Hot answers tagged caramelisation
13
Deglazing removes caramelized bits (the "browned" bits) from the bottom of your pan or skillet after cooking meats or vegetables.
It is usually accomplished by putting stock, sauce, wine, or even water (or really any liquid) in the pan over heat after the pan has been emptied of whatever was cooked into it and any rendered fat and scraping the browned bits ...
12
To clarify a little, there are several ways you can cook onions.
You could be trying to get them to turn translucent. In which case, you can cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. This will take somewhere around 5 minutes. Preheating the pan isn't really required (especially if using a non-stick pan). If they start to brown, turn down the heat.
You ...
11
In addition to what everyone else has said, you may want to add some salt as the onions caramelize. The salt will help draw out the sugars, and allow them to caramelize more.
Some techniques I've seen also suggest a little sugar to help the caramelizing process... but personally I think that's cheating. That's up to you though.
7
Deglazing is a technique for making sauces and gravies. It occurs after you've accumulated cooked on meats and other deposits. First remove your meat and any excess liquid fat. Second crank the heat up high and get your pan nice and hot. Next add a cool liquid (water/wine/stock). The liquid will boil rapidly and lift the browned deposits to create a ...
6
Without seeing the result and knowing your exact technique, my best guess is that you're not using enough liquid, or that you're using heat that's too high. High heat will essentially fry the onions, like you would expect by dropping chicken or potatoes into a pan full of hot oil.
Properly caramelized onions should take at least 20 to 30 minutes, I try ...
6
Onions have a lot of sugar in them. All they want in the world is to burn and fill your kitchen with oniony smoke.
The solution, as with all things heavy in sugar, is to turn down the heat and stir frequently.
That said- if your olive oil was extra virgin then it might have been your oil that started burning before the onions did.
5
I've never really considered there to be a real difference between sautéing and frying. They both mean to cook in a hot pan with a little bit of fat. However there isn't a lot of consistency online. It doesn't look like there's any sort of definitive answer here. Some points of view:
They're the same, although frying might involve slightly more oil. The ...
5
I've used this palm sugar caramel recipe before without problems. It uses about 25% honey as well as the sugar.
17oz palm sugar
4.25 oz Honey
14 oz heavy cream
As soon as the sugars get to 320 ℉ (160 ℃), take the pan off the heat and deglaze it with the cream. If you let it sit on the heat any longer, it will burn. After adding the cream simply cook it ...
5
Caramelization occurs at the melting point of sugar. When a sugar molecule hits the appropriate temperature, it melts. This is similar to ice turning to water above 32 F (0 C). It will take some time for all of a given amount of sugar to melt, but this is relatively insignificant compared to ice melting due primarily to the vast amount of heat involved to ...
4
As you mentioned it is all about how the crystals form.
Some of the factors off the top of my head:
How saturated is the solution -
The more sugar packed into the syrup the more easily it will crystallize.
How quickly it cools -
The slower the bigger the crystals
Interference -
Do you have a starch or other sugar molecules gumming up the works?
...
4
The secret to really crispy skin has everything to do with rendering the fat that lies directly under it. Once that fat has removed itself from the skin, a little high heat will crisp it up perfectly. If I am creating a roast chicken, I normally remove it from the packaging and allow it to sit uncovered in the fridge for at least overnight, longer if I ...
4
On the Splenda website it says that Splenda doesn't caramelize like sugar. Admittedly, it is talking about getting the golden brown colour in your baked goods, but I suspect since it doesn't happen in that instance, it wouldn't work in a hard candy.
4
The technique for creating a proper layer of melted sugar on your creme brulee involves three important elements:
After you add the sugar, gently swirl the ramekin to create smooth layer of sugar. You don't want it too clump or be uneven.
Gently 'kiss' the sugar with the tip of the flame, moving the flame around to heat evenly, just until the sugar starts ...
4
It is perfectly normal for sugar to turn dark brown when making caramel. If it turns even darker, it is because it has been burning too hot.
