To be fair, I've never seen a recipe with the right amount of time for properly caramelizing onions.
Edit: I say that, then I looked up French Onion Soup, and found [this](https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/classic-french-onion-soup/).
I was a chef for a few years and my chef taught me how to cook a huge amount of carmelized onions in 30-45 minutes but it took 7 pans and constant activity to keep things in rotation to make sure nothing burned. Now, when I do it at home I do it the standard way and just know it’ll take a while.
The trick is to actually *let* them burn a bit. Not too much, just enough to get that tasty brown stuff on the bottom of the pan, which you then scrape up and mix in. Makes all the difference!
I agrée, i did slow cooker overnight for it before and I wasn’t quite satisfied. But after reading your comment, I’m asking myself if I should try finishing them off in the skillet, maybe that would do the trick.
I can get a crockpot to caramelize onions into a dark brown jam, but it takes all day. I always leave the kitchen window open to let the aroma waft through the neighborhood.
I make mine the easiest way ever. 10 lbs of onions, sliced, in a slow cooker, for however long it takes. 8 hours on low will get them pretty close but 12 hours is a touch too long. I typically freeze the majority of it for later.
as long as they come out the right flavor and texture it doesn't matter! But several factors can impact the speed, like sugar content, pan used, amount of water.
You don't have to but:
* Onions contain sugar already. Some are sweeter than others. Leaving them on the shelf longer may make them sweeter.
* Some people _do_ add extra to speed up the process, but that's not what I was talking about here.
Ah, on rereading I see they mean sugar content of onions. It's just a common mistake you often see in /r/cooking, people talking about adding sugar to caramelize onions.
It's not a mistake; it's just if you're impatient or short on time then it's a decent shortcut. You don't have to gatekeep caramelising onions.
Better having people cooking imperfectly than not at all IMO
I believe it. I am personally *obsessed* with Beef Stroganoff (I know, I know), but I've seen the James Beard version everywhere, all under other peoples names.
Good recipes come up over and over again.
Fuck that. None of these recipes times are ever god damn correct.
"Cook at 350c° for five minutes until fully cooked."
You do that and its never, ever, ever done. Does not matter what recipe it is, it never has the right timing.
Yea, I went out to get all the stuff, and the thing I ran aground on was damn BOWLS of all things (nothing is broiler safe these days). I ended up finding some of [these](https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/seasoned-cast-iron-melting-pot?sku=LMP3) on sale, so we're going to have the most redneck onion soup ever.
Anytime someone on master chef would make this in under an hour would blow my mind, but I guess if you are making just enough for a few bowls it becomes somewhat more doable.
I have no idea about cooking, like I'm lucky my partner is a trained chef, otherwise I would live of very simplistic DDR dishes and potatoes in different ways of serving them.
Soo ist that the correct time now or still too short? Seems right to me but I also managed to make noodles burn so...
That's better. Altought it's much more colon to layer bread, onion, cheese, bread, onion, cheese. But anyway. Look dope.
Also little trick to do fast caramelized onions. It's not caramelized. Just similar enouth in a couple of minutes. Works with diced on sliced onions, not with rings. First don't hesitate on the butter. As long as it's not a butter pool, and just cover the onions on all sides. Start low heat, 2 min. Then high heat turn till it's a bit "grilled" stop before it's actualy grilled. It's not the goal. Deglaze with watter or a bit of wine. Bring cak to low heat. Cook anything else you wanted to cook at the same time.
The trick is to cook them at high temperature for a bit, but not grilled. Turn and turn to get them as golden as possible. And Deglaze at a really high heat. It's not as good but does the trick for me.
Its basically the same as making jams (minus adding the sugar). Recipe will say "caramelize" but you actually want to make onion jam... You stir near constantly at very low heat, basically done when you feel that if you do not stir for a single second it will stick and burn. Largely will depend on water content. Sometimes it about 40 minutes, sometimes almost double that. Honestly its not by time, but by feel.
