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debthecook

Senior Cook
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
485
Location
Long Island, New York, USA
I've been cooking and using large beautiful WHITE onions for the past few months. 99 cents a pound, if I buy 3 they last for the week. What kind of onions do you use in your cooking?
 
In the UK, our onions are fairly generic - ie brown onions or white onions (no names), sometimes the white ones are called Spanish onions (their country of origin), they are milder than the British brown skinned onions and are 'kinder' to the digestion when used in salads or salsas etc 8)

Personally, I use shallots and leeks as often as onions 8)
 
I like Vidalias or Texas Sweet for eating raw, and I also like red onions for the color in salads.

I like yellow or white onions for cooking.
 
Grew up in India cooking with shallots (larger than the ones you get here). They were mild, sweet and had great texture.

I now use either white or yellow. I like the sweet onions as well so Vidalias (since I lived in Georgia for a lot of years) would be my first preference followed by Mauii. I like to shop at local farmer markets so I can pick up whatever looks fresh and good. I avoid getting onions and other vegetables from the larger grocery chains as much as I can.
 
debthecook said:
Can anyone detect a distinct flavor difference in RAW WHITE and RAW YELLOW? I can't, but those are my taste buds.

I find the yellow [other than the sweet varieties] to be stronger than the white.
 
I think whites are just a bit sharper than regular yellow onions.

I usually use yellow in cooking, red for salads. Sometimes white if the yellows don't seem good. My store has ceased, for some reason, selling loose yellows. They come in bags and almost always contain some that are already soft. GRRRRR. :evil:

I like vidalias in the summer in salads, too. But they are too sweet for my taste to sub them for yellows across the board in everything.
 
I use whatever is on sale unless I'm using it raw, in which case I prefer to use Kula (Maui) Onions.
 
Take a peeled Vidalia, create a core for a generous dab of butter, then wrap in foil and toss onto the grill until soft.

Open, eat, and believe you have died and gone to heaven.
 
As far as variety and uses, I'd like to echo choclatechef. I also use red onion slices on sammiches. Strangely enough, Vidalias only seem to be available here one week a month. :?
 
ChocolateChef, no surprise, has got my agreement too...

A bit of a personal "love affair" with vidalias, when you can get 'em, up here...but a Vidalia or a yellow onion, peeled, sliced vertically into wedges, speared onto a skewer, sprayed gently with EVOO, salted generously with "Seasoning Salt" (or better yet "Hy's Seasoning Salt") and grilled 5 minutes a side with your BBQ'd steaks over high heat...rested about 5 minutes (along with the meat)...well...DELISCIOUS!

Lifter
 
I use red onions for salads and sandwiches, they are not as sulfuric and hence sweeter and a bit easier on the palate.

For when I am serving onions with a nice big hunk of meat nothing beats caramelised brown onions, they beat the red and white varieties hands down in my opinion.

Shallots (as we call them here in Australia, I think they are called green onions in the US and spring onions in the UK) add a nice subtler taste to salads sometimes, especially those with Vietnamese/Thai influence.
 
mudbug said:
Take a peeled Vidalia, create a core for a generous dab of butter, then wrap in foil and toss onto the grill until soft.

Open, eat, and believe you have died and gone to heaven.

Oh, yeah, mudbug!!! YUM!

I adore onions and (therefore) should probably own some Altoids stock. Especially enjoy them just like this, or stuffed and baked.

I'm also pretty much with the rest of you in preferences, typically buying whites for the sharpest flavor, Vidalias or Texas Sweet yellows for baking and reds/purples for salads. Scallions and green onions there, too. Love 'em raw with dips...
 
I prefer the white to the yellow - to me the yellow has a harsher bite to it - whites are milder when used for cooking. If I am going to eat them raw in a salad I prefer and red/purple onion, spring onion, or any kind of sweet onion. There are some things that only shallots will do!
 
Walla Walla sweets when I can get them... but, any sweet onion will do.

Last night I took two onions sliced them thinly and sauted them in butter until they were soft and brown. Then I added a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a few pinches of beef bouillon. Let it cook for about four more minutes and then pigged out. They were delish. I served them as a side to our pork steak dinner. YUMMY!
 
Haggis said:
For when I am serving onions with a nice big hunk of meat nothing beats caramelised brown onions, they beat the red and white varieties hands down in my opinion.

I'll second that. Caramelized yellow/brown onions beat sweet onions as well. Cook a sweet onion that long and they end up quite bland. I'll echo everyone else, though on raw sweet onions - those I like.
 
I love all onions as long as they are oniony, prefer the tart, sharp taste of bermuda, white, shallots, and sometimes the yellow. Something I like to do with shallots is slice thin and fry in equal amounts of EVOO and butter until crispy and use as a garnish over mashed potatoes, green beans, peas, or basically any vegie.
 
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