Caramelized Onions

2024-08-17

Notes and Commentary

It takes a pretty long time to nicely caramelize onions, so you might as well make a large batch at once. They keep in an airtight container in the fridge for around a week (though you'll probably eat them long before that), and they can also be frozen.

Common theme, but I once again have no idea how many servings this makes. I find that 4 large white onions yields little over 1 large white onion's worth of caramelized onions.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Olive oil (or another cooking oil with a relatively neutral flavour) or butter
• 4 large white onions
• Salt
• Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Prep

Step 1: Slice Onions

Slice your onions into thin slices that are about the same size as each other. Try not to have absolutely massive or absolutely tiny chunks; evenly-sized slices are going to help with even cooking.

Step 2: Caramelize Onions

Place the largest pan you've got over medium-high heat. You want to use a large pan to prevent crowding and maximize the surface area available to the onions.

Add a small amount of olive oil or butter (eyeball it, the bottom of the pan shouldn't even need to be fully-coated) and wait till it shimmers. Then, add your sliced onions, salt liberally.

Give the onions a nice initial stir until they start to brown. Then, reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally. If you find that the onion start to burn, add a splash of water. Don't worry, this won't affect the flavor at the end.

Keep stirring occasionally until the onions turn a rich, golden-brown color. The darker they are, the "jammier" they'll taste. You can optionally add a splash of balsamic vinegar to cut through the sweetness and add a touch of acidity. Some caramelized onion recipes call for the addition of sugar, but I find that completely unnecessary; the natural sugars in the onions already provide a substantial base for caramelization.

Make sure to taste as you go! Caramelizing onions is so fun because you get to taste the entire spectrum of crunchy raw onion to basically onion jam.

Epilogue

I recently moved to a new place uptown for the remaining time I have in New York this summer. I've been staying down in the Lower East Side for the past month, and while the location was extremely convenient (close to Chinatown, fantastic restaurants, etc), it wasn't a great experience for overall. It was too loud, and being so close to everything was a double-edged sword. I also started craving home-cooked meals, and cooking was slightly difficult. Coupled with the fact that I wasn't able to run for a month due to an injury, it was a pretty miserable time.

Saying in 3 different places for each month of my time in New York this summer was an experience, but I think if I were to do it again, I'd try to find a decent place uptown and stick with it.

Anyway, I decided the best way to celebrate moving into my last new place was to caramelize some onions to use as a topping for avocado toast, which I've been having for breakfast for the past few days. I think caramelized onions are the foodstuff with the highest deliciousness-to-monetary-cost ratio you can get; other than the time you spend over the stovetop babysitting the onions, they're practically free (if you can get white onions for cheap).