Can you actually taste a difference between Onions?

in this video we are doing a deep dive

into the world of onions one of the most

used ingredients around the world

however even though we use onions all

the time in our cooking it's an

ingredient that is underappreciated and

one that most of us homecooks know very

little about from a fundamental level

for example why do we enjoy the flavor

of onions can you actually taste the

difference between red white yellow or

sweet onions and how does the flavor

change when onions are used raw cooked

or caramelized do shallots taste

different onions or should certain

onions be avoided for specific Cuisines

stop using yellow onions in your Mexican

food so over the past several weeks I

ran through a bunch of different tests

with a variety of onions this includes

eating them raw like an apple testing

yellow versus white onion in a Pico Deo

sautéing all five varieties using

shallots for a chopped cheese and

caramelizing onions on a spectrum to see

how the flavor changes and I promise

this video will completely change how

you think about onions for example you

may be interested to know that sweet

onions do not contain more sugar than a

yellow or white onion based on USDA

nutrition data on a 100 G basis they

actually have slightly less now compare

that to a sweet potato which literally

does have 3.5% more sugar than a russet

potato so why are sweet onions called

sweet we'll find out shortly I also

found out that it might be possible to

caramelize onions in just 10 minutes

minutes this is not onions 101 or 2011

by the end of this video all of us will

have our masters in onions for homecooks

now in order to cook all of these onions

the main pan I used was the 10in carbon

steel seasoned pan from today's sponsor

made in later in the video I challenged

myself to see if it's possible to

caramelize onions in just 10 minutes and

the carbon steel pan is the perfect

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temperature control carbon steel is way

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pan will be getting plenty of use as we

