It’s the same flavor without as much bite to it. So for some people you can eat more onion and get more of that flavor, or in my case, I just like them better. Those two aren’t the only variety of sweet onion either. There’s a lot of variation between all of the local strains. But if you really like common onions, you won’t be disappointed with the price or availablity.
Best damned onion rings I’ve ever had were at Porky’s drive-in in Minneapolis, right across from the Hi-Lake shopping center. Thick, deep-fried coating around thick slices of sweet onion (they must use Bisquick or something to make the batter, it’s soooooooo good). Porky’s onion rings and a REAL, THICK, ALL-NATURAL vanilla malt … mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!
There was another place downtown (a bar, I think) that had the greasiest burgers you’d ever eaten, plus delicious onion rings and thick-cut French fries that must have been deep-cooked in lard. They were soooooo yummy my mouth waters just thinking about it!
This was, of course, almost fifty years ago. I doubt they’d get away with selling stuff like that today (especially with the city’s current yuppie population), but back in the '60s, it was bar-food heaven!
Onion rings are cooked so quickly that there isn’t time for much of the “bite” to cook out, so many people prefer them. Plus, sweet onions are friggin’ huge so restaurants like using them, because they make big, impressive rings.
Sometimes you want all the crunch and just a bit of flavor without the bite. Sometimes you want all the crunch and all the bite. 
- purplehorseshoe, who gets worred when we’re down to the last couple of onions in the pantry.
Also indispensable for that county fair staple food, the Blooming Onion. (It’s an onion! Of course it’s healthy!!)
If I wanted something that tastes like apple, I would get an apple. A sweet onion tastes like onion, just not as pungent. IMO, there’s nothing better than a slice of raw sweet onion on a burger.
You guys are giving me the PhD version of onions, and I want the Kindergarten version. At the store I always see reddish-purple onions, yellowy onions and white. For an average dish with sauteed onions as one of the ingredients (like in pasta sauce) is there much difference in flavor or texture or anything in the major onion varieties?
The idea of eating an onion raw like an apple is hideous, and while roasted or carmelized may be yummy to you, I’m just coming out after 40ish years of avoiding onions altogether and that sounds pretty horrible to me. I’m getting to the point where I can add some chopped cooked onions to a dish with many other ingredients (say, curry) without freaking. I’m still an onion baby.
For an average dish with sauteed onions, you want the yellow ones. A recipe that calls for “one onion” will be the yellow ones, the kind that often come in a red net bag. You can buy the same kind separately. Make sure they’re good and firm; a squishy one is spoiled. And if it has green sprouts coming out the end, it’s past its prime.
ETA: The red ones are best sliced and put on sandwiches. The white ones you would chop and put on a hot dog, or make salsa with.
SOP at NYC’s Oyster Bar is to serve the tunaburger (yum) with red onion and wasabi on a big ole kaiser bun. I always enjoy it (with plenty of tartar).
Eat only sweet onions, Vidalia or Walla Walla. The end.
(I also hated onions and only started cooking with them in my early 30s.)
Meh. Not really. Once they’re cooked, and in small quantities like you’re using, I doubt you’d notice much difference. Red onions sometimes turn a weird blueish-purple color when they’re cooking. Harmless, and no change in flavor, but certainly odd-looking. Most noticeable in a light-colored dish (like scrambled eggs or quiche) but I doubt you’d see it if it happened in a red pasta sauce anyway.
Otherwise, I’d just go with what’s cheapest, which around here are the small yellow onions.
If you only use half an onion, wrap the rest tightly in plastic wrap and put it in the produce drawer. It’ll keep quite well there. Onions have so many antibiotic properties that I’ve never had a cut one go moldy or anything on me in the fridge - the cut ends dry out eventually, is all.
A tip for onion baby: When you slice, chop, cut up your onion, throw away the very top and bottom where the stem and the root used to be. Those parts, often containing a bit of green, are the most hot and bitter.
The only major difference in flavor is that some onions are “sweet”, and some aren’t. The term is misleading: All onions are sweet. The ones that are labeled as “sweet” aren’t more sweet, they just have less of the distinctive strong oniony flavor. The sweet ones will always be labeled, either as “sweet” or by specific variety (such as Vidalia or Walla Walla). If it’s not labeled, it’s the strong kind. Color matters little, except for, well, color: If you’re making a salad, say, you might want to use red onions just because they’re prettier.
