I keep burning minced garlic while waiting for diced onions to soften. The recipes say ‘cook onion and garlic until translucent’ as though they have identical cooking times. Mine definitely don't: the garlic turns brown and harsh before the onions lose their bite. I've started cooking the onion first and adding the garlic for the last 30–60 seconds, which seems much better. Am I missing a reason some recipes put both in the pan together?
Keeping garlic from burning before onions are fully softened
- practical-cooking
- keeping
- garlic
- burning
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4 replies
You’re not missing much. Garlic and onion do not have the same patience level, so adding garlic later is usually the safer move unless the r...
You’re not missing much. Garlic and onion do not have the same patience level, so adding garlic later is usually the safer move unless the recipe is really building the garlic into the oil from the start.
I agree, though in some dishes the author wants the garlic flavor to mellow in the oil rather than stay sharp. That’s usually more about the aroma base than about actually cooking the garlic hard.
I’ve seen that with soups and sauces. If the pan is low and slow, both can go in together, but once the heat is medium and the onion is taki...
Yep. I do onion first, then garlic near the end, because I’ve burned enough garlic to know it can go from ‘nice smell’ to ‘why does dinner taste like a campfire’ in about eight seconds.
That’s pretty much been my experience too. I just wasn’t sure whether I was breaking some sacred cooking rule or just avoiding burned garlic...