navigate the world of onions so let's

unpack the different Vari ities of

onions and pull out the key takeaways

that you need to know when it comes to

using onions raw sauteed and

caramelized and where do we start well

of course in the

ground onions are part of the genus

alium which is a group of plants in the

lily family that have a central stem bud

and leaf based system that will Sprout

green tops above the ground and

sometimes a bulb below the ground there

are over 500 species of aliam around the

world but only a a dozen or two are

commonly cultivated for eating and

cooking purposes of which aliums are

known for their strong sulfury Aromas

which are used to deter animals from

eating them

raw

whoa that deterrent still works today

however when most aliums are cooked they

are transformed into a Savory quality

that adds a depth of complexity to

dishes in just about every cuisine

around the world aliums can be either

bulbing or non- bulbing common non

bulbing aliums include scallions chives

leaks ramps or Chinese garlic chives and

in these cases since there is no bulb we

eat the above ground leaves these aliums

will have similar flavor characteristics

but for purposes of this video we are

focusing on bulbing aliums and

specifically the species aliam Sapa this

species includes common bulbing onions

such as white yellow red sweet shallots

and spring onion varieties and what I

want to figure out is do these varie

actually taste that different in a

variety of dishes but first I know there

is a burning question you probably have

why do onions have layers layers onions

have layers according to onion usa.org

onions may be one of the earliest

cultivated crops because they were less

perishable than other foods of the time

were transportable easy to grow and

could be grown in a variety of soils and

climates and what's unique about ball

meat onions is that they are banial

plants meaning they have a 2-year life

cycle in the first year they start from

the seeds produced by the flour of a

mature onion which will grow green tops

above the ground and start to grow a

small ball below the ground about the

size of a nickel or quarter depending on

the variety after the first season the

green tops die off but that tiny bulb

can remain underground or be harvested

and then planted next year and if you

are growing your own onions at home many

people start with onion sets which are

basically these tiny one season old

onions now I need some help here if

anyone is an onion farmer or just knows

the answer to this question let me know

in the comments below so pearl onions

chapini or baby onions can sometimes be

found and bought at the store however

this got me wondering are these a onion

sets that have been grown for a single

season and sold for consumption instead

of planting the second season B are they

onion sets that were planted in the

second season and then harvested early

before they reached full size or C are

these a mature onion variety that after

the two growing Seasons happen to grow

very small bulbs and yeah I couldn't

find a specific answer for this so fill

in the blank for us below anyway in the

second year the onion plant used the

store energy in the bulb to sprout up

again to produce those green tops and

these Leaf layers are what turn into the

thick fleshy layers of the onions in the

ball below the ground and remember this

for later most of the aroma in the onion

comes from the sulfur that is found in

the soil where they grow so in the

second season when the green tops start

to wither or the plant has started to

flower it signifies that the plant has

completed growing its bulb underground

and is ready to be harvested where they

will then be prepared for storage and

market and as we covered in the garlic

video onions too are cured for long-term

storage before you get them at the

grocery store the excess soil is brushed

off the harvested bulbs which are then

strung up to hang in a dry well

ventilated area for about 2 to 4 weeks

during this time the outer layers of the

onions dry forming that protective

papery skin that allows them to be held

in long-term dry storage which is why

onions are available year round and

today World onion production is

estimated at 105 billion pounds each

year where the average person consumes

13 lbs of onions across the world and

libia interestingly has the highest

consumption of onions with an astounding

average per capita consumption of

66.8 lb of

onions so now that we know in general

how onions are grown let me introduce

you to the varieties that we will be

using for testing throughout this video

first is the yellow onion and this is

the most commonly used onion in the

United States as it represents about 87%

of the total onion production however

included in that 87% is candidate number

two sweet onion so sweet onions videlia

and wala wala onions are all varieties

of yellow onions that are said to be

sweet and milder tasting than the

regular yellow onion counterpart and in

order to be called a videlia onion by

law it actually has to be from the state

of Georgia I'm using a generic sweet

onion for testing today now people call

them sweet but is it actually true where

you can tell a difference we'll find out

shortly it's very like crunchy crisp and

juicy candidate number three is one of

my personal favorites the red onion and

this is roughly estimated around 8% % of

total us onion production and it's the

common onion used in Indian Cuisine

Additionally the Red Onion gives you the

beautiful vibrant color of pickled

onions the fourth candidate is the white

onion which represents about 5% of total

onion production in the United States

and this is typically the onion of

choice for Mexican Cuisine does it

actually make better Mexican food like

Rick Bay says we'll see lastly we have

the shallot now up until 2010 the

shallot was actually considered a

different species but it is now included

in aliam sepa what's weird about

shallots though is that they're almost a

cross between garlic and a balban onion

they look like an onion with its layers

when you slice into them except they

also create cloves like garlic does

sometimes when you buy a shallot you'll

get two cloves that can be broken apart

and sliced separately and Ling aliums

tend to have a higher carb and lower

water content which as I found out can

lead to pretty different flavors and

properties when you used in cooking this

one to me I think is so much better the

balance between the onion and the

beefiness is amazing so the question

that we need to answer is how different

do these onions actually taste and what

seems like a simple question is actually

quite complex due to two reasons reason

number one the same onion can taste

completely different depending on how

it's used for example when bit raw they

can be completely over overwhelming

however if you add a little lime juice

and mix raw onions with tomato cilantro

and pepper they become everyone's

favorite Pico Deo when onions are

sauteed they completely lose that

pungent bite and instead develop a

beautiful Savory Aroma that we all love

or if you cook them even further and

caramelize them they transform to

develop a deep sweetness so because of

this I decided to do eight different

test spanning a variety of use cases

three raw ones three sauteed ones and

two caramel Iz ones in order to give us

the full picture when it comes to using

onions and the first test that I decided

to do was eating each onion raw straight

up like an apple however before we

jumped into what I learned reason number

two on why it's so hard to explain the

differences between the onions is that

everyone discusses them differently

people will say that white onions have a

cleaner or milder flavor than yellow

onions or Vidia onions are sweeter than

normal onions but the problem is I have

no idea what a cleaner onion flavor even

even means or like I mentioned in the

intro sweet onions do not have more

sugar content like a lot of people think

they do so before we try to say are

white onions better for Mexican food or

are red onions better for Indian food we

need to Define some terms and answer

this question what is the flavor of

onions at a high level these six

properties make up the flavor of food

taste Aroma texture sight physical and

the human element and if you want to

read more information about these These

are the flavor properties that we use on

my website cookwell that you'll see

tagged in the recipes this will help you

understand what an ingredient is

providing in terms of Flavor now when it

comes to onions these six properties

become more or less important again

depending on how they are used so let's

start with the flavor of raw onion then

we'll progress to sauteed and

caramelized and for this first test I

took a bite from each onion like an

apple and came away with three big

observations first the white yellow and

sweet onion were much more similar to

each other than I thought secondly The

Red Onion had the most oniony Aroma and

third the shallot was by far the most

pungent and caused me the most painful

physical

reaction

whoa so what do these actually mean well

let's walk through the flavor properties

remember there are just five main tastes

sweet salty sour bitter and Umami and in

their raw form onions are actually

pretty neutral tasting and here's a

weird test that you can do at home to

Showcase this concept get out a slice of

apple and a layer of yellow onion plug

your nose and take a bite texturally you

will feel a difference yes but with your

nose closed you may be surprised to find

that they aren't as different as you

would expect why well onions just like

apples are made up of three main

molecules water carbohydrates and

protein apples are around 85% water 14.

