On 5/18/2011 12:06 PM, George Shirley wrote:
> The Texas 1015Y sweet onions are in stores now and I wondered if they
> could be frozen for later use. Found a University of Nebraska site that
> said yes and here's how to do it.
>
> Today I chopped in the food processor, two large 1015Y onions that
> weighed right at four pounds for the two. Biggest darned onions I ever
> saw, almost bought a whole sack of them but had no place to store them.
>
> The process is to peel the onions, cut off top and root ends, cut into
> one-inch squares and then put no more than two cups into the food
> processor at a time. I then pulsed the onions about three times,
> chopping them into recognizable pieces. Once chopped I took the chopped
> onions out of the processor and spread them onto a large bun sheet. Once
> I had a layer about a half inch thick over the whole sheet I covered
> them with plastic wrap and then stuck them in the freezer. They will be
> in there for two hours and about an hour of that has gone by already.
> Once frozen I will cut them into one-cup squares, insert into a vacuum
> bag, and then seal and put back into the freezer. Theory is that the
> onions will not degrade or lose flavor this way. I will post back after
> I open one of the bags a few days down the road.
>
> If it works well I will probably go ahead and buy enough to put up about
> twenty cups of chopped onion, that should be enough to last us a year
> and I do love those sweet onions.
>
> George
Vacuum bagged eight one-cup servings of the onions this afternoon.
Worked well and the plastic wrap kept them from stinking up the freezer.
You have to work fast putting them in the bags as they tend to thaw
quickly when exposed to room temperature. Next time I will put them in
one-cup piles on the bun sheet and that will help me to get them bagged
much more quickly.