Eight pounds of onions! I does sound delicious, tho. Thanks for your contribution, Jason.
Note to self: Donāt visit discussion threads involving cheese, croutons, and caramelized onions at 5PM when you wonāt be eating dinner until 6:30.
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A pound cooks down to a mere cup of caramelized, moreās the pity!
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āā¦youād burn the house down keeping a crock pot going for 16 hours. Is this safe?ā
I am not the Fire Marshall, but I have always thought that the low temps in crockpots could go for days (hopefully not) and still be safe. However, we have gotten in the habit of putting ceramic tile trivets under each foot of the crockpot whenever we use it, to allow some more air circulation under it and to keep the warm crock from warming the kitchen counter too severely. I have never read this advice anywhere and I guess the applianceās feet do this anyway, but itās our little nod to feeling safer.
[Side note: We had a laptop computer that prematurely bit the dust about 2 years ago, and our computer tech guy suggested it was staying warm, without air circulation under it, and this may have contributed to its demise. We bought a new laptop and now have put some old (old!) cassette tape boxes under the corners of the laptop to get it up off the table. I need to improve this arrangement, but it is another variation on ātrivets under appliances to allow air flow.ā]
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Get yourself a laptop cooling pad.
I have an old vinyl-covered sink rack - the kind of thing you put under a dishpan - underneath my computer.
That looks terrific. Revisiting this thread because it is February, and we are fighting off colds. . .
Greg Easter @ CookinginRussia (YouTube) makes an interesting point. He says chefs neglect to say (because they just know this and the rest of us donāt) ācut the onions lengthwise for soupā because they will be sweeter than cut crosswise. Something to do with disrupting fewer cells.
Iāve tried it and I agree. Anyone else have thoughts.
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I havenāt noticed the result being sweeter but I do feel like the onions hold their shape better when I cut them that way.
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Yes, onions definitely hold their shape better when cut pole-to-pole rather than crosswise. I donāt think it makes them sweeter, though.
As for the original recipe, I think youād end up with onion mush if you cook an additional 6 hours after adding broth. I like the Cookās Illustrated/ATK method of caramelizing in the oven, but if I am in a hurry or only want to do a small amount of onions, I just use a skillet over medium high heat. They require a bit of babysitting, and you have to keep adding water to deglaze as you brown the sugars, but you can get great caramelization in about 20 minutes. I am way too impatient for the low heat stovetop method that most cookbooks recommend.
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