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

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.

On 5/18/2011 11:06 AM, George Shirley wrote:

>
> 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.
>



Please do let us know, George. My experience is that the flavor is
OK but the texture gets really mushy after thawing because the cells
have ruptured, releasing a lot of the moisture so you can't use them in
a recipe where browning or crispness is important.

I hope they turn out well for you.

gloria p

On 05/18/11 7:34 PM, sometime in the recent past gloria.p posted this:
> On 5/18/2011 11:06 AM, George Shirley wrote:
>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>
>
>
> Please do let us know, George. My experience is that the flavor is
> OK but the texture gets really mushy after thawing because the cells
> have ruptured, releasing a lot of the moisture so you can't use them in
> a recipe where browning or crispness is important.
>
> I hope they turn out well for you.
>
> gloria p
We saute our onions first then freeze them. They come out pretty much the
way they went in. What I wonder about freezing them raw is the trouble with
freezing any other vegetables raw - enzymes turn the sugars into starch and
the flavor degrades. Curious to find out these turn out George and wonder
how much the flavor will differ from fresh.

--
Wilson 44.69, -67.3

On 5/20/2011 10:40 AM, Wilson wrote:
> On 05/18/11 7:34 PM, sometime in the recent past gloria.p posted this:
>> On 5/18/2011 11:06 AM, George Shirley wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Please do let us know, George. My experience is that the flavor is
>> OK but the texture gets really mushy after thawing because the cells
>> have ruptured, releasing a lot of the moisture so you can't use them in
>> a recipe where browning or crispness is important.
>>
>> I hope they turn out well for you.
>>
>> gloria p
> We saute our onions first then freeze them. They come out pretty much
> the way they went in. What I wonder about freezing them raw is the
> trouble with freezing any other vegetables raw - enzymes turn the sugars
> into starch and the flavor degrades. Curious to find out these turn out
> George and wonder how much the flavor will differ from fresh.
>
I tried a cup of the frozen chopped onions in a pasta dish a couple of
days ago. As expected they released a lot of water but that cooked down
in the dish and the onion flavor was very close to fresh.

I think next time I will just pack them in the vac bag and freeze them
that way to see if it works. If not I may try Wilson's method, sounds as
though it works well.