Onion help, please

Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
I need help. I only recently started using onions in my cooking. I don't like the taste of raw onions, so it took me a while to figure out that they taste different and add a lot of flavor when cooked. But there are different colors. Are they all the same? Can you use them interchangeably? And what is a sweet onion? (I saw that in a recipe.)
 

FryBoy

New member
No, onions differ a bit from variety to variety. I primarily use yellow onions, which are the most common and least expensive variety. I rarely buy white onions, but I don't know why. I sometimes use red onions, which are generally a little milder, for raw slices on burgers or in salads, etc., or if a recipe calls for them. Sweet onions are actually less acidic and have less sulfur than other varieties, which gives them a sweeter taste -- used one last night thinly sliced with thick slices of an heirloom tomato and sliced Hass avocado (50¢ each!) dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and S&P (delicious!). Sweet onions are more expensive than other varieties and do not keep nearly as well -- not worth the extra cost IMHO unless eaten raw (which I love!). Green onions are indispensable in a lot of things.

BTW, if a recipe calls for 2 onions, I always buy 3; it seems that a fair percentage of onions are bad these days, something you don't discover until you cut them open and find a rotted layer or two, or a dried-out middle. Having a spare onion on hand has saved me many last-minute grocery runs.

When shopping for onions, feel the area around the top (opposite from the root end) and reject any that are soft.

Check this site for more detailed information:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Onionsdry.html
 
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Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
What a great link, Doug! Thank you. And it answered another question I had about shallots - they are onions.
 

buckytom

Grill Master
onions are a complicated subject, sorta zen like.

layer after layer can be peeled back until there's nothing. the being of the onion was in layers, not the center.
 

FryBoy

New member
Shallots are wonderful! Kind of a cross between an onion and garlic. Often hard to find good ones, but they are more common than they once were.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
shallots are a treat! and don't forget the scallions / spring onions - also a variation in taste.

whites tend to be milder, as red/Bermuda are reported to be - but I have encountered some zingy reds.

one caution on reds: when cooked the color can be less than fully appetizing... I like to buy reds to fancy up (color wise) salads of every kind - green/veggie and pastas - or 'for company' hamburger slices.

low sulfur aka sweet - WallaWalla and Videlias - these are the 'premium' types for raw in salads, sliced raw for burgers, etc. I would not pay the premium for use as a cooked onion.

FryBoy - interesting observation on the 'rotten in the bag onions' - my supermarket green grocer guys knows me 'on sight' - and regularly asks 'How's the onions doing now-a-days?" they've actually switched brands / suppliers - don't know how much I personally had to do with that, but . . . I do find fewer rotting onions now. a year or so back I bought a bag, the first two I sliced open were rotting in the middle so I cut the remaining 7 in half - and 5 out of nine stank rotten terrible so I took the whole lot, cut in half, back to show the store manager why I was so vocal about their rotting onions.
 

FryBoy

New member
The sweet varieties tend to go bad rather quickly if not refrigerated, so avoid any in the market that look old. Yellow onions will usually last much longer -- several weeks if they're good to begin with. Look for firm, round, unwrinkled, undamaged ones, and always avoid any that are sprouting. I keep them in the refrigerator's fruit bin wrapped in a plastic bag from the market.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
Shallots also aren't as strong as onions or garlic kind of a subtitle taste to me. I love them in some things but in a bind you can substitute about half of the amount called for in a recipe with red onion. Oh and love onions in almost all forms from raw to cooked preferably sauteed or grilled but there are other ways as good.
 

GotGarlic

New member
It's my understanding that onions, as well as potatoes, go bad faster when stored in plastic bags - they need to breathe, and moisture in the bag will cause them to mold.

I keep my onions in a basket that hangs on a coat hanger sort of thing attached to a closet door in the kitchen, along with my aprons and some other stuff.
 

Mama

Queen of Cornbread
Site Supporter
Vidalia are in season now. They are by far my favorite onion. I love a bologna sandwich with a nice thick slice of vidalia onion and some mayo.
 

SilverSage

Resident Crone
Mama, I love vidalias, too. But you have to be careful with the sweetness.

Once I was making French onion soup. You're supposed to slowly caramelize the onions to develop their sweetness. So I thought, "Why not start with sweet onions?" BEGINNER'S MISTAKE! BAD CHOICE!!!!! The soup was so sweet, we couldn't eat it.

