I just drizzle them with a little olive oil and toss in a little butter and let them cook, adding more onions as they cook down. After they get going, if there's lots of juice and I'm there to watch them, I remove the lid. Fresh Vidalias....mmmmmm....We should have Walla Wallas soon.

I remember a discussion about a long time ago, but I can't find it, either. I also recall someone's commenting that the cooking onions were quite fragrant and that she might park the slow-cooker on the porch next time she made these.

I found this site http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-caramelize-an-onion with these instructions:

"Caramelizing Onions in the Crock-pot
"I like cooking ahead and storing food so that I can create a recipe at a moment's notice. By using a slow cooker, or a crock-pot, you can caramelize alot of onions from your garden or the farmer's market all at once and freeze them for future use.

"I have read some sources that advise to NEVER freeze onions but I have never had a problem. If in doubt, make a small amount and test freeze them.

"Drizzle a bit of olive oil in the bottom of the crock-pot. Add onions and then drizzle a bit more oil on the onion. Set the crock-pot to low and cook for approximately 12 hours, checking occasionally after 8 hours or so to make sure that they are cooking and not drying out or burning.

"Once they are done let them cool and freeze them in recipe sized portions in freezer bags or freezer containers."

Should the cooker be set on high or low?

Jim

Here's the recipe:

CARAMELIZED ONIONS FOR CROCKPOT

6 Vidalia onions (approximately 2-1/2 pounds), about 3- 4 inches in diameter, stem and root ends sliced off, peeled and left whole
1 stick butter (8 Tblsp.)

Place the onions and butter in a slow cooker and cook on low 12 - 24 hours until the onions are deep golden brown and very soft. Different slow-cookers will take different amounts of time - it's almost impossible to overcook this.

Use the onions and liquid to flavor soup, stock, or stews. They make a wonderful addition to risotto, a perfect pasta sauce and the worldÂs best pizza topping (drain off the liquid first).

I just got my first crock pot. This sounds like an excellent use. Thank you.

Yes, that's it katie. Thanks to all!

Jim, I'm going to cook them them on low. I may just put the crock pot out on the porch...I hope the critters don't bother the pot. LOL!

Look at this recipe that I found.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paula Deen's Saturday Night Onions

I'm so glad you asked this question because I bought 3 bags of onions last week and I keep forgetting to cook them. My crockpot holds 2 1/2 x 3lb bags of onions. You just slice them up, pile them in the Crockpot, set it on low, and 10 hours later you have perfectly carmelized onions. They are wetter than when they get cooked on the stove, but I use them for soup so I don't mind. I freeze a few small packages of drained onions for pizza and the rest I freeze with their broth for soup. Wine, beef or combination of beef and chicken broth, thyme and bay, a splash of cognac, bread and cheese and a little simmer followed by a quick run under the broiler (splash the cognac between the simmer and the broil) and you have soup.

I've made those Paula Deen Sat Night onions and they were so saltyy we couldn't eat them. Maybe it is because I've really cut back on salt here (DH is on a salt restricted diet now) but they were way over the top. I would suggest using 1/2 a cube or a tiny bit of BTB instead of the whole cube.

But thanks for the crockpot onion recipe - I am going to make a batch of these just for conveience!

Aalexa

We also had a discussion on Harvest about caramelized onions two or three years ago.

I used a small Nesco roaster - drizzle a thin layer of olive oil, a thick layer of onions, generous grinding of salt and pepper, more olive oil, more onions and seasoning and just let it melt down into a lovely mass.

These do freeze beautifully. I have one friend who likes them so well she asks for a quart as her Christmas gift. It definitely simplifies onion soup.

Carol

I think the reference to not freezing onions was referring to raw onions not cooked. Even raw onions will freeze just fine, but the texture may be softer, not crisp like fresh, raw onions. But for cooking after freezing, this would not matter. You do have to really wrap onions well when freezing or your whole freezer will reek - and how do I know this?

Teresa

LOL, Teresa. I chopped a bunch of onions a couple of years ago, double bagged them and put them into the freezer. The whole freezer smelled like onions for a long time, even though they were double-bagged.

Now my chopped onions go into the dehydrator, thanks to craftyrn. She sent me a jar of dried onions and they were so handy to have that I promptly started dehydrating mine!

Annie

I made these last month. I couldn't find a satisfactory recipe either, so I just used some butter and olive oil and cooked them until they got caramelized--about 8 hours on low in my crockpot. I added salt and pepper afterwards to taste, and I think a splash of wine. I used half and froze the rest in little serving sized containers. They are fab in soups and on pasta. I'm sure would be fab on foccacia if I made it.

When I make caramelized onions to go with steak on the grill, I add a bit of dried thyme while they are cooking and a splash of balsamic vinegar when they are almost done - very delicious!
Teresa

After a couple hours I tilt the lid on my crockpot to get rid of some of the moisture. At the end I take the lid off and keep stirring every 10- to 15 minutes.They freeze beautifully.

Mmmmmmmummmm, they sure are good! I let the onions cook on low for 12 hours then lifted the lid off for another 12 hours. I still had alot of liquid so I made french onion soup with a little of the broth and onions. I froze the rest.

Now I'n just waiting for a nice new recipe to pop up where I can use these these babies.

Here's the recipe I used them with. Might be good for your diet.

Spaghetti with Onions from "Moosewood Restaurant Lowfat Favorites"

4 large onions
2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. ground fennel (optional, I used 1.25 tsp.)
1 lb spaghetti (I used Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Grain)
1 cup skim milk (I used whole so can't vouch for this with skim but would probably be OK with 1% or 2%)
1 cup canned tomatoes, crushed or coarsley chopped (8 oz. can) I used fire roasted tomatoes
1 tsp. salt or less to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil. As the water boils, prepare the sauce. Slice the onion in half and then slice each half into thin lengthwise strips. Saute the onions and fennel in the olive oil until translucent, will take about 10 min. (Lpink's notes: here's where I used the slow cooker onions, and you could use roasted onions. If you don't have a good non-stick pan you may need to use 1 TBLSP olive oil.)

Ease the spaghetti into the boiling water, stir and cover. Cook no more than five minutes. The spaghetti should not be quite done when you take it out.

Add the milk and tomatoes to the onions and slowly heat up. If the milk curdles, don't worry. Cover and gently simmer. Add the drained and partially cooked spaghetti to the sauce and cook five minutes more. Stir occasionally until the pasta is al dente and the sauce is smooth. Drizzle in more milk if the sauce becomes too stiff. Add the salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Notes: according to the cookbook, finishing cooking the pasta with the sauce will add some starch and make the sauce creamy. I found that is took more than five minutes to thicken the sauce, more like 10. I also added 1/4 cup grated parmesean/romano mix to the dish. If you make it my way it is by no means low fat, but not hugely fat either. This might be good with some roasted fennel bulb too.