Baked cheese onion dip - yellow or white instead of vidalia?

I’m back with dip questions, the phase persists. I made a quite delicious baked onion dip yesterday. My mom (and many recipes online) suggested Vidalia onions. I’m no stranger to onions and love them raw and cooked but was underwhelmed by the lack of flavor in the dip. The onions provided a nice crunch but not much else. I know vidalia are mild but no flavor wasn’t what I expected and I imagine cooking didn’t help and just made them more mild. So my long winded question, I want to make it again, would you use yellow or white for more onion bite but not over the top?

I find white onions to be “more oniony” in general (but so many other factors influence the strength of onion flavor - age, growing conditions, etc).

My isolated opinion would be to use white onions, their flavor will also mellow with baking.

I do a baked onion dip that is essentially cream cheese mixed with baked (in summer grilled - even better) onion (a few other things but not much else). I use white onions and it is never too strong. Not sure what the rest of your recipe looks like.

It’s a pretty basic mish mash - cream cheese, shredded cheddar gruyere, onions, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, pepper; blue cheese and spinach graced half of the dish.

My choice would be white onion. There are some forward flavors in there, all of which I think will hold up fine to the onion.

I also assumed the dip would have been like mine. Is the onion added raw and then all baked? Or is the onion baked until soft then mixed in? How much onion? Oh wait, you said it added crunch, so must have been raw.

I still think if the Vidalia wasn’t detectable the white will be fine, just curious.

I added raw then baked. It wasn’t super crunchy but you could tell there was diced onion. Dot about 8 cups total dip, I used 1/2 lb diced onion. Thanks! I have plenty of white onions so will give it a try this weekend.

Yellow!!!

Vidalias are sweet onions and the average yellow is much sweeter than the average white.

Yellow yellow yellow!

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White or yellow- just add more of it to the dip.
****and then use that amazing trader joe’s onion salt on the top when it’s done as well as some chopped raw scallions.

Maybe pick up breath mints with the extra onions :wink:

It would seem I would want a less sweet onion, no?

There was plenty of onion in quantity but when you bit into it, not much onion flavor. Haha, I seasoned with the onion salt. I love that stuff. Lots of chives as well. It definitely was delicious but would like more in your face onion flavor, I definitely didn’t feel like I needed to get rid of onion breath. Thankfully, the cats don’t care :slight_smile:

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Absolutely up to you. But if you’re subbing for Vidalias which are super sweet…

Spanish

You might consider caramelizing the onions first, which will intensify the onion flavor (think Lipton’s onion soup dip) and get rid of the crunchiness, a texture that many would find unpleasant.

I knew someone would suggest that :slight_smile: I’m not a big fan of caramelized onions and liked the crunch. For me caramelized onions just taste sweet not more oniony but I’m not a sweet flavor kind of person so that’s likely just me who feels that way.

I guess I should add, I’m the only person eating this and for others would actually caramelize the onions but I like onions less cooked and less sweet. I’m thinking I’ll try yellow and add more and see if there’s more bite. I was just disappointed, expected some onion breath and I got nothin.

I love the intense onion flavor of dehydrated onions or you could try onion powder or onion soup mix.

I usually add onion powder to anything oniony but actually skipped it thinking it would be too much but that sounds like a good idea. My usual go to cooking onion is yellow so I’ll do that and onion powder. I added Trader Joe’s onion salt but it’s definitely mild compared to just onion powder.

Of course, do what you feel is right for you …

But if you wanted stronger onion flavor and that is the goal … why use a more mild onion and add onion powder? Why not just go for a stronger onion to start? If while you’re cutting it, you can tell it is a super strong onion (eyes burning etc) soak it in cold water for a bit which will help mellow it a little …

That probably makes the most sense, you just do a quick soak? 30 minutes?

Yup, just a quick soak.

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I’m going to go against the grain and suggest red onion. I enjoy their flavor more than white or yellow in preparations like this, where the onions aren’t pre-cooked and therefore maintain some bite. I don’t think they are necessarily stronger or weaker in flavor than white or yellow (that really varies onion-to-onion anyway), but IMO their flavor is more complex - you get some oniony sweetness but also some oniony bite. I would probably also add some shallots to this mixture for added depth of flavor.

I’ve definitely had some very strong red onions! It’s also curious that there doesn’t seem to be consensus which makes sense as variety and growth conditions matter, different places say white and yellow are more pungent.