I said no way to pre-peeling 50 pounds of onions, then I ate my words at a wedding in Portland
Six months ago a sous chef in Portland asked me to pre-peel 50 pounds of yellow onions for a wedding and I told him it would just dry them out and taste like nothing. I did it anyway and wrapped them tight in plastic overnight in the walk-in, then we cooked them down the next day. The onions actually caramelized faster and sweeter than the ones we peeled fresh, and I timed both batches side by side. We saved about 40 minutes on prep and the bride's dad came back for a second plate of the onion jam. Now I do it for every big event over 80 covers. Has anyone else found a prep shortcut that sounded wrong until you actually ran it?