More tips, from a slowly-recovering onion hater:
- Purée them. Seriously, get out a mini-food processor and throw the onion in there, chop it down to pulp, then saute that to mellow the flavor. If you have a leftover visceral reaction to biting into a chunk of onion - especially if you haven’t cooked that piece long enough - this will avoid that. Plus the flavor is more “evenly distributed” through the dish this way.
- If you hate the watering eyes that chopping onion causes, put the onion in the freezer for maybe 15-20 minutes. Remove right before chopping, then work quickly, as the onion fumes will return as it warms up.
- Try shallots or garlic chives if you want a similar flavor but not quite so much onion-ness.
If this is all you want, I recommend white onions, not yellow. You don’t want to use sweet onions for pasta sauce, and some yellow varieties are sweet. As far as I know, no white variety is sweet. I wouldn’t use red onions in pasta sauce - they don’t soften much when you cook them, and their flavor is usually too mild for that purpose.
What? No love for the Texas 1015?
I bring back a sack every time I travel to the Rio Grande Valley. And that’s after scarfing as many onion rings at the local cantinas that I can find.
Onions are like ogres: best served caramelized with a side of red wine.
Agree in full. yes, there are differences between onions, but for the non-expert consumer, they all taste about the same when diced and sauteed.
I get all sorts of unusual onions through my farm share and I’ll tell you what they all taste like: onions.
(blah blah blah vidalia-cakes, yeah I know. I mean normal onions, the kind you can find anyplace, anytime.)
OK, basic onion tips:
I generally buy and use yellow onions. And I keep them in the crisper in my fridge. This slows down the sprouting, and, more importantly, I don’t cry when I cut them. When cutting up an onion, I generally lop off the top and bottom, then I put the bottom side down, cut the onion in half from tip to bottom, and THEN peel off the onion skin AND the first layer of onion. You can save all these trimmings and throw them in soup stock, by the way, and strain them out later, as long as they don’t have dirt on them. Anyway. Sometimes I want slices of onions, in rings, and in this case, after I’ve removed the trimmings, I cut the onion in half around its equator, and slice from there.
I used to wrap leftover onions in plastic wrap, but now I use zipseal bags, which do a better job of keeping onion flavor and odor out of the milk.
For the most part, if a recipe calls for leeks or shallots, you can substitute onion. The flavor difference won’t be very much. I mean, if you’re going to the store anyway, sure, pick up the leeks and scallions, too, but if you’re just browsing recipes and you want to try something, go ahead and use onions if you don’t have leeks or shallots.
If you want to use a leek, cut off the root, and cut off most of the green part. Peel one or two layers off. Cut it in half, lengthwise, separate into layers, and rinse well. Leeks usually have a lot of sand or dirt between their layers.
Oh, and if you need to wipe your eyes after cutting onions, wash your hands well with soap and water first. Better yet, dampen a paper towel and wipe your eyes with that. Even if you keep your onions in the fridge, if you wipe your eyes when you’ve got onion juice on your hands, you’ll be sorry.
If you are playing Beyond Zork, you can’t pick up the giant onion, no matter what you do. It will roll nicely, though, it will even roll up the stairs. And that bothersome Dornbeast, the one who keeps turning its gaze on you, has 69 sensitive eyes. So if you should happen to slash that onion (with the dagger or sword or axe) in the presence of the Dornbeast, well, it will be helpless for a few turns. Sorry, had to let my inner gamer geek out for a moment.
Small onions (of any variety) tend to be more pungent than larger examples of the same, so if you’re looking for sweetness, biggest is best.
This could be wasteful if you only want a little bit, but if you’re gently frying them until caramelised, they cook down a lot - so you might want to start off with more than you think you need.
I have a related question: I have a friend who insists that red onions are always eaten raw, in salads- never, ever in cooked foods, particularly pasta.
However, this person tends to be an insufferable know-it-all who fancies herself a gourmand and expert in just about everything, while usually being wrong 80% of the time.
A quick Google search revealed plenty of pasta recipes with red onions in them, but has anyone else ever heard of this, or did my friend just make something up?