National Onion Day 2024

[worth1]

I have the regular HEB onion rings and a bag of Nathan's onion rings for comparison.
The Nathan's is a little less than a dollar more per pound.
They seem to beat out everyone else in reviews.
We shall see.

[worth1]

The Nathan's on your left and the HEB store brand on the right.
Nathan's has a more flour fish batter like crust and really thin.
The HEB brand has a more breadcrumb like crust and a little thicker.
Both are excellent.
And trust me I've had some really crappy institutional onion rings.
I have no idea if it was the cook or the product.
I also had no idea until watching videos on onion rings that they actually made a fake onion ring from some sort of onion mush.

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[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

IMO, the HEB rings appear noticeably superior.

The Gotch

[worth1]

I think they're better too.
And for about a dollar less a package.
That makes me happy because with all the hype I was afraid the Nathan's would blow the store brand out of the water.
I also tested two brands of Blue cheese dressing.
Ken's steakhouse and wishbone.
I liked the wishbone better by a little bit but neither one could pass as Blue cheese in my opinion.

[JRinPA]

You like the bread crumb better than the batter dipped? Are the onions better, or you actually like the seasoning/texture? I've always preferred batter dipped. Grew up eating batter dipped fried mushrooms at the restaurant in town - I think that is likely why I prefer batter. Was the same with frozen fish patties, I liked the batter dipped patties, not the breaded sticks.

Been a long time since buying blue cheese dressing but I thought Ken's was better. Crisper, whiter? Maybe just the glass bottle. Wishbone was usually cheaper though and I probably had that 5x as often. Never on onions rings, though.

[worth1]

I don't like the bread crumb better so much as it's cheaper by a dollar and the Nathan's.
I actually like both.
The bread crumb one isn't near as thick as I've seen many from restaurants where you would think where's the onion.
The Nathan's seem to break apart and you're left with an onion in your hand.

[JRinPA]

Yeah that sounds right, batter breaking off. Boy I miss those mushrooms. My parent's would get an order and I think each of us little kids would get like one each. They came in a little waxed paper bag. A pizza place moved into that spot, many years ago. I wish they had kept a few of the pa dutch dishes. But a real italian pizzeria, complete with accents, they have their own ways. Whenever the cop would come they'd stop speaking english. Always cracked me up. Yeah I said "the cop", it was a one cop town.

I did onions rings here last year, a couple tries, tried to do batter but with yeast instead of beer. I should buy beer for it but I'm afraid I'd end up just drinking the beer.

[worth1]

I went to school in a one cop town too.
He would take off after someone and the old Plymouth would backfire and blow black smoke.
I love freshly fried mushrooms.

[worth1]

I revisited the Nathan's onion rings last night.
I fried them a little longer and they out did the HEB brand by just a wee bit.
Crispy crunchy and didn't collapse.
Both are excellent.

[worth1]

I tried to dice an onion with the French fry cutter with great failure.
It worked sort of but not worth the trouble.
One thing you're not going to push an onion through the thing whole.

[Tormahto]

I tried to dice an onion with the French fry cutter with great failure.
It worked sort of but not worth the trouble.
One thing you're not going to push an onion through the thing whole.

VEVOR, the AY460-1 is their latest model.

[Tormahto]

That model, I think, is only a slicer, not a dicer (for french fries). They have several models, a few with suspect feet. Apparently the cutters are an upgrade to a harder stainless steel, but going serrated seems to be useless, as there won't be any hard bones that could dull the blades. There are a couple of horizontal french fry cutters for about $60, that I might consider. Right now, I could't be sold on the $100+ machines, unless I figure out all of the possibilities that I would have for it.

I'll have to go back and read your french fry science posts. Did you ever experiment with different thicknesses, like roughly 1/4", 3/8 " and 1/2"?

[worth1]

That model, I think, is only a slicer, not a dicer (for french fries). They have several models, a few with suspect feet. Apparently the cutters are an upgrade to a harder stainless steel, but going serrated seems to be useless, as there won't be any hard bones that could dull the blades. There are a couple of horizontal french fry cutters for about $60, that I might consider. Right now, I could't be sold on the $100+ machines, unless I figure out all of the possibilities that I would have for it.

I'll have to go back and read your french fry science posts. Did you ever experiment with different thicknesses, like roughly 1/4", 3/8 " and 1/2"?

Yes I did.
The 1/4 is too little the 3/8 a little better but I'm my opinion the 1/2 is just right if you can get them to fry right.