Interesting....

Interesting. I am a good cook but one simple thing that for some reason I am never able to do properly is caramelize onions - it usually takes me 45 minutes and they still don't have that nice, deep caramelized color. I use my All-Clad saute pan and have tried all the various techniques...oil, butter, combo of both, various heat levels, adding a pinch of sugar, etc. and just can't seem to get them to turn out quite right. It drives me crazy - I'll definitely try this!

throw in a pinch of baking soda too

If I'm doing alot of onions I do them in the oven via the Pioneer Woman from her french onion soup recipe.

Baking soda, sugar, and simply using water to cool the pan as the onions cook are all effective in speeding up the process.

I always thought you should add salt if you DON'T want the onions to brown...

The dry pan method is also in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, though he still instructs you to cook them longer.

I gotta say, at a quick glance, the photo reminded me of worms & I thought it was a compost topic! Guess I need a 2nd cup of coffee :)

Maybe I'll try this using 1 onion, but I do love the flavor butter gives.

I do them super-slowly, overnight in the slow cooker. Literally, you put them in the insert with a bit of oil, maybe some thyme sprigs, turn it on low, and walk away. Wake up in the morning to perfectly caramelized onions.

@tallsarah, I saw worms, too

@tallsarah, you can add butter to the pan instead of oil after the initial 5-minute browning if you prefer.

@tallsarah and @akay - Me too!

I only ever caramelize onions for French onion soup, and then I want them to be so soft they fall apart, not just browned. So I'll stick to the traditional technique for that, but might try Melissa's for caramelized onions on pizza. Yum.

One question (well, two) - What level heat do you cook them on in a dry pan? And what kind of pan do you use? Pictured appears to be a stainless steel pan, but that just seems to invite sticking, no?

Those look like worms not carmelized onions. The texture looks all wrong.

Onions go through three stages: Softening, Carmelizing and Browning. I use the conventional method but speed up the softening stage by covering the pan.

I can't wait to try this!!

@vintagejenta, they are cooked over medium-high heat. I used a stainless steel pan and had no issues with sticking.

I also saw worms :)

Taking a second look, they do look like worms.

@debbiek, great idea, thanks!

Just from looking at that photo, you can tell that they aren't the same.

Some things just shouldn't be rushed.

I saw the photo and thought it was going to be a post about how sauteed earthworms are the latest thing with trendy urban foodies, packed with nutrients, and best of all you can raise your own at home, organically of course.

Sorry, but the picture makes me think of an old children's book...

"How to Eat Fried Worms"

nobody likes me, everybody hates me....

I tried this yesterday and the onions came out perfectly. I cooked one large onion, sliced into rings about 1/4 of an inch wide, in a 12" cast iron skillet. Super tasty and easy clean-up.

You can also do onions over a much higher heat (or with less monitoring/stirring during the final stages) if you just add more water to the pan as it starts to dry out so they don't burn.

I always start by browning my onions over a high heat (with a little olive oil), then once they've softened, reduce heat to its lowest setting, add sea salt and balsamic vinegar and cook for at least 45 mins, turning them ever so often. I get the perfectly caramelized, dark colour and flavour they should be.

I don't know what that's supposed to be in that pan, but it sure doesn't look like caramelized onions. Blech. Worms.

Sorry, folks, but there's just no way to speed up certain jobs. Slow and low is the key. Slice your onions as thin as you possibly can, and cook them over low heat, for a long time--the browner, the better! Oh, and this might not be obvious to some people, but use storage onions, not sweet onions. Expect to stand in front of the stove for a hour or so, and don't complain, it's worth it.

Make time and space in your life, and your budget, for high quality food, and you will never regret it. There is nothing more important in life than eating well. The Rat Race isn't worth giving that up; living well should not be an eventual goal, but a daily activity!

This is the key to so many recipes where onions are the basis of the dish, or one of the main flavors in the dish, including almost all Desi food, my chili, my pasta sauce, my French onion soup, pissaladière and so much more.

The secret to my chili, or my French onion soup, is starting with a kilo of paper-thin onions sliced on the Benriner, and cooked slowly in butter or ghee until deep brown. The secret to my pasta sauce (and pissaladière) is the same, except cooked in extra virgin olive oil, which I also use if the chili is meant to be vegan. Next follows, for chili or pasta sauce, a kilo of tomatoes that are perfectly ripe, and after that, real homemade stock or demi-glace.

I promise you, that as with properly homemade stock, this is one of those little things that will turn your cooking from "good" to "remarkable", and none of the ingredients need be expensive or obscure. Of course, if you have your own-grown, organic, terra preta onions, grass-fed butter/ghee, and artisanal olive oil, the results will only be that much better, but even with standard supermarket grades, people will ask where you went to cooking school.