How To Stop Burning Your Onions, According To Alex Guarnaschelli
Alex Guarnaschelli is one of our favorite celebrity chefs and judges on the reality food competition show Chopped. Even when she is handing out her culinary critique, Guarnaschelli is honest without being harsh. Not to mention anyone who tells Food & Wine that they can make anything taste good if they have a lemon and jar of mustard in the pantry, definitely knows their way around the kitchen.
But even if Guarnaschelli couldn't work magic with such interesting ingredients, we also have a soft spot for her really down-to-earth approach when it comes to her cooking style. She openly admits she is a fan of the American hot dog (via Food & Wine), and it's things like this that really make us love and embrace all of her cooking tips and tricks.
Most recently, Guarnaschelli took to Twitter to show us how to avoid an all too common mistake when cooking up onions. According to Bon Appétit, there are a lot of ways to mess up your onions, which could really ruin a dish. From slicing them too thin, to only using butter, to trying to cook these flavorful beauties too quickly at a heat that is too high, there are a lot of missteps and mishaps that can occur when cooking onions. Guarnaschelli agrees and is on a mission to help us all avoid burning our onions.
Use a little water
The Chopped chef shared a video on Twitter where she revealed, "People always write to me, 'Alex, I always burn my onions. They get too brown too quickly.'" The celebrity chef immediately reminds her followers that they are the "boss of their universe." Noted. Guarnaschelli goes on in the video to share that there is a simple element that can solve your burning onion issue: water.
"Water, just a splash. You can always give yourself a minute by adding a little bit of water," Guarnaschelli said. But she went on to explain that it helps with another aromatic you might be cooking with your onions, "By doing that, it spreads that garlic and integrates all through the onions."
This water hack is absolutely brilliant, but why does it work? One of Guarnaschelli's followers did the explaining in a reply tweet, "In college, my chem prof put a paper cup with water over a lit Bunsen burner and the cup didn't burn until all the water boiled away. Smart concept." Anyone else mind blown?