7% carbohydrates of which about 12% are

total sugars and 1% protein yellow

onions on the other hand are around 90%

water 8.6% carbohydrates and about 6% of

that is total sugars and lastly 83% of

protein now you may be going Ethan why

are we talking about molecules here well

let me explain as we know water doesn't

really smell or taste like anything so

that means most of the flavor of an

onion is coming from the protein and

carbo hydrate makeup and hopefully you

can see where we're going each of our

onion candidates have a unique

combination of water carbohydrates and

protein and you can pause here if you

want to take a look but two things that

I would point out are look how similar

the yellow white and sweet onion are red

onion starts to dip a little bit in

terms of water and then the shallot is

all the way down at 80% now keep this in

mind throughout the video because this

has implications in the flavor of the

raw form but also in their cooked forms

for example caramelized onions are a

mixture of the May reaction which needs

protein molecules to happen and the

caramelization reaction which only

happens with sugar molecules now back to

our weird Apple test this is also why

with your nose closed you may be able to

detect the slightly sweeter taste in the

Apple but it's not as obvious as you

would think however as soon as you open

up your nose there is no mistaking which

one is the onion and which one is the

Apple

look it's a pretty weird test but it

really goes to show why smell is so

important when it comes to identifying

the differences in the food we eat most

of the unique flavors we experience in

food are actually from the aroma or

smell remember an ingredient can really

only have the five main tastes but can

potentially have hundreds of unique

Aroma molecules as we've learned in the

vanilla and garlic videos and this also

holds true for onions the main reason

that we use onions in cooking is to

release their signature Aromas which is

one of the key differentiators in these

various types of onion the idea is that

different species of alium Sapa will

produce different sulfur compounds so

when we get into the testing here the

primary question that we are really

asking is do these onions smell

different and as I found out in some

cases yes they do and in other cases I

couldn't tell a difference at all I

would say the shallot and the Red Onion

are by far the most most aromatic and

most different from these other ones the

shallot has this nice like top note that

is very interesting and then the Red

Onion for me has this kind of dominantly

onion smell to it the sweet onion on the

other

hand I think this is the least aromatic

and then the white onion and the yellow

onion I think are fairly similar I'm

having a little bit of a tough time

differentiating these so let's answer

the question what do onions smell like

this is a picture of onion cells and

like most aliums these cells are loaded

with sulfur containing compounds that

will give an onion its signature Aroma

but if you smell a whole onion it

doesn't smell like anything however when

the onion cells are damaged through

biting slicing or chopping chemical

reactions begin to occur and it creates

the sulfurous odor and pungent bite

which you may wonder how exactly does

this work well as noted in the

investigation of volatiles emitted from

freshly cut onions upon rupture of the

cell wall the alanas enzyme is mixed

with the aroma precursors which are the

cysteine sulfoxides and the products of

the enzymatic reaction between alanas

and the cysteine sulfoxides are pyruvate

ammonia and various sulfenic acids

depending on the substituents present in

the cysteine

sulfoxide additionally in onion the

major sulfoxide is propenol cysteine

sulfoxide which is primarily transformed

into the onion lacrimatory factor or or

LF synthes and LF synthes seems to be

present immediately after cutting but it

almost completely disappears after about

30 minutes so as a homecook you don't

need to remember any of those specific

terms and definitions but here are the

three takeaways in layman's terms that

you do need to know takeaway number one

different onion varieties can have a

unique Aroma depending on their

combination of volatile organic

compounds that are released and in this

first raw test I was surprised to find

that the white yellow and sweet onions

smelled quite similar to me it was the

Red Onion that definitely had the

strongest oniony Aroma and the shallot

had a very unique top note Aroma that

wasn't present in the other four and we

are about to do a variety of tests to

see where this matters and where it

doesn't takeaway number two is that you

can increase or decrease the intensity

of onion flavor depending on how many

cells are damaged here is one4 of an

onion whole sliced diced minced and

ground into a paste and in this case the

ground onion will have released more

aromatic compounds because more cells

have been damaged and I've tested this

with diced onions versus a Michelin star

minced onion and it's really surprising

how much more onion flavor comes through

in the rice where more onion cells were

damaged takeaway number three onion

Aroma molecules are volatile and

reactive so they will change over time

when exposed to air heat light water and

fat for example the lacrimator in

freshly cut onions is released as a

volatile gas that touches the moisture

on our eyes which we do not like so it

causes us to cry but as noted in the

investigation that lacerator will be

varying amounts and after 30 minutes it

completely disappears and this is why

onions do not continue to make us cry

after chopping and as noted in the

investigation the plot chart showed that

the volatile organic compounds changed

fast during the initial 10 minutes after

cutting the onions it changed some after

10 to 60 minutes and change less towards

the total of the sampling period and

this is why I felt like we had to do a

