Caramelize Your Onions In Bacon Fat And You'll Never Look Back

Caramelizing onions is a long, slow process, with people making all sorts of mistakes during the arduous endeavor. It may not require heavy ingredient investment, but caramelizing onions can take up to an hour to do properly, which is a lot of time to spend on something that isn't a main course. The results speak for themselves, though, as there's nothing quite like the flavor they bring to the table.

But even though caramelized onions are great as they are, there are always ways to improve your onion game, and in this case, that method involves the addition of bacon fat. Not only does it not complicate the process — you're just swapping bacon grease for another fat like butter — but it winds up imbuing your onions with the smoky, savory flavor that only bacon can truly provide. It's a perfect complement to the sweet notes of caramelized onion, and it goes with seemingly everything else, too.

With onion caramelization being so time-consuming, it's important that switching to bacon fat doesn't add any additional complexity to the process because the last thing you need is to add even more duration. But you will already be using a fat for caramelizing onions anyway (typically butter, though lard or oil also works), so all you're doing is a simple ingredient swap. Its smoke point (325 degrees Fahrenheit) is even close to that of butter (350 degrees). You can also use this combo equally well with either fresh, still-liquid bacon grease or congealed leftover bacon fat you've got stored in your fridge.

The flavor profile here speaks for itself. There's a reason bacon and onion are paired together frequently, from burger toppings to bacon onion jam on charcuterie boards. Onion is a building block ingredient, which is why it's so often regarded as a staple alongside garlic. Bacon, meanwhile, generally benefits from sweetness, and the subtle sweetness of cooked onion is a less overpowering complement than something like the maple it's often also matched with. The textural addition of bacon fat lends the combination a creamy texture, too, rendering it nearly spreadable.

And while bacon and caramelized onions pair well together, they also pair with a vast assortment of other dishes. This combination is seriously versatile: Virtually any sandwich is going to benefit from it, and it's wonderful in omelets, roasted chicken with Brussels sprouts (or any vegetable preparation, really), pasta, pizza — it's a long list. Maybe keep it away from desserts, though (although bacon is great even in ice cream — RIP Burger King's bacon sundae).

This is nothing new for bacon fat, which is itself one of the most transformative additives you can use for a wide variety of foods. It's always a good idea to keep a container of it in your fridge. Honestly, saving your bacon grease makes it easier to deal with at all since you don't have to worry about the complicated process of letting it congeal and then scraping it into the trash (since it shouldn't be poured down the sink). And when you see what it can do to caramelized onions, you'll realize what a win-win scenario holding onto it actually is.