Ingredientbeginnerdraft
Onion
Also searched as: onions, shallot, fried onions
In short: Onions are full of sugar and sulphur compounds. Raw they are sharp; fried slowly they turn sweet and deep brown.
Picture it
Two personalities in one bulb: fiery raw, mild and sweet when fried.
What Onion does
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What happens
Cutting creates sharp sulphur compounds that also sting the eyes. Heat breaks the sharpness down and brings out the sugar. Long, slow frying gives deep brown, sweet onions.
What the ingredient does
turns sweet and brown when friedMaillard reaction
sugar caramelisesCaramelisation
gives sauces their base flavourMore flavour
Rules of thumb
- A sharp knife: fewer crushed cells, fewer tears.
- For sweet, brown onions, patience rather than heat.
Onions burn instead of browningSources · 1
- Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking (2004), Kapitel Gemüse, Eier