variety of tasks before drawing any

conclusions on which onions may be the

best for a certain occasion okay so

Aroma was the big one when it comes to

the flavor of an onion but before we get

to testing let me speedrun through

physical flavor sight texture and the

human element physical flavor is a

reminder that ingredients can affect the

physical senses of the human body for

example spicy food is not a taste but a

reaction in our body and raw onions can

cause two physical reactions first are

those reactive tears from the lacerator

that irritate our eyes and secondly is a

pungent sting in our mouth and nasal

passages and pungency is neither a taste

nor a smell but a general feeling of

irritation that verges on pain as we

learned in the garlic video garlic

produces a h hundredfold higher

concentration of those pungent sulfurous

molecules and these molecules attach to

our sensitive mouth and nose Linings

which will will cause that mild

uncomfortable Sensation that can really

wake up our culinary senses in general

raw garlic is more pungent than milder

aliums like chives leaks and onions

however in this first test I was

surprised to find that the shallot by

far had the most pungency and caused the

most irritation to my mouth and nasal

passage this was followed by The Red

Onion which easily caused me some

coughing and stinging as well however

the other three onions were much much

Milder I would say the sweet onion had

the lowest pungency but the white and

yellow were barely more so it'll be

interesting to see how these flavor

change when we start cooking with the

onions from a site perspective this is a

reminder that we eat with our eyes and

can actually be influenced by

presentation color and visual cues in

our food and onion species have

different colors when they are raw but

can also change color when they are

cooked for example red onions have that

beautiful vibrant pinkish red so they

will contrast with a lot of foods

whereas a finely diced white onion

sauteed for risotto will basically

disappear and when we cook we make

choices with our onions depending on

site I mean even if these white onions

had a better Aroma when they are pickled

I would still make pickled onions with

red onions just for the beautiful

contrasting color next we have texture

and in the raw form all of these onion

varieties have roughly the same texture

what matters more is how you change the

texture of the onion you're using in

your cooking if use Raw there's going to

be a slight crunch but this can be done

with slices a medium dice or if you use

a really fine mince you probably won't

notice a Crunch at all on the other side

of the spectrum when we caramelize

sliced onions they can become completely

soft and almost Jammy and lastly we have

the human element and this is a reminder

that we experience food not just with

our physical senses but through our

emotions Nostalgia and cultural

associations and when it comes to onion

varieties one of the biggest biases at

play is its cultural associations

certain Cuisines will predominantly use

certain types of aliums and onions in

their cooking red onions seem to be the

onion of choice for Indian Cuisine

shallots are the Alum of choice in most

fresh curry paste in Thai Cuisine yellow

onion is the typical choice for French

mepa and Italian Sofrito and white

onions are used for a lot of Mexican

dishes and my question is are we being

influenced by our human biases how

different do they actually taste if I

use red onion for a Mexican dish or

white onion for a dish from Indian

Cuisine well now that we have all the

context need for flavor it's time for

testing and after doing the raw bite

test the first question that I started

to wonder was can you actually tell the

difference in Aroma between a white

onion and a yellow onion in a Pico DEA

okay so I've got four bowls of Pico two

have the white onion two have the yellow

onion we're going to blindfold up and do

a triangle test to see if I can tell

which ones are the same and which ones

are different for this test I made two

identical batches of Pico Deo with 120 g

of tomato 5 G of sorrano pepper 14 G of

cilantro 30 G of diced onion 10 G of

lime juice and 1 G of salt I diced the

onions right at the same time and mix

them up before letting both salsa sit

for 10 minutes to ensure the onion

Aromas are evened out before

tasting one two

three little sniff test feel like most

of the aroma that I'm getting is

actually from the cilantro and the lime

juice but let's go for uh number one

here good Pico nice spicy say the onion

is just like a nice supporting character

not too dominant you get the sourness

from the lime juice you get the Tomato

the juiciness little salt brings up all

those flavors really good first

one this is going to be hard

I'm not sure how different those really

were let's go to number

three it's really tough to tell a

difference here remember the onion is

kind of a supporting character here and

everything's mixed together so I'm going

to go for a plain

spoonful there was one bite that I got

from the middle one that I felt like was

more onion forward but maybe that was

just because there were more onion

pieces in that specific bite all these

bowls taste really really good I don't

think there's really much if at all any

difference if I did have to guess based

off one bite I think two was a little

bit more oniony in one of the bites that

I took which might just be because there

happen to be more onion pieces in that

single bite so I'm going to say one and

three are the same and two is different

but I don't think this is really

conclusive at

all no so is this result surprising to

me it wasn't I would argue that all of

these decisions are going to have a much

bigger impact on your pico than just a

yellow versus a white onion this

includes the ripeness of your Tomatoes

the ratio of tomato to onion to Pepper

the amount of cilantro which also

provides a ton of Aroma and lastly the