Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Food Related => Topic started by: hughver on August 04, 2022, 06:32:45 PM
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One of my projects today. Last week I was serving steak and discovered that I was out of caramelized onions. I picked up a bag from Costco and have procrasted long enough, so today is the day. As usual, I’ll use the slow cooker method to caramelize them. When done I’ll vacuum bag them in meal sized portions and freeze.
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Tell me more about the slow cooker method you use as I love caramelized onions but have not found an easy method to make them. Your method may be my ticket to easy street.
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It's dead easy. The toughest part is peeling and slicing the onions. Here is a link. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/246511/slow-cooker-caramelized-onions/ I cook them on low until they are dark brown, ~12 hours. I use my meat slicer. Some of the recipes add brown sugar and balsamic vinegar at the end.
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Maybe a little butter and olive oil.
I like them like that, but a lot of the times I like then to be just softened some and still on the white side.
Have you ever added peppers in with them?
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Just salt and black Pepper
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Just salt and black Pepper
Have you ever thought about adding sugar. I believe it helps the caramelizing.
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After they are caramelized, I add a bit brown sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
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After 12 hours. They are not as brown as previous attempts, but I used a different crockpot. Temperature varies with different pots. Note, this batch consisted of 6 very large yellow onions. My crockpot is a 6-quart version and they barely fit. Most crockpots are not that large. 3-4 would be more appropriate for a normal pot.
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does freezing them change texture or anything over fresh done?
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Nice job hughver. We usually buy a few bags of onions in the Fall & caramelize them in cast iron skillets. Afterwards they are frozen in small packages to be used later in french onion soup and on pizzas. They
have always turned out well.
Yes Dave, they do well in the freezer - no taste or texture change that we can detect.
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Yes Dave, they do well in the freezer - no taste or texture change that we can detect.
I agree with John.
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I am going to have to try this crock pot technique. May give me a reason to use some of these EVOO flavors I bought last weekend.
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For some reason it doesn't allow me to attach some pictures so I cant show the other EVOO flavors of Garlic Chili and Citrus Habanero
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They should work well in place of the butter.
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They should work well in place of the butter.
That was my thought. I may throw some thyme and rosemary and cracked black pepper in there too.
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Vacuum packed and ready for labeling and freezing. They were very moist, so I'm glad that I had a chamber vacuum sealer. I distributed the juice in each bag. Each bag contained 6-12 Oz. I estimated (guessed) that ~2 Oz. would suffice for one serving.
I found out why the onions did not get as dark as I expected. Unbeknownst to me, my loving wife stored the clips that hold the top, under the inner bowl, which reduced heat transfer.
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Guess I'm going to have to look into getting one of those chamber vacuum sealers.
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Good idea, I'll try them next time. BTW, go easy on the brown sugar if you are using it, the onions were sweet enough without it. used 1 tbs. for six large onions, I'll use 2 tsp. next time. I also used 2 tbs. of balsamic vinegar. The final product was very good.
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Guess I'm going to have to look into getting one of those chamber vacuum sealers.
I have an Anova. supper easy to use.
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Any objections to changing the subject to Caramelized Onions in a Crock Pot? It would certainly help me find it again when I am looking for this great idea. I believe it may help others too.
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I support you name change for the reason you mention.
You might want to consider removing the trade name Crock Part and substitute slow cooker.
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Name change would surely be appropriate, I'm not sure how to do it.
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Done. Thanks for the feeback.