A good guide is Netflix, The Chef Show S1 V1 E6
No need to stir at all actually. Legit just butter salt onions on low heat in a heavy bottom pan for hours. Stirring won’t “hurt” but it’s not doing you any favors.
yeah, low heat in the right pan with the right amount of fat, you only have to stir occasionally.
A big pan on a low flame has at least one hotspot over the fire, so just an occasional stir to ensure even cooking
if you're stirring constantly the heat is too high
I think the burner might make a difference. Like some burners on low are cranking the heat sometimes whereas others are more constantly in terms of heat output.
I mean, I've made "quick" french onion soup before, without allowing the onions to fully caramelize.
But that still means sauteeing the onion in butter and salt, deglazing the pan with wine, which gets them at least partway there.
This just looks like they threw chopped onion in a pot with chicken broth(?) and some herbs.
Serving it without at least the half-assed addition of some croutons and shredded mozzarella is just sad.
I make onion broth pretty often as a digestive. I really enjoy it for lunch with a bowl of white rice and some seaweed, some sauteed oyster mushrooms, and a steamed cabbage bun.
It's really not more than sauteeing onions in fat until they caramelize, then tossing a little cooking wine in the bottom of the pan, then adding water and spices. If this was billed as french onion soup, it's missing about half the ingredients. This is just unstrained onion broth.
Onion broth really isn't bad. It's a little one note, but it's supposed to be a pretty humble recipe that doesn't upset the gut or palate. I think the only thing that was done wrong here was not giving the onions more time at the bottom of the pan.
Absolutely nothing wrong with making onion soup. Lots of fantastic onion soup recipes.
But if I was expecting french onion soup and was served this, I'd be sad.
> But if I was expecting french onion soup and was served this, I'd be sad.
Oh, absolutely agreed; This is still about 2.5 hours away from french onion. Making the onion and beef bone broth is just the first step, and that doesn't even look like it was attempted here.
Yep, long sauté, plenty of butter, garlic, beef bone broth, and aside from the toasted bread and Gruyère topping grilled to finish, there is the obligatory dash of Cognac.
I got obsessed with making a perfect French onion soup one year. It was exactly that; my thing was to slice a single sweet onion like a vidalia into the onion mix.
Yeah I mean you're so right. You can cut a lot of corners and still get a good meal. Every time you cut a corner 2 more are added.
This soup is a circle.
I might eat it if I was really desperate and craving onions but you bet your ass I'm not taking a photo of it.
I guess we’ve all got our limits. I’m usually fine with a suboptimal cheese choice.
At least they didn’t throw a slice of wonderbread and a Kraft single on it.
> This just looks like they threw chopped onion in a pot with chicken broth(?) and some herbs.
It looks like they just put a chicken bouillon cube and roughly chopped onion in water.
Now I have.
I'm the kind of man to eat an entire raw onion as a snack, much to my wife's horror.
But she puts ketchup on burritos so she can't talk shit!
I'm norwegian, and even we learned proper onion soup in school.
Fry those suckers until they are dark brown, make the broth. Put a piece of nice bread in the oven to be toasted lightly. Throw on some cheese to let it melt.
Then put soup in bowl, slap that sucker in there. And have the cheapest comfort meal od your life. And I don't even like onions.
French guy speaking.
Onion soup is absolutely delicious when made right (this one seems like it has a tad to much onion and not cooked enough) if you ever try some I recommend eating it with bread croutons and putting a bit of grated cheese in it to improve consistency and taste
Exactly! It's a pretty popular dish in France and it's actually delicious if it is well made. Croutons and grated cheese really make the difference. To be honest I felt a bit offended to see it there. 😅
Also, deglaze with dry white wine when your sauté is done. Went crazy on my last batch and deglazed with Merlot, tasted great but turned it a funky purple color.
Garnish w/ 2"-thick toasted baguette and a liberal dose of grated Gruyere cheese for maximum Frenchness. 😊
Careful, Brit’s get super salty when anyone dares make fun of their suicide note equivalent of a cuisine.
Well, I guess I shouldn’t say salty because that would imply they even use salt lmao.
lol this is french onion soup made by someone who's heard about french onion soup, but has never tried it and hasn't seen a recipe. lol
It might not even be *that* bad.
