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#1
01-26-2004, 08:05 AM
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 Crunchy Onion Woes For the past 8 months or so I've been having major problems with simmering diced onions for soups. I simmer them for 3+ hours by themselves and they are still crunchy. Its driving me nuts. I used to be able to get a soft diced onion after about 30 min. of simmering. In an effort to find a solution, I have bought onions that were: big small fresh old flat round spanish yellow white sweet All but one of these gave me better results and only slightly better. Flat sweet onions tend to soften up in about 2 hours but by that time, they have no flavor whatsoever. I've started adding the salt from the recipe to the onions as they simmer and that helps but I'd still like to figure out what's going on. Is there visual characteristic that I'm missing when choosing my onions? Is there some way of simmering them that prevents toughness? Any ideas would be much appreciated.      |
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#2
01-26-2004, 08:11 AM
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| What are you simmering them in? Anything more acidic than the onion itself and the onion will not get any softer. Thus the saute. Saute to desired softness, then add to your liquid, or add as a garnish to the liquid just before serving. Phil |
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#3
01-26-2004, 08:33 AM
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| I simmer them in bottled spring water - neutral ph. Any acids that I may add to my soup (tomatoes/paste, other veggies) are only after the onions get soft. My soups are fat free. I've tried sauteeing onions in water or dry in a non stick pan - don't like the result. Although I appreciate the suggestion, I'm not looking for alternatives to simmering onions, just looking for reasons why my onions aren't acting like they used to. |
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#4
01-26-2004, 04:25 PM
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| Is this recent say in the past few months? If so then most likely it is related to the time of the year the onions have been harvested.
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#5
01-26-2004, 04:42 PM
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| I too initially thought that the time of the year was affecting the onions but alas, it has been at least 8 months (probably 9 or 10) so I highly doubt it would be for 3 seasons of the year. |
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#6
01-26-2004, 04:43 PM
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| You might find pressure cooking has the desired effect, if you don't mind some of the B vitamins disappearing. Phil |
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