The final temperature should be around 234 F, so you want to get there gradually.
As for the color, many recipes call for cream to make it smoother and tender, but only incorporate it after the crystals are fully ...
3
I am not sure what your specific problem is, so here is some general advice on making candy and caramel.
As for control, the normal method is to control it with a thermometer. (They are even called "candy thermometers"). The thermometer should have a very fast reaction time, and be capable of measuring in fractions of grades (one digit after the decimal ...
3
It's my understanding that sucralose (what makes Splenda sweet) is REALLY sweet, so much of what's in a measure of Splenda is fillers to bring the volume up so similar amounts of sugar and Splenda sweeten things a similar amount. I very much doubt that the fillers would behave as sugar does in a candy.
You can bake with it in situations where sugar isn't ...
3
Random things to try:
Add the molten caramel to the hot water (not the other way around), slowly, stirring vigorously as you add it.
Allow the caramel to cool (in a heat-proof plastic bag, or on a marble slab as in candy making, or even on parchment paper), then crush it. Put in cold water, heat while stirring (similar to melting granulated sugar)
I'm ...
3
Splenda does not work for making hard candies, I learned this the hard way. I tried to make peanut brittle for my grandmother and it turned into a sticky mess... twice. I thought maybe I did something wrong the first time, but after looking it up discovered that splenda (even the boxes branded "for baking") will not be good for candy making.
3
I wish I had time for a more complete answer, but it sounds like you are trying to make fudge. It's quite an involved process. To give a very brief outline of the process without explaining why it works, you need to,
Bring your candy mixture to a boil and then stop stirring.
Use a sugar thermometer and wait for the temperature to reach 115C (softball ...
3
Microwave candy recipes are very fast and easy. They tend to be only a little different in flavor than the stove top versions in my experience. There seems to be a little less depth of flavor.
The recipes usually call for short periods of microwaving and frequent stirring. As far as the cooking times- I have to follow the recipe as I have no way of ...
3
A double boiler will heat more evenly, and you can turn down the heat on the eye as low as you want as long as you are still producing steam, and cooking the flan in a water bath will also chill the heat out. To my knowledge, palm sugar has a low melt point and high burn point with the only real diffrence the fact that it has more non water soluble bits ...
3
I once had this problem and solved it by slicing my onions a bit thicker.
I've tried caramelizing in the oven with good results. If you want to try that, just put some parchment paper down on a baking tray and scatter your sliced onions evenly and sprinkle with salt and olive oil. I don't remember the exact temperature I used, but one online source suggests ...
2
I've asked my wife who does this often. If you have enough oil, then as you fry the onions they will get dry and crispy, but you should have seen the nice juicy stage before that. Our guess then is that your are using too little oil. For 280g of chopped onions use 2 tablespoons of oil. It takes close to 15 minutes to get the caramel color.
2
I generally use butter, EarthBalance, or extra virgin olive oil, and lots of time. If I'm in a rush I will sometimes turn the heat up a little, but the that nearly always causes an inconsistent or lower quality result.
Also I find it helpful to separate them onions early in the process. Generally we slice them into rings before cooking. I separate the ...
2
I personally wouldn't try it. Caramelizing is a delicate process and it is very easy to burn the sugar. It also gets up to a very high temperature (typical table sugar is 160° C / 320° F) and several dishes that might be labeled "microwave-safe" will not withstand that temperature. You would actually need an oven-safe vessel for this process.
Last but ...
2
I would argue the difference between sautéing and pan frying is in the movement of the pan.
Sautéing comes from the french, sauté meaning to jump. So sautéing is very much a western form of stir-frying.
For pan-frying I generally think of eggs, steak, etc, where the food is put into the pan and left, perhaps being flipped once or twice, but otherwise ...
2
Since dietary fiber is made mostly of cellulose that isn't broken down during cooking I don't think it should be an issue. The browning that occurs is from the proteins and sugars already in the onion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrition#Fiber
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