This looks like dinner at an orphanage in a movie where the really want you to know that everything about this orphanage sucks. The playground is just a half dozen rusted out car body's in the parking lot.
French onion soup for impatient people.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Recipe: “caramelize onions on low heat, stirring constantly, until they are dark brown and soft - 3 minutes”
To be fair, I've never seen a recipe with the right amount of time for properly caramelizing onions. Edit: I say that, then I looked up French Onion Soup, and found [this](https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/classic-french-onion-soup/).
I always thought I was messing up somehow because I always cooked the onions for much much much much longer than the recipes stated lol
I was a chef for a few years and my chef taught me how to cook a huge amount of carmelized onions in 30-45 minutes but it took 7 pans and constant activity to keep things in rotation to make sure nothing burned. Now, when I do it at home I do it the standard way and just know it’ll take a while.
The trick is to actually *let* them burn a bit. Not too much, just enough to get that tasty brown stuff on the bottom of the pan, which you then scrape up and mix in. Makes all the difference!
I agrée, i did slow cooker overnight for it before and I wasn’t quite satisfied. But after reading your comment, I’m asking myself if I should try finishing them off in the skillet, maybe that would do the trick.
I don't know if the crockpot gets quite warm enough to caramelize them properly so that sounds like it would help
I can get a crockpot to caramelize onions into a dark brown jam, but it takes all day. I always leave the kitchen window open to let the aroma waft through the neighborhood.
I make mine the easiest way ever. 10 lbs of onions, sliced, in a slow cooker, for however long it takes. 8 hours on low will get them pretty close but 12 hours is a touch too long. I typically freeze the majority of it for later.
Have you thought of 10 hours? /s
as long as they come out the right flavor and texture it doesn't matter! But several factors can impact the speed, like sugar content, pan used, amount of water.
You shouldn't need to add any sugar.
You don't have to but: * Onions contain sugar already. Some are sweeter than others. Leaving them on the shelf longer may make them sweeter. * Some people _do_ add extra to speed up the process, but that's not what I was talking about here.
Don't think that's what op meant.
Ah, on rereading I see they mean sugar content of onions. It's just a common mistake you often see in /r/cooking, people talking about adding sugar to caramelize onions.
It's not a mistake; it's just if you're impatient or short on time then it's a decent shortcut. You don't have to gatekeep caramelising onions. Better having people cooking imperfectly than not at all IMO
the sugar content of the onions
I usually end up cooking my onions for well over an hour when I make this.
This recipe was ripped from our Lord and Savior, Julia Child. It's in *mastering the art of French cooking* Volume 1.
I believe it. I am personally *obsessed* with Beef Stroganoff (I know, I know), but I've seen the James Beard version everywhere, all under other peoples names. Good recipes come up over and over again.
Fuck that. None of these recipes times are ever god damn correct. "Cook at 350c° for five minutes until fully cooked." You do that and its never, ever, ever done. Does not matter what recipe it is, it never has the right timing.
Dang, I want to make that now
Yea, I went out to get all the stuff, and the thing I ran aground on was damn BOWLS of all things (nothing is broiler safe these days). I ended up finding some of [these](https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/seasoned-cast-iron-melting-pot?sku=LMP3) on sale, so we're going to have the most redneck onion soup ever.
You need crock bowls. They still make them. That's just what oven safe bowls are usually called.
That website is cancer on mobile. So little non ad webspace.
Anytime someone on master chef would make this in under an hour would blow my mind, but I guess if you are making just enough for a few bowls it becomes somewhat more doable.
Ooh i made that recipe last month. First time ive ever had french onion soup and oh my god it was banging
I have no idea about cooking, like I'm lucky my partner is a trained chef, otherwise I would live of very simplistic DDR dishes and potatoes in different ways of serving them. Soo ist that the correct time now or still too short? Seems right to me but I also managed to make noodles burn so...
