Learn how to make caramelized onions with this step-by-step tutorial and delicious recipe.

Caramelized Onions

yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

butter (or high-heat cooking oil,

salt

granulated sugar

Heat butter in a large saute pan over medium heat until melted.  Add onions, and toss until they are coated in the butter.

Cook the onions for the next 40 minutes or so until they are caramelized, using a spatula to stir the onions and scrape the bottom of the pan every 3-5 minutes.  As the onions begin to caramelize and darken, you may need to scrape the pan more often.

Once the onions reach a deep golden brown color and are nice and syrupy, sprinkle them with a pinch of two of salt (and sugar, if desired).  Stir the stock a tablespoon or two at a time, adding enough so that the browned bits on the bottom of the pan loosen when scraped with a spatula.  Stir the onions for 1 more minute, being sure to stir in the browned bits, then remove from heat.

Serve immediately.  Or let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Wow, did I ever make some mistakes this time, and along the way, I learned the answer to the question about why, when the onions are cooled, the butter sometimes separates from the onions. I mean, my onions browned some (not as much as usual), so they caramelized some, but not fully. Why? Well.... I wanted more caramelized onions for my efforts. So.... I experimented with too many onions for *my* current, rather cool running crockpot (at least the crockpot I used this time, though using HIGH heat the whole time with that partucular crockpot might have worked? High heat in that crockpot has worked in the past, since it is a cool running crockpot..... Back then, I followed an old style slow cooker recipe for my old style slow cooker. That recipe called for cooking six large onions in 6 T of oil with no salt, for nine hours on HIGH. I had cut the recipe in half, cuz that's all the onions I had. And it worked beautifully!!!!) But thus time, when I set out to caramelized onions again, I didn't even glance at that recipe, cuz I wanted to know how many onions I could caramelize at one time!!!!! I wanted more bang for my buck!!! So I looked online for a well reviewed recipe, and after reading the recipe and reviews here at gimmesomeoven.com, I decided on my first experiment, and it was a partial fail. The onions are good, just not amazing.....
To understand what went wrong this time, ya gotta keep in mind how caramel recipes work: First the butter is melted. Then the sugar is melted into the butter. Then sufficient heat for sufficient time with access to sufficient air is required for a chemical reaction to occur which changes the butter and sugar solution into the sticky, gooey, wondrous concoction it is designed to be. --- 
In short, I got greedy with the wrong slow cooker. I put too many onions in *my old styled cool running slow cooker*, too late in the day (though they had cooked ten hours by the time I went to bed). Based on what one reviewer here said about filling her slow cooker so full of onions that the lid didn't fit at first, I jammed all sorts of onions into my slow cooker, that ugh I did slice my way nions a bit wider this time, cutting them more like they are in the pictures here. ----  Then, based on questions and answers about speeding up the process by using the high setting for three hours and then turning the setting down to low, I tried that. ---- Well, the juices in the pot were substantial after the first three hours. (Note: since I wanted lots and lots of onions, I did not reference my old recipe, and I forgot that that recipe, written for old slow cookers, does indeed call for cooking the onions on high for nine hours!) So, in spite of all those juices, since I was quite concerned about burning my onions, I cranked down the heat to low while my onions were swimming in liquid. It didn't take long before I knew I needed to offset the lid to allow the juices to continue to escape. I did so for hours.... until bedtime. But my onions were not finished after roughly ten hours of cooking.... And, no, there was absolutely no caramelizing going on. They were a nice, softened texture, tho not mushy. And they were almost translucent. They would have been lovely on many a sandwich or salad, etc. But there was absolutely no browning/caramelizing going on yet. I thought about freezing them as they were, but one reviewer mentioned accidentally leaving her onions on overnight out on her patio, so...., with the lid fully settled back onto the pot, so they would not dry out and/or burn overnight, I went to bed, hoping they would be caramelized but not burnt in the morning. ---- Come morning, the onions were browned a good bit, and the juices were cooking off, were also browned a good bit, and were beginning to thicken quite nicely, but they were not jammy. In theory, running the cooker longer with the lid ajar again might well have finished caramelizing the onions? but.... I was having to leave town and was not sure whether I was even going to be back to my kitchen that day. So..... I bagged up my partly caramelized onions, after roughly eighteen hours, and set them to cool briefly (four separate bags). ---- Now, since I left the house before they were fully cooled, I slipped them into the fridge. Sure enough, when I finally got home, the butter had separated from the onions and the fridge solidified that butter at the top. ---- Why? Because the conversion from sugar+butter to caramel had not occurred fully, only in part. ---- Could all those onions have caramelized in that cool running pot if I had cooked the onions on high the whole time, with the lid ajar after the onions were sufficiently softened and the liquid had sufficiently rendered? Maybe so. --- But my next experiment will use that same slow cooker with six large onions, then seven, then eight, etc. until the process stops working fully, or until I have so many onions that the lid won't set down onto the cooker until the onions cook down. 

Sooo.... My suggestion for this recipe? 1) That it be rewritten with pictures showing the condition of the onions when the lid is set ajar, ....so people can judge whether they should set that lid ajar sooner or later. 2) That the recipe indicate that in older, much cooler running slow cookers, a high setting can work beautifully.

That said, I love how you recommend keeping an eye on one's own first efforts with this slow cooker recipe since all slow cookers are different. I wish more recipe developers would do the same.... Awesome job! Not surprisingly well done.

I have tried some of your recipes in the past and like many others, have come to trust your recipes for great flavor!!! 

Thank you seems a bit dull for the enjoyment you share with the heart of so many homes (The Gran's Ol' Kitchen!)!  So I just hope this feedback helps you continue to do so with a tad more "experience" impacting your, clearly broad based cooking finesse.....

caramelized onions

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total: 45 minutes

Author : Ali

Ingredients

Instructions

Top Similar Recipes from Across the Web