Caramelized French Onion Tart - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

What are some tricks to caramelizing onions? ›

It takes time, probably a solid 45 minutes, for the onions' sugars to caramelize. If your heat is too high, the onions will burn. Heat your pan over medium-low, then add your onions. Keep it on that temp for the whole process.

Yes, you should cover the onions when caramelizing them. Covering the onions helps to trap the steam and heat, which aids in the caramelization process by softening the onions and allowing them to release their natural sugars. This results in a sweet and flavorful caramelized onion.

Caramelizing the onions slowly in butter until they're rich golden brown (but not so dark as to taste bitter) produces the sweetest, most flavorful results. If you don't have homemade beef stock, the recipe's suggested homemade or store-bought chicken stock substitutions are better than most store-bought beef stock.

Caramelized onions work beautifully when piled on patty melts, cheesesteaks, sausage heros, or even just a piece of crispy bread with goat cheese. They work well on cold cuts too. Ham, mayo, and caramelized onions on some country bread?

You can use either oil or butter to caramelize onions — but ideally, you use a combination of both! I like to use olive oil, and this cooking fat tolerates heat particularly well. Meanwhile, butter adds a distinctly rich flavor to the caramelized onions.

Tip: use apple cider vinegar for white and yellow onions and balsamic vinegar for red onions. Tip: the vinegar serves to deglaze the pan, adds acidity, and brings this recipe together by boosting the tangy and savory flavors of the caramelized onions. If the onions stick to the pan, that's fine.

When you add baking soda during cooking it changes the pH which increases the Maillard reaction causing the onions to brown more quickly. The higher pH also causes the onions to soften more quickly, which we cover below when we discuss the texture.

You may be cooking them on too high a heat, leading them to caramelize before all the liquid they release has evaporated. Try lowering the heat and giving them more time. Some onions are wetter than others, so you need to keep an eye on them and see how much liquid they release.

The trick is to leave them alone enough to brown (if you stir them too often, they won't brown), but not so long so that they burn. After the first 20 to 30 minutes you may want to lower the stove temperature a little, and add a little more oil, if you find the onions are verging on burning.

It might be because of the stock or that you used onions that has sour flavor such as white onions.

Why does my French onion soup taste burnt? ›

If the heat is too high, the onions will burn. If you don't stir often at beginning and almost constantly toward the end, the onions will burn. If one little bit burns the whole batch needs to be tossed. Otherwise the soup ends up tasting like burnt onion.

To deepen the flavor of French onion soup, the onions need 45 minutes or longer to caramelize. From there, you add a few flavor enhancers—wine, brandy, and beef stock—but without that caramelized onion base, you won't have the bewitchingly complex French onion soup of your dreams.

Caramelized onions can add flavor and nutrition to a variety of dishes, such as soups, stews, sandwiches, and omelets. It's also important to remember that it's okay to enjoy caramelized onions in moderation as part of a balanced diet.

Onions are hard to digest largely because they contain fructans, which are not absorbed well in the small intestine. In fact, as fructans ferment, they can cause a great deal of digestive distress in the form of bloating, gas and diarrhea.

You can caramelize any kind of onion, but yellow or Spanish onions tend to offer the most balanced-sweet-savory flavor profile and are the most versatile for different dishes. Sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla work too, but keep in mind that their flavor will become even sweeter once caramelized.

Absolutely. An earlier version of this recipe suggested using sugar and baking soda for even faster results.

Caramelizing vs Sweating

Funnily enough, you do actually need to sweat your onions to get to the caramelization process! Sweating your onions, or any food really, simply means to cook out the water content. So for onions, you'll sweat them out and they'll turn translucent but they'll still keep their integrity.

Not cooking the onions long enough.

It might be tempting to pull the onions off the stove as soon as they start to soften and turn golden-brown, but resist the urge. They're not completely cooked yet — they need more time. Caramelized onions should be far darker than golden in color.