On Tuesday, July 4, 2017 at 12:07:15 PM UTC-10, cshenk wrote:
> dsi1 wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
> > 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.
>
> Agreed. Most recipes I read today call it 'carmelized' when the
> sweetness first comes out and it doesnt take 3 hours or more to get
> there (unless in a crockpot).
>
> It's a combination of level, and some being 'purist' where nothing
> short of their version counts.
>
> --

Turning a big pile of onions into a sweet mass of goo is a pretty good trick but it's not that practical. Cooking onions just enough to develop some sweetness however, is a most useful technique.