The Popular Caramelized Onion Shortcut You Shouldn't Use

Adding caramelized onions to your cooking repertoire is a great way to spruce up countless recipes, from burgers to baked beans to soups. With nothing but onions, butter, salt, and pepper, you can easily make them at home and add a complex umami flavor to your home-cooked meals. The only downside to caramelized onions is that they take some time to prepare. You'll need at least 30 minutes to achieve the proper texture and flavor, and trying to use shortcuts will compromise the quality of your caramelized onions.

You may have heard that baking soda can help speed up the caramelization process, and while that might be true, it comes with a price. The alkalinity of baking soda makes the onions soften faster, which will save you time but also leave you with mush that is more like onion jam than caramelized onions. If you want to get the best texture and flavor, skip the baking soda hack when making caramelized onions.

Understanding how baking soda affects the caramelization process involves a bit of food science. A phenomenon called the Maillard Reaction is responsible for the browning that occurs when you apply heat to onions. As the onions cook, sugars are released, which gives them their characteristic caramel-brown color. The onions also soften due to moisture released during the cooking process. When you add baking soda into this chemical reaction, your onions will brown and soften much more quickly.

With a pH level of around 8, baking soda is alkaline in nature. Adding even a dash of the common pantry item changes the pH level of the acidic onions, and higher alkalinity speeds up the Maillard reaction. Your caramelized onions will be soft and brown within 10 minutes, but they'll also be mushier than they'd be without baking soda. You might be fine with a creamier texture if you're planning to use the onions in a dip or a spread. However, you'll notice that baking soda also impacts the onions' taste.

Let's face it, the unique taste of caramelized onions is the reason for making them in the first place. You want to get that savory-sweet flavor with notes of deep umami, and adding baking soda will ruin that. In addition to being watery, mushy, and too brown, caramelized onions with baking soda will have a bitter, chemical taste. No one wants to taste baking soda when taking a bite of caramelized onions. If you want to preserve the flavor of your onions, steer clear of this timesaving hack.

It can be tempting to use techniques that cut down on cooking time, but some shortcuts come with a cost. Although caramelized onions require patience, they're also simple to make. You can easily do other cooking, prepping, or cleaning while your onions are on the stove, as all they need are some occasional stirring. You won't regret the extra time spent when your caramelized onions turn out delicious and perfectly softened.