Caramelized Onions

This was supposed to be last weekend's post, but ... well, sometimes things happen. This weekend's post should happen on time.

My children and I once decided that everything in the world tasted even better with the addition of one or the other of two foods -- chocolate or onions. Though we have tried, we haven't yet come up with something that would be improved by the addition of both.

This method of preparing onions is a good one for people who really don't like the taste of onions, or who have problems with digesting uncooked onions. It's really simple, though time-consuming, and the taste of onions cooked this way is hard to beat. You might even be able to add chocolate to them.

Onions are caramelized by cooking them for a long time over low heat. The process releases the sugars inherent in the onions and gives them a sweet oniony flavor. (No, that's not an oxymoron.) The cooked onions can be used in many different ways. I like to make a big batch and freeze them in smaller quantities for later use.

I usually start with about 5 pounds of onions. Big onions are good because that means you have to peel and chop fewer onions. Vidalia onions work well because they tend to be sweet anyway, but almost any white or yellow onion can be used.

I slice the onions by cutting them in half, then slicing each half to form half-circles of onion. You can chop them up finer or even make rings. It doesn't much matter in the end.

For 5 pounds of onions, I use one stick of butter. I melt it in a big pot and add the onions.

That's a 8-quart pot and, as you can see, it is almost full of the raw onions. During the first 10 to 15 minutes, I stir the onions fairly frequently to make sure that the onions are coated with the butter. After that, I just check on them from time to time.

After about 45 minutes to an hour, the onions are starting to cook down:

The only real trick to this process is to use a fairly low heat under the onions. You can make them brown a little faster by adding a small amount of sugar (a teaspoon or two), but it's not really necessary. Eventually -- after a couple of hours -- the onions will start to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan.

Notice how much the onions have cooked down.  Scrape up all the stuff at the bottom and stir it into the onions. I often add a little water to the onions if they are sticking too much. At this point, I check the onions more often to make sure that they don't go from browning to burning.


When the onions are browned to your satisfaction, they are done. At this point, they can be used to any number of things. We use them on pizza and in dishes where we want a sweet onion flavor. But one of the easiest and tastiest uses is to spread the onions on Italian bread that has been brushed with olive oil and toasted.

It's impossible to describe how incredibly delicious this onion spread is. Try it yourself!