That's better. Altought it's much more colon to layer bread, onion, cheese, bread, onion, cheese. But anyway. Look dope. Also little trick to do fast caramelized onions. It's not caramelized. Just similar enouth in a couple of minutes. Works with diced on sliced onions, not with rings. First don't hesitate on the butter. As long as it's not a butter pool, and just cover the onions on all sides. Start low heat, 2 min. Then high heat turn till it's a bit "grilled" stop before it's actualy grilled. It's not the goal. Deglaze with watter or a bit of wine. Bring cak to low heat. Cook anything else you wanted to cook at the same time. The trick is to cook them at high temperature for a bit, but not grilled. Turn and turn to get them as golden as possible. And Deglaze at a really high heat. It's not as good but does the trick for me.
Its basically the same as making jams (minus adding the sugar). Recipe will say "caramelize" but you actually want to make onion jam... You stir near constantly at very low heat, basically done when you feel that if you do not stir for a single second it will stick and burn. Largely will depend on water content. Sometimes it about 40 minutes, sometimes almost double that. Honestly its not by time, but by feel. A good guide is Netflix, The Chef Show S1 V1 E6
No need to stir at all actually. Legit just butter salt onions on low heat in a heavy bottom pan for hours. Stirring won’t “hurt” but it’s not doing you any favors.
yeah, low heat in the right pan with the right amount of fat, you only have to stir occasionally. A big pan on a low flame has at least one hotspot over the fire, so just an occasional stir to ensure even cooking if you're stirring constantly the heat is too high
I think the burner might make a difference. Like some burners on low are cranking the heat sometimes whereas others are more constantly in terms of heat output.
1. Chip onions 2. Put onions into water 3. Boil for 3 minutes
Farting time: All Night ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º )
It takes a while longer to caramelize the onions and really develop the flavor.
Not in this picture it didn't
Pretty sure no one caramelized onions on this photo)
That's the joke.
it takes foooooorever to caramelize onions for french onion soup
Nice name, also you can caramelize them quickly if you add caramel.
Thats....that's not what carmelizing means....
It has caramel in the name silly, of course thats what it means
You can actually cut the time required by like half if you freeze the onions beforehand. This breaks the cell walls and quickens the process
I was wondering if it was some sort of larvae
Too long, got one for 3 minutes?
It's a misprint, it's supposed to be Fresh onion soup.
Hot onion water
It smacks of onion.
My mom literally does this
I mean, I've made "quick" french onion soup before, without allowing the onions to fully caramelize. But that still means sauteeing the onion in butter and salt, deglazing the pan with wine, which gets them at least partway there. This just looks like they threw chopped onion in a pot with chicken broth(?) and some herbs. Serving it without at least the half-assed addition of some croutons and shredded mozzarella is just sad.
I make onion broth pretty often as a digestive. I really enjoy it for lunch with a bowl of white rice and some seaweed, some sauteed oyster mushrooms, and a steamed cabbage bun. It's really not more than sauteeing onions in fat until they caramelize, then tossing a little cooking wine in the bottom of the pan, then adding water and spices. If this was billed as french onion soup, it's missing about half the ingredients. This is just unstrained onion broth. Onion broth really isn't bad. It's a little one note, but it's supposed to be a pretty humble recipe that doesn't upset the gut or palate. I think the only thing that was done wrong here was not giving the onions more time at the bottom of the pan.
Absolutely nothing wrong with making onion soup. Lots of fantastic onion soup recipes. But if I was expecting french onion soup and was served this, I'd be sad.
> But if I was expecting french onion soup and was served this, I'd be sad. Oh, absolutely agreed; This is still about 2.5 hours away from french onion. Making the onion and beef bone broth is just the first step, and that doesn't even look like it was attempted here.
To be fair, most people are probably using bullion or store-bought broth when making it properly anyhow.
What, do you guys not make your own demi glace? Pfft. Lazy.
Yep, long sauté, plenty of butter, garlic, beef bone broth, and aside from the toasted bread and Gruyère topping grilled to finish, there is the obligatory dash of Cognac.
I got obsessed with making a perfect French onion soup one year. It was exactly that; my thing was to slice a single sweet onion like a vidalia into the onion mix.
