Onion Rings

[mamster]

That yeast batter sounds intriguing, Andy. Ever since I started making yeast waffles my default, I've been wanting to put yeast in everything. Does it make an especially light batter?

[VivreManger]

There seem to be two different onion ring options: thick or thin batter. I would imagine the ones with egg, yeast, or self-rising flour would be almost as thick as hamburgers, while the ones that are quick dip, drudge, and drop, would be very delicate, my preference.

In reviewing the recipes one possibility remains largely unexplored: alternatives to regular wheat flour. Cornmeal, buckwheat flour, rice flour are appealing.

I have come up with the following recipe which I throw out to all of you as an experiment. I don't think that the onions that I now have are good enough to try: Kasha fried onion rings.

I love the taste of sauted, carmelized onions, with buckwheat groats served with a rich brisket gravy.

First pan roast in a dry heavy iron skillet on top of the stove whole buckwheat groats till they are brown, but not burnt. Then in a cuisinart or similar contraption grind the groats till they are a combination of mostly fine, but some still larger bits. The aroma of the hot ground groats alone is almost worth the effort. While I have never made this dish, the steps up to this point are what I do to make buckwheat pancake flour.

Slice the onions to your desired thickness. I prefer thin delicate.

Prepare a dipping liquid of warm low-fat or fat- free beef broth. Here the options are limitless. Most commercial beef stocks and broths are quite salty so you may not need to add as much slat at the end. To taste, you might add other flavors. Cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce might work well. Soy sauce would be a different flavor, making this closer to soba noodles than to kasha varnishkes.

Dip in the liquid, dredge in the flour, and drop in the oil.

Then quickly fry in your favorite cooking oil. I prefer a Honk Kong peanut oil, called Lion Brand or something like it. It really tastes like fresh roasted peanuts. If you want to go whole hog, you could use schmaltz.

The advantage of thin-sliced onions cooked in small batches is that you can improvise the frying utensils. Any decent heavy-gauge pot, with a spider skimmer should do the job.

Let me know if anyone tries this idea.

Corn meal and rice flour would also be fun.

Edited September 17, 2003 by VivreManger (log)

[Suzanne F]

If you want to go whole hog, you could use schmaltz.

Actually, I might just toast the kasha and grind it and leave it at that. What an aroma!!

[JAZ]

The recent resurgence of this thread had me thinking of onion rings, so I made some a few days ago to go with a hanger steak.

Although I love most any onion rings, my favorites are the very thin sort dusted in flour and seasonings (no batter). The problem I've always had is that they don't stay crisp, so it's tough to make several batches and try to serve them all at the same time.

This time, though, I remembered reading something about not salting french fries until right before serving, because pre-salting them makes them soggy. I figured maybe that would work with onion rings too.

So I began by soaking in beer and egg (I usually use milk but didn't have enough) and then tossing in a mixture of flour, ancho chili powder and a bit of cayenne. Fried them in small batches as usual. Drained them on a rack rather than paper towels (I discovered that trick a long time ago). Then I stuck them in a warm oven until the steak was done -- unfortunately, a bit of a timing problem had occurred. They waited for about 10 minutes or so from the time the last batch was done. I was not optimistic.

But lo and behold, when I pulled them out of the oven (still on the rack), they were still as crisp and when they'd emerged from the oil. Success!

[Gifted Gourmet]

bumping this up from 2003!

Everyone knows about making these variations on the ever-popular onion: there's the blooming onion, fried onions, fried onion block, and those delightful onion petals but now I must inquire of our members: can you tell me how to make the best onion rings ever with our marvelous locally-grown Georgia Vidalia onions?

We have the sweetest, juiciest onions here in Georgia: the Vidalia:

The Vidalia Onion is the sweetest onion in the world. It gets its name from the small town in Southeast Georgia, north of the Altamaha River near Savannah, Georgia.  The Vidalia Onion is a yellow hybrid variety. When combined with the south Georgia soil and climate of the area, these onions grow into what has become a gourmet's favorite. The growth and harvesting of these onions takes about eight months, as opposed to other varieties of onions which only take ninety to one hundred twenty days to mature. The harvesting is done by hand labor.

Vidaliasbest.com

Tonight, I watched Emeril and Bobby Flay make a Guinness beer batter and the onion rings looked fantastic! I bought a big bag of Vidalias yesterday and am ready for any and all advice!

[maggiethecat]

I had an onion ring road to Damascus incident last week, straight from Scott Peacock (a Georgia boy) and Edna Lewis's Gift of Southern Cooking a cookbook so excellent I use it at least four times a month. Peacock's onion ring recipe is actually a garnish for his excellent Country Captain.

Slice onions 1/16 of an inch thick. Toss them in flour seasoned with cayenne, salt and pepper. Shake off excess flour. Heat at least three inches of oil in a skillet or pot and fry the onion rings in batches until golden brown-- a couple of minutes.

Thin, crispy, oniony heaven.

[chef koo]

why do some onion ring recipes call for marinating the onions in buttermilk?

[GordonCooks]

I've always worked under the assumption the enzymes in the buttermilk soften the texture of the onion. I make my rings pretty thick and prefer the onion to be tender rather than crunchy. So far, it's worked.

[chef koo]

softening them doesn't make them mushy after cooking?

[GordonCooks]

softening them doesn't make them mushy after cooking?

←

I've done maybe a 30 min soak in buttermilk, then dredge in seasoned flour, a light batter and into the oil. Not mushy at all and cooked in 3-5 minutes. I should add that I don't like raw onions at all and find any rawness very off-putting. Maybe just my own preference.

