How to make French confit onion (confit d’oignon)

Last updated 25 May 2020

What is confit onion?

Confit onion, or as the French know it, Confit d’oignon is a simple but very tasty condiment made almost entirely from onions. In France, you’ll often find it alongside cheese, where it’s a perfect accompaniment. Foie grass and other delightful French charcuterie inclusions like pâté, rillettes and saucisson go well too.

Where can confit onion be used?

I’m quite sure the French would disagree here, but it’s also very tasty on pizza and I’m a huge fan of it with goat’s cheese, especially if they are both sitting slightly warmed and sitting inside a pastry case. It’s a beautiful canapé.

It adds a wonderful flavour to a burger or toasted sandwich and is great in an omelette too. Use it as a condiment on cold meats, especially leftovers at Christmas, or alongside beef or pork. It’s very versatile.

Confit onion is one of my favourite condiments. When we are in France, we buy so much of it. It’s often available in small bottles at most of the markets and gourmet food stores like these food stores in Paris. The more local the better though, so we strive to buy from local markets.

Our own tip that we follow all the time now though, is wherever we buy it, we taste it straight away. This is so if it is really good, we can go back and buy more while we are still in that town.

Tip: This is usually a great product to bring home from France as it is commercially produced, sealed and labelled. In Australia, we have very strict quarantine rules however I have always been able to bring it home. I always declare it. Always be sure to check your own country’s quarantine rules before bringing it home with you.

Onion confit recipe

Ingredients

• 1 kg onions
• 100g butter
• 100g white sugar
• 20ml dry white wine
• 10ml red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• Salt and pepper to season

Method

This recipe is all about the onions, and not surprisingly, it is the preparation of these vegetables that takes the most time. That and stirring!

When it comes to choosing which onions to choose, it doesn’t really matter. I have made this recipe using ones with red, white and brown skin and they have all turned out great.

Cook’s tip: Use fresh onions. If the onion is old or soft and squishy it will impact your final result. This is not the recipe to use heaps of old onions you have lying around. Save them for making stock!

Peel the onions and then finely slice them. I always use my mandolin as it’s a more efficient method, especially when processing one kilogram of onions. A food processor with a slicing function can also be used.

If you don’t have access to any of this equipment, it’s not a problem. Using your sharpest knife, slice the onions as evenly and thinly as you can.

In a medium/large saucepan, add the butter and melt it gently over low heat. Add the onions and continue to cook at a low heat for around 20 minutes.

The idea here is to soften the onions without adding any colour.

Stir occasionally during the 20 minute period.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add the sugar, continuing to stir so that it is all mixed through.

Cook for a further 10 minutes.

Add the red wine vinegar, white wine and thyme and stir.

Cook’s tip: Whilst we have used white wine and red wine vinegar here, you can easily substitute them for white wine, cider or port. The red wine vinegar can be substituted for white wine vinegar, sherry vinegar or even balsamic. This will give a much richer, darker confit.

Keeping it on low heat, allow to simmer for one hour, continuing to stir regularly.

When the onions have reduced enough and are soft and sweet, put them into sterilised jars. Close them tightly. They will store on your shelf or in the fridge for many weeks. Mine just doesn’t ever last that long.

This recipe made two bottles (400g) of confit onion.

Confit Onion

Yield: 2 x 400g bottles

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Additional Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Confit onion, or as the French know it, Confit d'oignon is a simple but very tasty condiment made almost entirely from onions. It's perfect for serving with cheese but it is extremely versatile.

Print

Ingredients

• 1 kilo onions
• 100g butter
• 100g white sugar
• 20ml dry white wine
• 10ml red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Finely slice the onions, and in a medium saucepan, sweat them on a low heat in butter for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Season with salt and pepper, and then add the sugar and continue cooking for 10 minutes until caramelized.
3. Add the white wine and vinegar, sprinkle with thyme and stir.
4. Simmer for 1 hour over low heat, stirring every 10 minutes.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 40 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 39Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 24mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 0gSugar: 4gProtein: 0g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix.

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