I’m starting this thread for basic, simple kitchen/cooking questions that don’t need a thread of their own.
My first: how do y’all store a cut onion?
I’ve put them in baggies (unsealed) and also left them uncovered in the veggie drawer. I’ve covered only the cut end or covered the whole thing with foil, saran wrap, waxed paper… Googling, I find many ideas, one of which is storing the onion in the fridge unwrapped but with the cut side down on a flat surface. Also advice to wrap it air-tight. Should air circulate freely or should
I wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge. Use within a few days or it dries out, even wrapped. Most of the time I’ll cut off the exposed part before using.
When I use part of an onion (say I need 3 nice slices for burgers) I dice any remaining onion and store that in a ziplock bag. I then use the diced onions over the next few days for general cooking.
Some of the special veggie-saving baggies say that it’s better if the air circulates a little. Besides, a sealed ziploc isn’t a vacuum; it’s a petrie dish. What do I know? That’s why I’m asking.
I have an onion keeper like that, but I’ve not been too happy with the results. I’ll get it out.
I’ve tried an onion keeper, but it turned out to be just another item that had to be washed and stored when not in use. So I went back to just tossing the unused part of the onion into a ziplock bag and stashing it in the veggie tray, to be used within 48 hours.
I don’t use onions very often. I try to buy small onions when I need one for a soup or stew (or buy a little container of chopped onions found in the produce section. Or frozen chopped onions.) . If I buy an onion and have some left over, I’ll put it in a plastic deli container with the lid on, which keeps it fresh to use within a week. I’ll trim off any icky looking parts… Otherwise, I’ll just throw it out, it’s not like it cost more than some loose change.
This is exactly what I do. I don’t use just part of an onion all that often, but if I use half or less I’ll put the rest away and start planning how to use the rest within a week.
My bold. They breathe, which is supposed to be a good thing. <shrug>
These bags “minimize moisture formation,” but to me, a closed ziploc that has an air pocket surrounding the food would *promote *moisture formation.
And then some places say you WANT humidity?
What’s a mother to do?? :eek:
I couldn’t find my onion keeper. Probably the victim of a zealous kitchen purge. I like the idea of leaving the cut onion (with its skin on) face down on a flat surface, so the cut side is protected. And then slicing off the cut side when finishing the onion.
Assuming there’s even a ripe one to be had, which, in most supermarket chains, is unlikely. I’ve literally sorted through an entire bin of cantaloupe at the store and not found a single ripe fruit.
I just won’t buy them at the grocery store. The smell test fails for me anyway, all the melons in the bin smell alike. I knew a guy in the fruit salad business, he told me he knew how long to wait for them to ripen after they come off the truck based on the time of year.
