Onion Confit

[little ms foodie]

I've been reading thru my new Bouchon cookbook, anyone else? I find it interesting that Keller's recipe for onion confit calls for cooking it only one hour. The picture of it shows the onions not even brown. Any comments on this? Seemed more like sauted onions to me.

[fifi]

My feeling is that you need sufficient fat for flavor, texture and it helps to keep it from sticking. But then, I like fat.

I personally wouldn't try this on top of the stove because it would be a real pain to have to keep stirring. Whatever the heat source, it is concentrated at the bottom and you run the risk of scorching it as the sugars build up. The whole point of going low and slow, besides the flavor development, is the fact that you don't need to mess with it much. That is why my favorite is in the crockpot or in a heavy pot in the oven at about 225 F. I would move this thing to the oven and quit worrying about it. So, who cares if it takes 20 hours if you do it that way?

[Rachel Perlow]

Too late for that now. Besides, it's already been nearly 20 hours! Anyway, it's finally begun to get jammy looking. When you cook it in the oven do you never stir it? Do you leave it in there until it is done, or do you finish it on top of the stove? How far should I take this? I need more description of when to stop!

[fifi]

Too late for that now. Besides, it's already been nearly 20 hours! Anyway, it's finally begun to get jammy looking. When you cook it in the oven do you never stir it? Do you leave it in there until it is done, or do you finish it on top of the stove? How far should I take this? I need more description of when to stop!

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I pretty much never stir it when I do it in the oven. I may check every few hours and poke it around to see how it is doing. I have to confess that the crockpot seems to require more attention. The one I have tends to run a bit hot when the mass of the contents cooks down. Last batch I ended up moving to the oven for its overnight sojourn. I think woodburner copied my picture a page or so up. I will go look. I consider it ready when it is a rich brown and a jam like consistency.

edit to add: picture here

Edited January 3, 2005 by fifi (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

Well, I've finally stopped cooking the confit. It is now packed into two pint sized mason jars. Although I will store in the fridge, I expect that packing them into the jars while hot will aid in the preservation. In addition, if the jars don't seal naturally (check for lid flexibility) I can vacuum seal them.

[Marlene]

More important Rachel, how did it taste?

[Rachel Perlow]

Um. It tasted like really concentrated sweet onion jam. I guess I was expecting something more. We'll experiment with it a bit, but I have a feeling most of it is going to be turned into onion soup.

[fifi]

I mentioned upthread that my last batch was too sweet. The onions were really rough, again proving the point:

skanky onions = long cooked sweet onion stuff

Using that batch in soup is a good idea. I can balance the sweet with some white wine maybe.

[peter_nyc]

I just had to try my hand at the confit after reading this thread...

Here are some photographs of my 30 hour long adventure (I think that leaving the crockpot on low overnight led to the extended cooking time).

I followed fifi's recipe, but skipped on the bay leaves and used store bought beef demi-glace.

Here are the onions I started with. Very large:

Into the crockpot. Zero hours:

2 Hours in. Sweating onions:

10 Hours in. Set the crock pot on low and went to bed:

20 Hours in. Woke up to very little progress... turned up the heat immediately after snapping this photo:

25 Hours in. Finally the color is getting deeper; took cover off to reduce excess liquid:

30 Hours in. Finally, confit!

The final product, yum!

[Rachel Perlow]

Congratulations on your first foray into onion confit. One of my main uses recently is to beat it into eggs before scrambling or into an omelet. Mmm. It also really enhances all kinds of soup, not just French Onion. I used it in Pasta Fagiole last week.

[fifi]

That is a great photo series, peter. Many thanks for that. I am thinking that 30 hours on low for the duration is not unreasonable. I have never done it on low for the full process but it does compute. And, after all, you don't have to really do anything so who cares if it takes as long as it takes. Your final product looks great.

[peter_nyc]

I actually had the thing on high for the last 10 hours after noticing little effect while on low (you can see the color change dramatically after hour 20).

It's a brand new crockpot, so I had no real idea as to how hot each setting is... but I suppose spending an imtimate 30 hours together is as good a way as any to find out

[fifi]

I had the same problem with crockpots. My old one pooped out and would not do anything other than low. The first new one was way too hot. I returned it. The next one is ok but not great. As the mass cooks down, it gets hot spots. I finally resorted to the Le Creuset in the oven. I am also in the market for another, simple, high/low crockpot.

[s'kat]

I made another batch of onion confit this weekend. My husband put his foot down, and told me the crockpot had to go outside this time. He couldn't stand the overwhelming, insistent smell of the onions invading every crevice of the house.

It's been rather cold outside, between that, and turning it to low overnight, it took me almost four days for the confit to finish. I'd like to say it was worthwhile, but horrors.... it turned out to be a rather sweet batch. I'm sure I'll suffer through it somehow.

Very nice photos, Peter.

Edited January 18, 2005 by s'kat (log)

[Wolfert]

I've been reading thru my new Bouchon cookbook, anyone else? I find it interesting that Keller's recipe for onion confit calls for cooking it only one hour. The picture of it shows the onions not even brown. Any comments on this? Seemed more like sauted onions to me.