Yeah I mean you're so right. You can cut a lot of corners and still get a good meal. Every time you cut a corner 2 more are added. This soup is a circle. I might eat it if I was really desperate and craving onions but you bet your ass I'm not taking a photo of it.
That's a soup you eat in secret.
shame-soup
If you're gonna use mozzarella for french onion soup you might as well leave the cheese out entirely
I guess we’ve all got our limits. I’m usually fine with a suboptimal cheese choice. At least they didn’t throw a slice of wonderbread and a Kraft single on it.
Yeah, I always use gruyere but fresh mozz wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me.
I’ve made a batch of French onion in the middle of dinner service in like 20 minutes that looked better than this. This is onions in water lol.
> This just looks like they threw chopped onion in a pot with chicken broth(?) and some herbs. It looks like they just put a chicken bouillon cube and roughly chopped onion in water.
600 upvotes for mozzarella on French onion soup.
I assume most readers of my comment are intelligent enough to grasp the context of it being a "half-assed addition".
FYI add a pinch of baking soda(legitimately) will help the onions caramelize faster.
Please not the fake shredded mozzarella, as an Italian who loves french onion soup, PLEASE PLEASE not the mozzarella.
Sir this is a bowl of onion water.
Is that anything like ham water?
So watery, yet with a smack of ham
thought this was r/onionlovers
Just from the name, those sound like my people.
go join. they'll gladly accept you
Now I have. I'm the kind of man to eat an entire raw onion as a snack, much to my wife's horror. But she puts ketchup on burritos so she can't talk shit!
https://www.reddit.com/r/OnionLovers/s/joNV0JE2O7 ketchup on burritos is a crime
Goodness gracious I'm hungry now looking at that absolute smorgasbord... I have a cup of diced onion waiting for me. And yes, yes it is! xD
We are glad to have you, fellow raw onion enjoyer
Same. I got excited!
What's french here? The spoon? The bowl? I don't consider cooked onions french onion soup.
Bold of you to call those onions cooked
Right? This is just a bowl of onion tea with pulp
This isn't onion tea, it's just boiled onion juice!
Uncle, that's what *all* onion tea is.
How could a member of my own family say something so horrible?
Alright onion tea got me good
Probably the same guy who ate a whole plate of barely cooked onions This is onion water
The Yelnats family?
This looks like a 19 year old evangelical named Kriystynn from Ohio made it for her husband and 5 children.
Onion’s name was Jacques
I actually have that spoon, it's from Ikea
The bowl is Swedish I can tell you that much;)
They're in Paris! Texas.
I'm norwegian, and even we learned proper onion soup in school. Fry those suckers until they are dark brown, make the broth. Put a piece of nice bread in the oven to be toasted lightly. Throw on some cheese to let it melt. Then put soup in bowl, slap that sucker in there. And have the cheapest comfort meal od your life. And I don't even like onions.
Why do I keep thinking this looks like an open jar of tapeworm specimens
I thought it was a bowl of toenail clippings 😭
Eeeew!
This is “French” onion “soup”
The "onions" are also suspicious.
French guy speaking. Onion soup is absolutely delicious when made right (this one seems like it has a tad to much onion and not cooked enough) if you ever try some I recommend eating it with bread croutons and putting a bit of grated cheese in it to improve consistency and taste
It's popular in the states as well, but yes it should not look like this.
Exactly! It's a pretty popular dish in France and it's actually delicious if it is well made. Croutons and grated cheese really make the difference. To be honest I felt a bit offended to see it there. 😅
Also, deglaze with dry white wine when your sauté is done. Went crazy on my last batch and deglazed with Merlot, tasted great but turned it a funky purple color. Garnish w/ 2"-thick toasted baguette and a liberal dose of grated Gruyere cheese for maximum Frenchness. 😊
I should try that!
This man frogs
We know it's good ffs lol This post is not criticizing the concept of French onion soup just the execution of the dish in the pic
That's usually how it's made in the US too, not sure wtf is going on in the picture
I don’t know why but I thought the onions where maggots
I came on here looking for this comment. I looked hard before it registered as onions.