[rooftop1000]

It may aid in browning the crust too, if I remember correctly from the fried chicken thread some people said they burned the coating on their chicken when they used a buttermilk dip

since chicken cooks a lot longer than an onion ring...buttermilk may be good for rings

tracey

[JAZ]

Soaking onions in milk or buttermilk (or water, for that matter) draws out some of the compounds that can make them harsh. I'm not sure that buttermilk has any softening effect on the onions.

Also, if you're doing the flour-egg-breading routine (or just the flouring technique for "onion strings"), a soak in milk will make the flour stick better.

[chef koo]

i'm probably going to stay away from the breading. it just seems really off from the way it should be.

i initially thought it was to make the flour adhere to the onion.

Edited December 22, 2007 by chef koo (log)

[natter]

I use mixture of evaporated milk, an egg, and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Dunk the rings in that, then dredge in seasoned flour, back to the evap, back to the flour. This method works better than any other I have tried or have tasted.

[JAZ]

In reviewing the recipes one possibility remains largely unexplored: alternatives to regular wheat flour. Cornmeal, buckwheat flour, rice flour are appealing.

I've taken to using a combination of rice flour and all purpose flour for my onion rings (I use the soak-in-milk-then-dredge-in-flour method), and have found that it helps enormously in keeping them crisp.

[jsmeeker]

When I was in high school, I worked at a burger joint at the fry station. We had onion rings on the menu.

The onions were sliced thinly (I didn't do this myself. It was either done in the morning or they actually came that way from the produce purveyor). They were soaked in a 50/50 mix of butter milk and flour. This is where they stayed until an order came in. At that time, I would grab a bunch with tongs, drop them into a large tub of flour (like one of those plastic bussing pans), then scoop them up with a small basket and toss them around, then shake off the excess flour. Then they would go into the fryer (with the fryer basked already lowered into the oil). They didn't take long to cook.

To make them work well, you had to ensure they didn't clump up. The best way to too that was to scatter the wet onions all over the flour and make sure they were tossed around well to keep them separated. Taking a bit of time to let excess buttermilk/water mix drip off back into the holding tank also helped.

Because of all of this, I really grew to like this style of onion rings. I've never made them at home, though. I really should.

[ChefCrash]

I had a hankering for the fried mushrooms we used to get many years ago at Kerrytown farmers market in Ann Arbor. We ended up frying mushrooms as well as onion rings two ways. Some were dipped in a tempura batter only and some in tempura then coated with Panko crumbs.

Batter:

1/2 C AP flour

1/4 C Corn starch

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Beer

The tempura onion rings were light and crunchy, the onions were tender and flavorful.

The tempura/Panko rings were crunchier, but the onions' texture and flavor were lost.

[heidih]

Chefcrash- that is an interesting outdoor frying set up. Can you elaborate a bit? Out door frying with a simple set up might make onion rings a more frequent treat.

[JimS]

Tyler Florence did a beer batter onion ring recipe made from rice flour and a disturbingly large amount of both baking soda and baking powder on one of his shows last week. The rings were really pretty, but I wonder what they're going to taste like. I picked up some rice flour at the store earlier in the week, and planned to make them today but got lazy. Maybe tomorrow.

A while ago, I had some stomach issues and couldn't eat fried foods. This went on for years, and I got tired of missing out on some of my favorites. I took to making baked onion rings with a cornmeal batter. It's not the same as a real onion ring...but it will do in a pinch.

[heidih]

I like rice flour for a light crisp but I wonder about using it with onions as they need a longer time to cook. I have only used it with zucchini flowers. Let us know.

[zoe b]

A while ago, I had some stomach issues and couldn't eat fried foods. This went on for years, and I got tired of missing out on some of my favorites. I took to making baked onion rings with a cornmeal batter. It's not the same as a real onion ring...but it will do in a pinch.

I stay away from onion rings as they are the ONE food that makes me sick to the stomach.

But i love them dearly--and would love to try oven baked ones--so what is your batter?

Cornmeal, milk & egg?

I would think that a dip or soak in buttermilk, then a dip in seasoned cornmeal, then a bake in a very well oiled pan at about 415 might work--but am interested in the batter ( I am always interested in batter.....)

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Just to add another idea for baked onion rings, I read about these ones a while back (perhaps even somewhere on eG) and liked the idea of them... I still haven't actually gotten around to making them but I will one day

They use crushed potato chips as the crumbing, which would add an interesting flavour but also a bit of oilyness.

Recipe here.

[David Ross]

I got a hankering for some onion rings a few days ago. Couldn't find any local Walla Walla Sweets, so I just used a basic sweet yellow onion. I prefer a beer batter, but didn't want to go to the trouble tonight.

I prefer soaking the onions in the thick consistency of buttermilk over regular milk, and the buttermilk does give a bit of tang. Then into a seasoned flour mix with smoked paprika, salt and pepper, then egg, then panko--a 4-step process. Then into canola oil at 350.

Pretty darn tasty but I still prefer a Beer-Battered Walla Walla Sweet.

[heidih]

Those are beautiful David! With the method you use are you able to bite into the ring and come away with a bite rather than the onion pulling out of the batter? That has always been my issue with them. Granted there is a technique to eating them but some seem to slither right out of the batter.

[David Ross]

Those are beautiful David! With the method you use are you able to bite into the ring and come away with a bite rather than the onion pulling out of the batter? That has always been my issue with them. Granted there is a technique to eating them but some seem to slither right out of the batter.

Wow, we share an onion-ring eating history! Actually, these onions were pretty encased in the coating so each bit had a nice thick piece of onion, no sliders in the bunch. And eating homemade onion rings reminded me of why I hate those frozen, processed onion rings made with "pieces of onion." Basically they chop the off onions and mush them up then process them into "rings." Yuck.