Not wanting to sound like a spoiler, but I'm thinking you might want to change the wording from 'onion confit' to 'onion jam' or 'onion marmalade.' Unless there is some reason to 'preserve' the cooked onions in order to develop even more flavor.

Edited January 18, 2005 by Wolfert (log)

[FoodMan]

I finally made my own bacth of this very popular stuff. I used

6 yellow onions

1/4 Cup Olive oil

1/4 Cup Butter

later added, some red wine vinegar and salt.

The whole process took about 10 hours (I guess I could've left it longer). I hate to say it but my feeling about the end result are similar to Rachel's. I expected more. What I ended up with is a very strong, sweet oniony taste in fat. Not a bad thing if combined with other stuff but I was not too crazy about eating it alone on bread. I did combine it with a meatloaf mix and I tried it with eggs. Very good.

The onion confit tasted a little flat by the end of the cooking time so I added some vinegar to perk it up. Keep in mind that I did not add any additives like glace or herbs. That might help. My other onion preserve is really a marmalade or jam and I love it. It has more vinegar and sugar in addition to whole peppercorns. This is what I slather on bread but never cook with. The confit on the other hand I will use as an addition to other dishes mainly.

Elie

[FoodMan]

Wendy-

I saw the recipe in the Bouchon book, but do not remember a picture. what page was the picture at?

Elie

[Shalmanese]

I'm becoming increasingly more convinced that the long cooking times are unneccesary and even possibly detrimental to a good confit.

It seems the initial cooking stage is all about getting rid of liquid, nothing interesting happens until the water level drops enough for high temp maillard reactions to start occuring. But while the 30 hour reduction is happening, flavour is turning into aroma and wafting away.

I started a onion confit for french onion soup the other day and tried to leave it on medium-high for the first 30 minutes or so of cooking and then dropping it down to low. At 30 minutes, it tasted indistinguishable from a 10 hour confit I made before. It's only after this point where you have to be really careful with it.

[Rachel Perlow]

Hmm, next time someone makes it, if you have a probe thermometer, take the temperature of it at several points. First, once the liquid is rendered and it is simmering. Next, turn up the heat to a boil (assuming a fast reduction) and check the temp. Check the temp again as soon as it starts browning -- even when it is just tan, just darker than the blonde it is while the liquid is reducing. I suspect once the maillard reaction starts, the temperature rises. If that is the case, we should be able to set the alarm to go off at the point above boiling, so that we know when to start monitoring the browning.

[Shalmanese]

I've thought about this some more, merely heating onions to 100C does not a confit make. After all, stocks, stews soups and the like regularly have onions in hot water for significantly lengths of time with no apparent progress towards confit. Unless the onion water the onions are simmering in is significantly above boiling, the long, slow, covered process contributes nothing towards the confit. I haven't formally measured the temperature but I've dipped my finger in and it doesn't feel like the napalm temperatures of caremal water. I doubt it would be over 105C.

I suspect the only reason people are getting browning at all at this stage is the same reason why thick soups often scorch in cheap pans, namely, the onions touching the pan end up hotter than the rest. In fact, when I first made confit, it was in an electric pan and when left for 6 hours without stirring, there was a notable dark circle where the heating element was.

The method I used to make the 30 minute confit was to use a non-non-stick pan over medium high heat. Heat until all the water is gone and there is notable stickage to the pan, then deglaze with 1/4 cup of water, rub all the browned bits up and repeat.

[little ms foodie]

Wendy-

I saw the recipe in the Bouchon book, but do not remember a picture. what page was the picture at?

Elie

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darn, pg 312 is the recipe but now I can't find the picture. It's shown with another dish. Will keep looking!

[NulloModo]

Shalamese - It isn't about temperature, itis about time. The long cooking time allows the flavors to develop and blend over the long haul. You can cook a stew in half an hour, or you can cook it all day, which one will taste better?

[s'kat]

Not wanting to sound like a spoiler, but I'm thinking you might want to change the wording from 'onion confit' to 'onion jam' or 'onion marmalade.'  Unless there is some reason to 'preserve' the cooked onions in order to develop even more flavor.

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I discussed the onion confit-making technique with a friend last night. When all is said and done, he wasn't really sure that the final product was a confit... perhaps more of an 'onion conserve'.

[NulloModo]

Eh, regardless of if it is accurate or not, confit is a cool name, makes it sound classier.

[Shalmanese]

Shalamese - It isn't about temperature, itis about time.  The long cooking time allows the flavors to develop and blend over the long haul.  You can cook a stew in half an hour, or you can cook it all day, which one will taste better?

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I agree that sublime confit takes many hours to make but not all that time is used productively. I feel that the first few hours of gentle simmering until the onion water is almost completely gone does nothing for the confit and merely allows volatile flavour molecules to waft off and disappear forever. I'm advocating a relatively high simmer at the start until the onions start to wilt and dry followed by long, slow heat to let the delicate Maillard reactions to take place.