Vidalias are better eaten raw. When you want to do a slow cook for soup, choose the yellow onion.
 

FryBoy

New member
It's my understanding that onions, as well as potatoes, go bad faster when stored in plastic bags - they need to breathe, and moisture in the bag will cause them to mold.

I keep my onions in a basket that hangs on a coat hanger sort of thing attached to a closet door in the kitchen, along with my aprons and some other stuff.
True for long-term storage, but heat is also very bad for onions; cold storage will keep them fresher, and leaving them in a plastic bag prevents the odor from affecting other items they're stored with. That won't hurt them for a few weeks. Or at least that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.
 

Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
I've never used vidalia onions before. Thanks so much for the heads-up that they are sweet. I've been just relying on yellow onions for cooking because I didn't know what the differences were. I have used shallots a couple of times when making a sauce for steaks and they really did make the sauce special.

Also, I've been keeping them hanging in a mesh bag in the kitchen. I'll keep them in the fridge now. Thanks, GG.

Thanks to everyone for so much really good info. It's exactly what I was looking for and more.
 

GotGarlic

New member
I think you're misunderstanding me, FM. I keep my onions in a basket in the kitchen, not in the fridge. They keep for ages.
 

Miniman

Mini man - maxi food
Gold Site Supporter
I keep my onions in a cool cupboard and when I have grown them, in a mesh garage in the garage/outdoor shed to keep them cooler.
 

Mama

Queen of Cornbread
Site Supporter
Vidalias are wonderful raw but I also use them for cooking a wide variety of things like sauces, soups (maybe not french onion but a lot of others), salsa, baked onions, onion rings....I could go on and on...They are definitely my favorite onion. Check out the vidalia onion website for all kinds of recipes. They even have recipes there from the Vidalia Onion Festival cook-off.
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
onions are a complicated subject, sorta zen like.

layer after layer can be peeled back until there's nothing. the being of the onion was in layers, not the center.

Deep, BT. ;)

Lee
 

FryBoy

New member
Mama, I love vidalias, too. But you have to be careful with the sweetness.

Once I was making French onion soup. You're supposed to slowly caramelize the onions to develop their sweetness. So I thought, "Why not start with sweet onions?" BEGINNER'S MISTAKE! BAD CHOICE!!!!! The soup was so sweet, we couldn't eat it.

Vidalias are better eaten raw. When you want to do a slow cook for soup, choose the yellow onion.
I agree completely. I like vidaliads raw, and I do use them in cooking if I have some extras on hand. However, as noted by Cook's Thesaurus (see link in my first reply above), sweet onions aren't as flavorful as yellow onions and have a higher water content, which makes them a little more difficult to brown than yellows. Cook's Thesaurus says that yellow onions have a more complex flavor, turn a rich brown and become sweeter and milder when cooked. That's consistent with my experience using anywhere from 2 to 6 onions per week for the last 40 years. Given the difference in price (Vidalia and other sweet onions are usually about double to triple the cost of yellows around here), I normally opt for the yellow onions for cooking and reserve the sweet onions for burgers, tacos, salads, etc.
 

High Cheese

Saucier
You should be able to find Spring Onions in your store now. They are basically mature scallions. I treat them like asparagus or green beans and pan roast them in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.

They are hard to pick out on the plate since they are mixed with button mushrooms but you can see a raw bunch in the back on the counter.

ShortRibs001.jpg
 
I need help. I only recently started using onions in my cooking. I don't like the taste of raw onions, so it took me a while to figure out that they taste different and add a lot of flavor when cooked. But there are different colors. Are they all the same? Can you use them interchangeably? And what is a sweet onion? (I saw that in a recipe.)

I enjoy both raw & cooked onions. Raw, I usually add to salads, tuna salad etc. Red onions are one of my faves for salads. If you don't care for the taste of raw - specifically red onions, you can take the 'bite' out of them by soaking the sliced onion in cold water.

Sorry, I kept thinking of one of the judges on Chopped, that adamently protested the use of red raw onions in a contestant's dish. The next round, same added red onions again.

You might also try mincing/dicing the onion more finely before adding it to a dish.
 
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