Why do my onions keep burning

Question

Twice now, I have burned my onions while heating them in a pan. I was just trying to caramelize them, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if they didn't burn every time. They were on medium heat, and I put olive oil at the bottom of the pan (which may or may not have been a mistake), and they just burned, sticking to the bottom with a fervor I've never seen before (except the other time I tried to heat up onions).

Asked by Emeril

Answer

Onions have a lot of sugar in them. All they want in the world is to burn and fill your kitchen with oniony smoke.

The solution, as with all things heavy in sugar, is to turn down the heat and stir frequently.

That said- if your olive oil was extra virgin then it might have been your oil that started burning before the onions did.

Answered by Sobachatina

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