On Tuesday, July 4, 2017 at 10:45:53 AM UTC-10, Julie Bove wrote:
> "dsi1" <dsi1yahoo.com> wrote in message
> ...
> On Tuesday, July 4, 2017 at 4:17:22 AM UTC-10, Sheldon wrote:
> > On Tue, 4 Jul 2017 02:12:06 -0700 (PDT), dsi1 <dsiahoo.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >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.
> >
> > It's only the sugar contained in onions that gets caramelized... sweet
> > onions like Vidalias work best. Were it not so darned fattening and
> > unhealthful my favorite caramelized onions are those cooked in chicken
> > fat/schmaltz... chilled makes an addictive spread for dark heavy
> > breads. BTW, the heavy dark Eastern European breads are the *real*
> > sour dough breads, that light airy thin crusted white bread that
> > Frisconians call sour dough is crap... it's not even *real* bread...
> > it's no more a real bread than cellulose is a real sponge.
>
> It's seems a big waste to caramelize sweet onions. I'd use the cheapest,
> harshest, nasty ass, onions I could find. The ability to transform the nasty
> to the sweet is the magic of caramelization.
>
> ---
>
> That's what I read online.

It's really quite a magical process.