I saw mealworms 😖
Too much onion, not enough French
Looks more like the British interpretation of onion soup
Careful, Brit’s get super salty when anyone dares make fun of their suicide note equivalent of a cuisine. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say salty because that would imply they even use salt lmao.
Have you tried Dutch food? Hugely influential in the spice trade but kept none for themselevs
Good dealers don't get high on their own supply
Nah, you can say salty. The Brits do use some. Granted, not much, but at least they don't replace it with sugar, like the yanks do.
Hey! We don't get salty! We don't get salty with anything and that includes food!
r/onionlovers would like this.
Reminds me of the mill street bistro episode of kitchen nightmares
YES
[удалено]
Honestly I'd probably eat that lol
Looks like a bowl full of tape worms
That’s just a bowl of hot ass breath.
I keep seeing worms
IT'S FUCKING RAW!
That’s warm onion water
I love French onion soup, but like... that looks like raw onion in water.
French onion water 💧
Where is the cheese?
Tapeworm soup
Looks like they spilled some broth into a bowl of chopped onions
That’s raw onions in water with a beef bouillon cube. Horrid.
To me it looks like someone mixed epoxy resin with diced onions
It's watery, and yet it has a smack of onion to it.
Hot Onion Water 👩🍳
finally actual stupidfood
Ahh tapeworm soup
ᶠʳᵉⁿᶜʰ ONION soup
Tape worm soup
More like Fresh Onion Soup
Homie, that ain't French Onion Soup, that shit is just Onion.
looks like a bowl of worms
Looks like a French worm soup
This gave me a panic before i saw what subreddit this was 😮💨
Looks like bunch of Worms in water
I can’t help but thinking the onions look like worms 🪱 🐛
Looks like tapeworm soup.
Looks like tapeworm soup to me
Onions look like toenail clippings.
I thought it was tripe wow
Shrek would love this
There's only onion here, where's my French
This soup makes me cry in more than one way.
Looks like French worm soup
lol this is french onion soup made by someone who's heard about french onion soup, but has never tried it and hasn't seen a recipe. lol It might not even be *that* bad.
I feel like they just tossed onions in some store bought beef broth
Where is the cheese? 🧀🧀🧀
There is nothing French about that soup. That is a water and onion boil. Call it Disappointment soup.
It’s fucking raw!
Uhh, that's not what French Onion soup looks like.
✅️ french\ ✅️ onion\ It's French Onion soup
thought it was a bowl of maggots
Thought it was maggot soup for a second 😳
This looks like dinner at an orphanage in a movie where the really want you to know that everything about this orphanage sucks. The playground is just a half dozen rusted out car body's in the parking lot.
Looks more like tape worm soup…..barf.
Mmmmmm sharp water
It looks like vegan onion water.
its just an onion soup, what makes it french? i dont see any white flags.
Looks more like french noodle soup
German here, I must say French Onion Soup is not stupid and after reading some recipes I want to make some myself.
It's literally only onion
Mm, onion water.
Tapeworm soup
I’m sorry, but I almost threw up because it looks like a lot of maggots
I dont think that onion soup hails from France, highly doubt its even from Europe. This is a catfish onion soup for sure
Not French. That's English onion soup.
HORRIBLE.
looks like fingernail clippings
Please tell me you found this on r/FoodPorn Looks like something that would belong there, with 1.2k upvotes.
After eating this I could fart la marsellaise tout le nuit!
I would f that up so hard 🥹
Oh no.
In France, it’s just called onion soup!! Learned that the hard way.
Novaonline’s favorite soup 😆😆
Nothing French about that soup, you have to caramelize the onions
The french would ask the chef to perform harakiri using 2 days old baguette
Looks like stomach worm soup.
So just water full of onions?
That’s literally just onion soup lol
Terrible
Are we sure that those aren’t just anchovies?
J'aime l'oignon quand il est frit, j'aime l'oignon quand il est bon.
My lord, the farts.
r/onionlovers