Making caramelized onionsâthe real ones, which I like to call RCOsdo have the time to devote to the processBIG BATCHminimumâand honestly, you could go with as many as your cooking vessel will allow.
The thing about cooking so many onions, though, is that you probably wonât need that many at one time. So thereâs an essential second move whenever youâre making caramelized onions: Freeze them.
Stashed in an ice cube tray, caramelized onions will keep indefinitely in the freezer. But take a BIG PAUSE here. Do not use your fancy cocktail ice traydedicated traystorage bagdirty martinilemonade
Iâm not saying you need an onion-only tray, exactly: you can transfer the frozen caramelized onion cubes, to a storage container and use the same tray for freezing a batch of green saucemarinarasavory something
A few rules to keep in mind
- When youâre making RCOs, take note of how many onions you start with. When portioning the cooked onions into the ice cube tray, divide them evenly among as many cubes as onions you started with. Now one cube equals one onionâs worth of RCOs. Using a smaller tray? Make each cube a half an onion, and keep track so you can put the right amount in a recipe later.
- If you have a sudden window of time and a mishmash of onion types, thatâs totally fine. While chef and cookbook author Vivian Howard mentions using yellow or white onions in her new book,
