Caramelized Onions

I cut regular brown onions pole to pole, added the butter and cooked ten hours, covered, on HIGH. I stirred twice during the cooking period. Beautiful color, perfect texture and no liquid.

• JWalker5

• SoCal

• 6/5/2013

SLOW COOKED ONION. So, I made this recipe overnight. Here's my update: I used half the butter, and put in a couple table spoons of olive oil. I left the top askew for the first three hours, and then stirred. I stirred an hour later, and settled the top to almost closed, then went to bed. Results: The onions were mahogany colored on the top half-inch. The rest were brownish. All were clear. I tasted those on the top and those below, and the texture of the top was a bit better, but the taste was the same. These onions are very tasty. I smothered a salmon patty with them for breakfast, and loved being able to use all the onions I wanted. Are they the same as pan-caramelized onions? Absolutely not. But they ARE yummy, and my son loved putting them on his turkey sandwich for lunch. I put half in a jar in the fridge, and half in a container in the freezer, and when we've used them up, I plan to make this recipe again. I marked the container: "slow-cooked onions" instead of caramelized. Next time I will leave the top a crack more open over night, to see if it improves the color throughout.

• Shoe2

• Northern Virginia

• 8/4/2012

I saw someone else with a recipe for this, and the only difference, is that she calls for the top of the cooker to be left "tilted" (left a crack open) for the first 3 hours. Perhaps that helps the liquid be less, and doesn't "boil" them quite so badly. I'm going to try that tonight. I'll post what happens.

• Anonymous

• Northern Virginia

• 8/3/2012

These were fantastic! Because a few people complained about lack of flavor, I followed another reviewer's suggestion and added 2 tbsp of brown sugar and 2 tbsp of soy sauce a little more than halfway through cooking. It smelled like French Onion soup in my house - yum! If it wasn't August and midnight, I probably would've made some on the spot.

• cookinginNY

• New York

• 8/3/2012

Horrid. I agree with past reviews that state if anyone has caramelized onions the old-fashioned way on the stovetop, you will NOT want to go near these. What a waste of three good onions, some butter and the electricity to run a slow-cooker for 12 hours. They turn a very dirty and odd brown color as opposed to a rich golden color. I tried to rescue them with some sugar and salt, but to no avail.

• thoughtful

• 3/4/2012

Don't know why the bad reviews, but for me the onions were nearly dark brown at the tenth hour. I always cut my onions pole to pole when I want to caramelize them because they tend to stick together otherwise. If I were doing a small batch I would use a fry pan, but for a big batch this is the easiest way to go. I used a KitchenAid slow cooker and had great results. I was able to lift the onions and leave behind the "butter jus" for another use.

• enaile0670

• Miami, FL

• 11/23/2011

This recipe worked for us. 12 hours was enough in our Crock Pot slow cooker, we didn't need more time. I read other reviews about being bland. We added 2 TB brown sugar, 2 TB soy sauce about half way through and it turned out perfectly. This is an easy way to get carmelized onions without standing over the stove.

• Anonymous

• Ventura County, CA

• 10/16/2011

A hint to avoid disintegrating onions: slice them pole to pole, rather than into rings. They will hold together better. YES, They will take significantly longer than expected but the results will be worth it. You can also start them in the slow cooker and finish them quickly on the stovetop in a heavy pan or dutch oven. Used them for pizza, tarte d'alsace, scrambled eggs (with lox too!), sandwiches and, of course soup. Yes, use a cheap bag of yellow onions and they'll be plenty sweet. You can add a touch of (white or dark) balsamic in place of sugar as suggested by another reader to add some punch.

• Anonymous

• Northern NJ

• 8/17/2011

Turned out perfectly.

• Anonymous

• Markham

• 5/15/2011

A waste of time and onions. I was suspicious about how this would work with so much moisture, and an earlier reviewer was spot on in calling them "boiled." Overcooked, bland and mushy, useless. I am rather suspicious that the folk giving positive reviews here have never done them in a pan.

• kmennie

• Ottawa

• 8/12/2010

This is the simplest route to French onion soup I've found. Throw in the onions, forget about them overnight, then reheat with beef broth and a splash of Armagnac the next day. Mine came out with a beautiful dark brown color and sweet aroma. The butter content, however, is bewildering. I put in two Tbs. of butter and 2 of oil, and will cut back to one of each the next time I make this.

• leahbower

• 1/3/2010

Yes this did take longer than the recipe said (i did 18hrs), so thankful that it said it was almost impossible to overcook them. I too turned this into French onion soup. I drained (and saved the stock) the onions and saved 1/2 for other recipies (pizza today!). Put 4- 5cups of beef and 4-5 cups of chix stock in the slowcooker with 1/2 the onions while I separated the onion juice from the fat and put the juice back in the soup. A dash of port, generous salt and cooked it till it was hot. Then in bowls under the broiler with a slice of hard bread and shredded swiss. Easiest onion soup I've made.

• CaseysCookbook

• Mass.

• 11/12/2009

This is the beginning to the best onion soup ever. So once you've finished this recipe, throw a bunch of onions back in the slow cooker with any kind of stock (veg, beef, chix or mix em) add a dash of sherry if you want and warm it all up. Onion soup is best served with a nice slice of bread and cheeze on top and broiled. Grueyere is the traditional but I like provelone!

• Anonymous

• 11/7/2009

This was good! Really good; nice gold color; sweet flavor; rich texture. However, I suspect to the people who say it didn't work that one of two things was the case a) their slow cooker wasn't at a high enough temp or they didn't cook it long enough (I let mine go for 15 hours) 2) I added a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar to help the process of caramelize the onions. Plus, I didn't have to stand there for 20 to 40 min, watching it. A big pluss

• thedeath458

• Rogers, AR

• 9/14/2008

在阅读完好评我以为我会this recipe for myself. I filled the slow cooker to the top with onions, added the butter and left them in for about 16 hours. Now they are done and a deep brown but are certainly not caramelized. With a little seasoning they might even taste somewhat good. For now I'm very disappointed. I hate throwing food out so maybe I can save them by additionally frying them for a bit and thus hopefully get them caramelized.

• Anonymous

• Chicago, IL

• 2/14/2008