Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? (2012)

Re:Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to cara... by dragonwriter on Sunday June 27, 2021 @04:00AM (#27649550)

> How do you get “dark”, “medium-brown”, or “golden brown” in under 10 minutes, and without caramelizing?

Thin cuts, a decent pan, avoid sweet onions (which take longer to brown), and use a little higher heat than the center of the medium-high range, IME.

Browning is much quicker than caramelizing (see, e.g., https://marxfood.com/caramelizing-onions-vs-browning-onions/ which gives 15 minutes for browning, and an hour for caramelizing; you can push browning more easily.)

(The quoted 5 to brown + 5 to caramelize in TFA is bullshit, though, no question, but most of the quotes in the article aren’t about caramelizing, they are about browning – often lightly browning – in a fairly reasonable time for the level of browning described.)

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Re:Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to cara... by cout on Sunday June 27, 2021 @04:35AM (#27649730)

Sweet onions take longer to brown?

Whatever kind of sweet onions we get locally start to turn brown after 7 minutes on medium high (keeping the skillet around 350F).

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Re:Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to cara... by dragonwriter on Sunday June 27, 2021 @04:40AM (#27649752)

> Sweet onions take longer to brown?

I’ve read that the lack of sulfur compounds has that effect, and my subjective impression is consistent with that, but I haven’t done structured trials. (And I don’t prefer sweet onions in those applications, in any case.)

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Re:Why do recipe writers lie about how long it takes to cara... by sammalloy on Sunday June 27, 2021 @11:49AM (#27652513)

This makes a lot of sense and goes a long way to explain the time discrepancies. It's sad that I had to scroll down the page and find these comments buried at the bottom when they should be at the top.

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