oil, which has a higher smoking point. But how much do you use? Depending on the consistency you want your onions, you can use more or less fat.

Why do my caramelized onions taste bitter? ›

Why are my caramelized onions bitter? It's likely you are cooking them too fast/on too high a heat, which results in burned, not caramalized, onions. The trick to caramelizing onions is low heat and slow cooking. It can take a while, especially if you start with a big batch.

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.

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.

Brown sugar is simply cane sugar with molasses added to it. Therefore, you are adding even MORE sugar, and more brown color, to your onions. Thus the caramelization is so much better and faster! If you don't have brown sugar, feel free to use regular cane sugar or even panela when caramelising onions.

Unlike mushrooms, which shouldn't be salted until after they've browned, you should always salt onions before you start cooking them. Onions won't begin to caramelize until all the water in them has evaporated, and using salt will speed up that process, Caicedo explains.