Caramelized Onions

The next on my list of wonderful and simple flavor boosters that I keep at all times is caramelized onions. Anyone who has worked with me can attest to my obsession with this seemingly simple yet infinitely complex process. I say it is a process because there is no recipe for making superlative caramelized onions. You could make it with red, yellow, white, Bermuda, Walla Walla, Maui, large, small, sweet, or acidic onions. You can cook them in a stock pot, saute pan, sauce pot, sautoir, braising pan or cast iron pot. You can cook them with butter, olive oil (again do not use extra virgin, it burns too easily, and will make everything taste bitter), any vegetable oil: canola, peanut, corn, grapeseed or even sesame (although I don’t really recommend it); any of the cooking fats; duck, pork, bacon (extra delish), or foie gras fat (if you have it, I fully recommend it).

So now you can see the picture: it doesn’t matter what the ingredients are (onions, salt, oil or fat, pot, heat), the important part is that you take the time to follow the method properly.

Step 1: peel and slice the onions (in any way you wish to slice them, as long as you slice them in a very uniform way.
Step 2: heat the pot over medium heat and add far less oil, butter or fat to the pan than you will think it needs (the way I think of this is approximately a 50:1 ratio of onions to oil).
Step 3: add the onions to the pot, and add some salt.
Step 4: put a well fitting lid on the pot and leave it alone.
Step 5: make sure that you stir the pot, moving the onions on the bottom to the top, once all of the onions have gotten softer and begin to get translucent.
Step 6: reduce the heat to as low as you can without the flame going out. At this point, you can do away with the lid, you don’t really need it once the onions get soft and translucent.
Step 7: keep stirring from time to time and if you feel something on the bottom of the pan, remove it from heat until it pulls off of the bottom.

During the next 45 minutes to 5 hours (really, it is worth it, just make the time) you will notice all of the steps of the onions as they begin to soften and cook. (Observe this and remember it as you will probably be seeing it again.)

Step 8: as the onions begin to really soften and gradually grow darker until they reach the desired color and sweetness.
Other people will tell you that you need to add sugar at some point. These people do not want you to be successful, in fact that will make the flavor shallow and just cloyingly sweet.
In reality, the onions (regardless of type) have more than enough residual sugars in them to caramelize perfectly as they are.
Step 9: taste often, and once the onions get to the light beige color, you really need to start paying active attention to your onions.
Resist the urge to raise the heat under the onions, this is the home stretch now, slow and steady wins the race.
Step 10: stop the cooking process once the onions are the color of rich mahogany, just before the burning point. (If you do happen to burn them, just toss them and start over, this is not something you can pretend you didn’t mess up, the flavor of burn just permeates the whole mess, so don’t try it)