Onions for Soups & Sauces - Sweat, Saute or Caramelize?

Onions are included in the culinary ingredients known as aromatics . All of these are fragrant plants or spices and contain volatile oils that enhance the flavor of foods.The oils in onions, garlics, and peppers in particular are helpful in fighting off some respiratory infections as well. Aromatics are part of enjoyable and healthy eating.

When I first learned to cook, I could slice, chop, and saute onions; caramelize them accidentally (I discovered the technique by chance); and burn them quickly ; but I had no knowledge of the technique of sweating onions for sauces, soups and stocks.

I've also gathered together a group of cooking heroes that have helped me not only to learn new culinary means and madness, but to laugh no matter what circumstances life and evil clowns throw into my path. If you don't know them, you'll meet the Kitchen Insider, Alton Brown, Skinny and Mini, and Justin Wilson.

Sweated onions are flavorful, cooks at a lower heat and take about twice as long to prepare than do sauted onions, which are cooked at high heat.

Obtain a heavy skillet, wok, or thick-sided pot or Dutch oven and be prepared to spend a little time with this techniques and your onions. You can add garlic, as these instructions indicate, or you can leave it out altogether.

INSTRUCTIONS

• Chop your onions to about a ¼” dice, all about the same size.
• Mince one ot two cloves of garlic, to taste, after peeling it.  
• Heat your skillet, wok, pot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat until it is pretty hot.
• Add only 1 or 2 Tablespoons of olive, vegetable, or peanut oil to the cooking pan, lift the pan from the burner, using a pot holder, and swirl the oil around the bottom completely. Replace the pan on the burner.
• Be patient and allow the the oil to heat through completely for about 10 seconds.
• Add in your diced onion and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, which will flavor the aromatics and draw out some unneeded water.
• Try the heat of the burner up slowly until you hear a low sizzle, not a loud sizzle that indicates burning potential. if you hear a snap, crackle, and pop, reduce the heat.
• With a wooden spoon or rubberized spatula, constantly move around the onion and garlic as it sweats.
• Add the minced garlic and continue to stir for up to 10 minutes until the onions are translucent.

Using Sweated Onions

Particularly if you are using a dutch oven, you can drain excess oil and water from the onion and garlic and continue with any good soup, stock, or sauce recipe.

I learned to caramelize onions one time that I was sauteing 1/4" thick onion slices in butter. I needed to leave the stove, so turned down the heat and covered the pan. 30 minutes later, I returned to find caramelized onions, slightly burnt on one edge of the pan. The rest tasted fine, and I learned later to add just a bit of sugar, salt, and pepper; but there are variations on the technique you can try.

For 1 Cup of caramelized onions that can be stored in a plastic container with lid for 1 week in the refrigerator, follow the method below. Or have a look at Alton Brown's method in the video to the right. Caramelized onions book for a longer time period than sweated onions and taste sweeter. The make a nice addition to barbecue sauces.

Peel and cut 2 pounds of Vidalia, Spanish, or Walla Walla onions into medium-width slices. Heat 1 TBSP vegetable oil in a skillet over high heat. When hot, add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp brown sugar and stir. Place the onion slices into the skillet and stir to coat. Cook while stirring occasionally for 5 minutes - don't leave the pan. When onion begin to soften, reduce the burner heat to medium and stir the onions frequently now and watch unto onions are a uniform deep brown and somewhat sticky. This will consume 30 - 40 minutes of times. If you hear sizzling, reduce the heat until it stops and if onions do not brown at the lower temperature, raise it slowly until they do. Add pepper to taste and onions are done.

Using Caramelized Onions

The caramelized onions can be used in sauces, on sandwiches, and on pizza, to name a few. Try them with your favorite recipes, especially your homemade barbecue sauces.

Sauteing onions is another one of the basics for onion preparation that brings out the flavor of this vegetable before adding it to soups and sauces or other dishes.

It is important to heat the saute pan, skillet, or wok to high heat before adding the fat in which you will saute the onions.

View the video to the right of Chefs Skinny and Mini, Doug Miller and Chuck Love, sauteing onions.

A friend went to a fellowship group at his church one evening, taking a prepared dish for a pot luck supper. The group enjoyed a delicious meal, after which one of the members passed around a plate of brownies. Many people selected a brownie and when they bit into them together, made sour faces. It seems the brownie cook added diced onions as a show-and-tell about how life can hold the unexpected. An unexpected event for the brownie baker that night was the quick breakup of the party to go home - or someplace else for dessert. He had expected them to be amused or thoughtful in response to the onions...