Ode to Caramelized Onions

Ode to Caramelized Onions

Last weekend I accidentally solved a mystery and a problem which has been plaguing me for my whole life. Well, really for the last 10 years of it, when I started actually cooking food (as opposed to just preparing packaged and frozen food for every meal).
Ready for it? I learned that caramelized and sautéed onions are not the same thing.
I know, right? Everybody knows that, sheesh! Well, except for me. What can I say? I'm a slow learner when it comes to cooking.
All along I have been making sautéed onions, and wondering why they weren't as good as the caramelized onions I had eaten elsewhere. Like at my favorite diner, where they top a patty melt with pure deliciousness.
About five years ago, I learned how to sautee onions from a genuine chef. As in, someone who had both graduated from the CIA and been the head chef at a major urban restaurant. My previous attempts at sautéing onions had only resulted in a sloppy, pale mess. He showed me that the key to sautéing onions properly is:
  • High heat
  • Low oil

"High and dry" was the phrase that he used. The high heat is necessary, because otherwise the onions sweat out so much liquid that they end up drowning themselves. The same goes for using a minimum of oil - add too much, and you end up with a sloppy mess.
Sauteed onions, as delicious as they are, are not the same as caramelized onions. When you caramelize onions, you end up with a pile of onions so tender that they are practically creamy. The color is darker, too - ideally, somewhere around the color of milk chocolate. And they are sweet, with the onion's sugar having been, well, caramelized.
To get caramelized onions, the key is to cook them "low and slow." It should take at least half an hour for your onions to caramelize, so set your stove to whatever temperature will accomplish that. On mine it's medium-low, or halfway between 2 and 3.
For most of the cooking process, only turn the onions occasionally. Every five minutes, or even less often. You want them to brown nicely! Add some salt, and you can also add a pinch of sugar if you think they need it. (Some onions are a lot more harsh and less sweet than others.)
At the end, after the onions have nicely browned, deglaze the pan with some water, chicken stock, or white wine. Crank up the heat, pour in a bit of liquid, and let it bubble while you scrape the good stuff off the bottom of the pan.
Delicious!