Onion Confit

[Marlene]

. I shall report in the morning

[Marlene]

Hmm, woke up this morning and it's still pretty liquid. I put it on last night about 11:00, left it overnight on low with the lid on. It' s now 7:30 a.m. I've turned it to high, but I left the lid on.

[fifi]

I had to take my lid off or I would have never gotten there. But then, I had a failing stock pot.

[Marlene]

I may have to do that too. This particular crockpot is fairly old. It's got little flowers and stuff around the bottom ) How long should it take in a crockpot? 10 hours? 24 hours? I have to go to the gym in an hour. I'll put it back to low and leave the lid on while I'm gone (cats you know). Then I'll take the lid off when I get home if I need to.

[Msk]

Marlene,

I went out and bought a crockpot for just this reason.

I left it on overnight with the lid on and there was liquid, but not that much. Did your onions brown? I put my crockpot on low, but it didn't seem "that low."

I just drained the liquid and the onions were fantastic.

Msk

[Marlene]

Yes they are getting brown. I think there's more liquid than there should be, so I'm going to let it cook a bit longer and see what happens.

Smells wonderful though!

[Marlene]

Just to keep ya'll updated . Went to the gym for two hours. Left the confit in the the crockpot on high with the lid on. No real change. I've now taken the lid off and left it on high. Argghhh!

[schneich]

on high with lid off... ohhhhh... dont leave the house...

or youll might have a smokey surprise...

t.

[Marlene]

oh rats. ok, I'll turn it down to low.

edited to add: never mind, I'll leave it on high with the lid off. It's barely bubbling at that.

somebody help!

Edited February 26, 2004 by Marlene (log)

[Marlene]

I've now put the back on and kept it on high. There was nary a bubble coming from it since I took the lid off. This stuff has now been simmering for 15 hours. Surely it should have reached marmalade consistency by now? At some point, I shall give up and just use this stuff for a french onion soup.

I think (sob) that I may be a confit failure

Edited February 26, 2004 by Marlene (log)

[redfox]

Dump it into a big pot and cook it down quickly? I'm sure it's confit in there, just too wet.

[Marlene]

I'm sure you're right. But the question is, why is it too wet?

[Msk]

As a point of reference Marlene,

Mine was bubbling on low. I have one of those dumb crockpots that have 4 settings.

Msk

[Marlene]

Maybe I've got fifi's problem with the crockpot. It is an old one after all. I can drag out my new one and see if it's any better

[Dave the Cook]

I don't think you've done anything wrong, if that's what you're afraid of.

If the pot's not bubbling at all even on high, the thermostat on your crockpot has probably gone bye-bye. They're not worth fixing, so you're due for a new one.

But even on high with the lid off, onions often shed liquid faster than it can evaporate, and this is exacerbated by adding flavoring (salt, plus liquids like wine, vinegar, demiglace, etc.) at the beginning. It just takes a while, and that's why it's too wet. Your faulty pot is extending the process.

You've got three choices: 1) strain the onions and discard the liquid; 2) strain the onions and reduce the liquid, then add it back to the onions; 3) dump the whole mess into a pot and reduce the liquid with the onions still in it. Which one you should do depends on the texture of the onions. If they're done, choose (1) or (2), depending on whether you want the liquid as part of the finsished product. If they're not, go for (3).

[Marlene]

Thank you Dave for hearing my plea Yes indeed that's what I was afraid of. I was afraid that somehow, I'd ticked off the Confit Gods.

When the lid was on and the crockpot was on high, it did bubble, but not excessively so. Take the lid off and nothing. This after 15 hours.

So, I took the stuff and dumped it into a pot. Reduced it till it resembled an extremely thick stew, then strained it. It looks like I've got confit anyway. I shall take pics and post them later. In the meantime, I do have a much newer crockpot, one of those smart ones that shut off after 10 hours max. Although as my husband pointed out this morning, it's not like I sleep for 10 hours so I could always reset the thing when I got up if necessary.

I shall try this again, in my newer crockpot. This one can go in the garbage.

[Dave the Cook]

This one can go in the garbage.

Could you use a dead crockpot as a container for an indoor herb garden?

[Marlene]

I suppose I could!

[woodburner]

I had the same surprise's that you encountered. My confit was slowly simmered in my Lodge cast iron skillet, (200ºF oven)uncovered for many hours, and I too, saw little evidence of any moisture evaportation. Not to be rattled I moved it onto the stove and let it simmer overnight, only to find the same scenerio, very little evaporation.

Before storage and after cooking, I saw no need to remove any of the goodness, and moved liquid and all to the ice box.

Now I just remove what I need with a fork from the mother container, and slowly reheat it.

If something went wrong, it happened to both of us, but good god, what a great mistake.

woodburner

[fifi]

Let's see... I started mine about four in the afternoon and it was done about noon the next day, lid off. I didn't want to throw away any liquid but wanted to concentrate it. I wasn't going anywhere so I just left it on a d forgot about it.

Oh dear... I hope you didn't buy the same crock pot I did. See my tale of whoa here.

If I would have read the reviews in the Target web site, I wouldn't have gotten that one. I am taking it back and getting the simple one... low, high, warm.

edit to add: That thread has some funny stuff in it. Check out mudpuppie's version of geese attacking okra on page 2. (OK... maybe you had to be there.)

[Marlene]

Maybe I just didn't cook it long enough. Who knows, I'm a novice here . Fifi, I have a Smart Pot but I don't think it's the same as yours, at least I don't have the same kind of trouble with it. I use it all the time. I'll use it for the confit next time and just keep resetting it if I need to.

Anyway, no pics yet, (hubby has to download for me), but it does taste good. And yes, I did throw in some bacon

Edited February 27, 2004 by Marlene (log)

[curlywurlyfi]

Marlene, my sympathies, I had parallel problems with my crockpot confit last night. Chucked in about eight large onions with butter + oil, no extra liquid, no sugar, started it up about 9pm, left overnight on low, checked this morning at 8am and onions sort of pale tan rather than treacly brown, and totally awash in juice. I'm in again tonight and will be boiling them down in a normal pan. They tasted good, very sweet, but I wonder if to be entirely successful I should have either had them on high overnight, or started them off frying in the normal way and then transferred them to the crockpot when they'd got a bit of colour (and driven off a bit of liquid)? Any thoughts?

Fi

[Marlene]

I'm wondering if I should reduce the amount of butter and oil and leave it on high?

Not that I am happy about your problems curly, but I am delighted to discover it isn't just me

[Msk]

Too much oil/butter would certainly explain why it didn't concentrate any further.

Msk

[Marlene]

Too much oil/butter would certainly explain why it didn't concentrate any further.

Msk

I agree, but I used Fifi's recipe exactly, except I added a couple of slices of bacon.