Soak your onions in a bowl of ice water before frying Soaking the onions helps dilute their sulfur content, taking away that pungent, raw bite and leaving you with a pleasant, milder onion that still has some snap to it.
Onions - soaking in cold water to soften the flavor
When preparing raw onions, soak in cold water before hand to remove some of the pungency and soften the flavor.
But indeed sautéing onions in water gets them soft and clear with less shrinkage compared to sautéing in a fat. You're really making stewed onion bits.
The vinegar soak did rid the onions of much of their burn, but it was replaced by an equally strong sour taste, even after thorough rinsing. Milk was also very effective at removing the sulfur compounds, but it left the onions tasting washed-out.
How to Reduce the Sharpness of an Onion. Patel recommends soaking a sliced onion for 30-60 minutes in ice water, which will alleviate some of the enzymes from escaping. Drain and pat dry before cooking with the crisp, palatable onion.
You can get rid of the strong taste by soaking sliced onions in ice water for 20 to 30 minutes or by sprinkling them with an acid such as vinegar. Onions soaked in ice water will get very crisp while those sprinkled with vinegar will soften a bit, but they will lose the strong taste and become sweeter.
Want to use raw onions in a dish, but concerned they might be a bit too strong or pungent? Soak them in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes before using. Soaking the onions for 15 minutes or so in cold water will help to soften the their flavor, mellowing it out a bit.
They soften while developing a lovely taste of vinegar in them, and lose their pungency too. Eventually, you have sour onions, but also with a light inherent sweet flavor.
When you add baking soda during cooking it changes the pH which increases the Maillard reaction causing the onions to brown more quickly. The higher pH also causes the onions to soften more quickly, which we cover below when we discuss the texture.
A trick for getting your breading to stick better and not fall off as much when frying is to cover the breaded onion rings with a damp paper towel for 10-15 minutes after breading while the oil heats up. This helps it get a little bit tacky and stick better so less of it falls off in the hot oil.
Note – Never add the onions in less hot oil. They will not become crispy afterward. Fry on high heat for 8-10 minutes. Frying on high heat is essential to remove the moisture in the onion slices.
The salt helps bring the moisture out of the onions. It will help them cook down and brown up a little bit faster, so you get a nicer, deeper, browner flavor. They sweat a little bit with the salt.
Before you add onions to salsa or guacamole, it's a good idea to tone down the intense flavor, lest your dip be overwhelmed. A simple and quick way to do that, according to chef Rick Bayless, is to pour boiling water over the chopped onions. That's pretty much all you need to know.
Simply coat cut onions in a generous pinch of salt, and let them sit for 15 minutes; this will draw out much of the moisture, and some of the compounds that result in the pungency. Afterward, You can wipe/shake off the excess salt if you desire.
If you need to caramelize onions quickly, adding sugar or a pinch of baking soda (to raise the pH level and help them brown quicker) can help to speed up the caramelization process but truly they aren't a dish that cooks up quickly. If using baking soda I'd suggest about 1/4 tsp per pound of raw onions.
Onions release amino acids that react with sugar as they heat up. It's this chemical reaction that creates wonderful flavors and changes in color. And if you've tasted caramelized onions before, you've experienced this magic first hand.
Note: the vinegar serves to deglaze the pan, adds acidity, and really brings this recipe together by boosting the flavor of the caramelized onions. If the onions stick to the pan, that's fine. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon and scrape all browned bits from the pan, but make sure the onions don't start burning.
Submerge Them in Cold Water
Soak them for at least 15 minutes (longer is even more beneficial), properly drain, and eat away! Submerging them in cold water takes away that intense, sharp bite from the raw onion. The cold water helps the enzyme that causes onions to have their pungent flavor to leach out.
(Read more about the science of onion flavor on Crosby's website.) A simple soak leaches some of that enzyme from the onion, leaving behind a mellower flavor and a much more palatable salad topper. (Cook's Illustrated has also had success with a bath of water and baking soda, but simple H20 will do the trick nicely.)
Rice noted that it's important not to add too much baking soda, as it will create a chemical-like taste to your onions. Still, artificially speeding up the process does have some drawbacks. She noted that the onions “dissolved a bit more and became creamy, almost like an onion jam.”
These boost good bacteria in the stomach and improve immune function according to health studies. Health experts also urge including onions to protect against heart issues, control blood pressure, and help in weight management. These benefits are amplified when you combine them with lemon juice.
Growing an onion in water is a really fun way to watch the early steps of vegetable growth. However, the onion cannot grow this way forever. After a few weeks, a flower stem will emerge. At this point, you can either plant the entire onion in soil, or just discard the onion.
The idea is to dry out and toughen the skins without drying out the onion's interior. If you don't have a way to elevate them, you can also cure onions by laying them out on newspapers to dry. Allow the onions to rest in this way for two or three weeks.