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For great onion techniques see "Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook's Manifesto" by Michael Ruhlman. Before this book I didn't know there was

by sgs1370 10y ago

For great onion techniques see "Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook's Manifesto" by Michael Ruhlman. Before this book I didn't know there was a difference between sweating them and caramelizing them.

Shivetya 10y ago
if you go down the rabbit hole and follow the links within about his Slate article it takes you to a great recipe for onion soup I have also used, https://www.smith.edu/diningservices/recipes/onion-soup.php https://www.smith.edu/diningservices/recipes/onion-soup.php which covers how to do the onions right.
- ska 10y ago
  Any version of this that starts off with a food processor is showing you shortcuts, not how to do the onions right. Short version of "right": onions sliced by hand in small wedges with the grain (i.e. lengthwise) - otherwise you cut through too many cell boundaries and let the water out too fast. Then it's a lower heat (no scorching!) for hours, not minutes, stirring every 15 min or so. So it's obvious why people want shortcuts, but all of them give you inferior results.
  - eric_the_read 10y ago
    I suppose you could count using a mandoline as "by hand", but either way, I think it's easier than a knife by far, especially if you're making more than a small amount of soup.
    - ska 10y ago
      A mandoline doesn't help unfortunately. If you want the best result, you have to cut radially along the grain (like orange slices). It's a technique that requires a knife, I'm afraid - though it's certainly harder. It's sort of analogous to the difference between properly mincing garlic and putting it through a press. For some things it won't matter much, for some you prefer a different technique. But they are not interchangeable, they are different things.
  - whyenot 10y ago
    > otherwise you cut through too many cell boundaries and let the water out too fast That really doesn't make any sense. If you slice across the grain, you might slice through more vascular tissue than if you sliced lengthwise, but onions aren't highly vascularized. Furthermore, the cells are linked with plasmodesmata in all directions. No matter how you slice them, water is going to leak out at about the same rate. I would be a little suspicious that slicing with the grain would do anything. It sounds like one of those cooking rules of thumb that don't have any basis in fact. ...on the other hand, maybe Cooks Illustrated or someone else has done a controlled experiment and there really is a difference.
    - ska 10y ago
      As I understand it, it's not the vascularity, but because the cells are anisotropic and arranged a bit radially. Best thing I could find on a short search is serious eats (near the bottom) :http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/11/knife-skills-how-to-slice-and-dice-an-onion.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/11/knife-skills-how-to-slice... I'm pretty sure cooks illustrated has done this experiment, but finding their stuff on line is difficult.
Ensorceled 10y ago
A decade ago took a cooking class that an amazing chef offered to a bunch of us regulars. One of the things he showed us was how to properly chop and sweat onions to sweeten them, including how to use smell to tell when they were done. Somebody said "Oh, we're going to caramelize them." and the chef replied, quite matter of factly, "Oh, no, we'll be here all night if we caramelize them." And that's when I learned there was a difference.
- ska 10y ago
  He was not kidding. Full and careful caramelization for french onion soup, say, takes 3 hours or more (and you have to cut them with the grain or it won't work nearly as well). If you ever wondered why it's really hard to find great french onion soup (assuming you've had it once!) - that's why.

by sgs1370 10y ago

Shivetya 10y ago

if you go down the rabbit hole and follow the links within about his Slate article it takes you to a great recipe for onion soup I have also used, https://www.smith.edu/diningservices/recipes/onion-soup.php https://www.smith.edu/diningservices/recipes/onion-soup.php which covers how to do the onions right.

ska 10y ago
Any version of this that starts off with a food processor is showing you shortcuts, not how to do the onions right. Short version of "right": onions sliced by hand in small wedges with the grain (i.e. lengthwise) - otherwise you cut through too many cell boundaries and let the water out too fast. Then it's a lower heat (no scorching!) for hours, not minutes, stirring every 15 min or so. So it's obvious why people want shortcuts, but all of them give you inferior results.
- eric_the_read 10y ago
  I suppose you could count using a mandoline as "by hand", but either way, I think it's easier than a knife by far, especially if you're making more than a small amount of soup.
  - ska 10y ago
    A mandoline doesn't help unfortunately. If you want the best result, you have to cut radially along the grain (like orange slices). It's a technique that requires a knife, I'm afraid - though it's certainly harder. It's sort of analogous to the difference between properly mincing garlic and putting it through a press. For some things it won't matter much, for some you prefer a different technique. But they are not interchangeable, they are different things.
- whyenot 10y ago
  > otherwise you cut through too many cell boundaries and let the water out too fast That really doesn't make any sense. If you slice across the grain, you might slice through more vascular tissue than if you sliced lengthwise, but onions aren't highly vascularized. Furthermore, the cells are linked with plasmodesmata in all directions. No matter how you slice them, water is going to leak out at about the same rate. I would be a little suspicious that slicing with the grain would do anything. It sounds like one of those cooking rules of thumb that don't have any basis in fact. ...on the other hand, maybe Cooks Illustrated or someone else has done a controlled experiment and there really is a difference.
  - ska 10y ago
    As I understand it, it's not the vascularity, but because the cells are anisotropic and arranged a bit radially. Best thing I could find on a short search is serious eats (near the bottom) :http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/11/knife-skills-how-to-slice-and-dice-an-onion.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/11/knife-skills-how-to-slice... I'm pretty sure cooks illustrated has done this experiment, but finding their stuff on line is difficult.

Ensorceled 10y ago

A decade ago took a cooking class that an amazing chef offered to a bunch of us regulars. One of the things he showed us was how to properly chop and sweat onions to sweeten them, including how to use smell to tell when they were done. Somebody said "Oh, we're going to caramelize them." and the chef replied, quite matter of factly, "Oh, no, we'll be here all night if we caramelize them." And that's when I learned there was a difference.

ska 10y ago
He was not kidding. Full and careful caramelization for french onion soup, say, takes 3 hours or more (and you have to cut them with the grain or it won't work nearly as well). If you ever wondered why it's really hard to find great french onion soup (assuming you've had it once!) - that's why.