On Monday, July 3, 2017 at 4:34:22 PM UTC-10, Julie Bove wrote:
> Anyone know where SF is?
>
> As I was caramelizing onions for my baked beans, I recall seeing a pic that
> someone posted of his caramelized onions. She told him that they were not
> caramelized but just browned. I think she based this on the cooking time
> which was I think less than an hour.
>
> Anyway... Was wondering what the difference was? My caramelized onions sure
> do look brown.

You can brown onions and they will be caramelized to a degree. You can also get a big heap of onions and cook that over low heat for a long time turn them into a limp brown mass that doesn't look much like onions and tastes very sweet with a mild and smooth onion taste. I've made an onion frittata this way. It's pretty good but it takes more time than I want to spend.

The truth is that the onions will start getting sweet a long time before it gets to that stage. If you want to call limp white onions "caramelized" that's fine with me. Be warned that some people will find that to be offensive. Those people should get a life.