How to caramelize onions quickly using chemistry
Using chemistry to caramelize onions faster: adding a pinch of baking soda to speed up the Maillard reaction, quickly enhancing the flavour, aroma, and colour of the onions.
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Are there signs of life on the Red Planet?
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Axolotls are kind of the Peter Pan of salamanders.Media Editor: Lauren Sims
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Understanding energy flow in ecosystems.
-
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Five tips to cook a better Thanksgiving dinner using chemistry.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Using Native ingredients means cooking without dairy, wheat flour, and sugar.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Some of the different ways plants are pollinated.
-
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, MainzThe European Commission's canteen features a variety of menus.
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] MATTHEW HERTINGS: So I love caramelized onions. It's one of the greatest things ever. You throw it on all sorts of food, whether it's hot dogs or French onion soup. Whatever you want, you throw on caramelized onions.
The problem with caramelized onions is that they take forever to make. It takes forever to get that brown color. It takes forever to get them nice and soft. But if you know a special trick, you can do it in a really short amount of time. And part of knowing that trick is understanding the chemistry behind caramelizing onions.
And caramelizing is sort of a misnomer here. What you're actually doing when you brown onions is you're running through the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is the same thing that happens when you sear a steak or when you cook a roast, and it gets brown on the outside. And in that reaction, you react to sugar-- this is a silly way to draw a sugar-- with an amine.
And all sorts of things happen in this reaction. But eventually, you get to flavor town. This first reaction goes a lot faster if you add a base. And the base that we're going to use to do this is baking soda.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So they're in the same pot. And the difference here is that I am going to add a pinch of baking soda to the onions on the left, just a pinch, not too much. If you add too much, the onions get all soft and mealy. And you will be able to see really quickly that they start turning brown.
Look at that. They're already turning colors already. And these guys over on the right here haven't done a thing. They're sitting there staring at you. So there's a chemistry trick that you can use to help your everyday life.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The problem with caramelized onions is that they take forever to make. It takes forever to get that brown color. It takes forever to get them nice and soft. But if you know a special trick, you can do it in a really short amount of time. And part of knowing that trick is understanding the chemistry behind caramelizing onions.
And caramelizing is sort of a misnomer here. What you're actually doing when you brown onions is you're running through the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is the same thing that happens when you sear a steak or when you cook a roast, and it gets brown on the outside. And in that reaction, you react to sugar-- this is a silly way to draw a sugar-- with an amine.
And all sorts of things happen in this reaction. But eventually, you get to flavor town. This first reaction goes a lot faster if you add a base. And the base that we're going to use to do this is baking soda.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So they're in the same pot. And the difference here is that I am going to add a pinch of baking soda to the onions on the left, just a pinch, not too much. If you add too much, the onions get all soft and mealy. And you will be able to see really quickly that they start turning brown.
Look at that. They're already turning colors already. And these guys over on the right here haven't done a thing. They're sitting there staring at you. So there's a chemistry trick that you can use to help your everyday life.
[MUSIC PLAYING]