Cutting a large amount of onions - how far in advance

[Wonder]

We are having a BBQ fundraiser on Sunday and we need to slice 10kgs of onions. We plan to do them in our old food processor or with the v-slicer but would like to know how far in advance they can be sliced. My DD needs to do the job and she won't have time to do them all on Saturday evening so I was thinking if she could do a few kgs each day, double bag them and keep them in our old fridge we wouldn't all need to chip in and help.

[obbie]

A couple of days shouldn't make any difference.

takeaways do everything in advance.

[goldfish]

Hi Wonder - I volunteered to help out with onions for a fundraiser last year.  I used the V slicer after my KA turned out not to be so great for that task.  Did them on a Thursday night to deliver on Friday for a Saturday sausage sizzle.  Once I got into the rhythm of it it didn't seem to take too long to do between 6-7 Kg.  

I double bagged them, but my fridge, car etc. had quite a distinct aroma!!  I don't think there's anything that can hold in those fumes!  If you have a fridge that can be dedicated to that sole purpose of storing the onions it would sure help.  I'm not sure how long they'd keep - fresher the better I think.

10 Kg sounds a lot, but could be done on the Saturday morning or afternoon.  Otherwise, maybe half on Friday and the other half Saturday? . . . as I said, once you get on a roll the time does seem to pass fairly quickly!

Good luck!

[Wonder]

Thanks goldfish and obbie. The total amount we need is 30kgs!!! but I've managed to for DD to have it split between the three families who are helping. We have a drinks fridge that isn't being used much at the moment so I think she can start Friday afternoon and finish Saturday afternoon and evening. I still have my old food processor which has a great slicing blade and should be quicker than attaching the safety to each onion on the v-slicer, DD is also a bit afraid after I almost sliced my thumb in half cutting onions for a BBQ a few years ago.

[goldfish]

Sounds good, Wonder - the processor should speed things up considerably!

[EmeraldSue]

That is a huge amount of onion to be chopped. i would be balling my eyes out!
When we have school functions, we buy in undressed salads and precut onions from a specialist salad provider. The onions come packed in plastic bags. I think they are double bagged too.

[astarra]

If you put them into a bag then the bags into a sealed container the rest of your fridge/car etc won't smell - but the container will probly hold the smell for a while. I had to do 8kg for a family BBQ one year, agree it doesn't take as long as you think. If I remember rightly I did them 3 days before with no probs, sealed them into an old ice-cream container which I chucked out after. Best of luck, hope you raise lots of funds. 

[meganjane]

Once sliced, they can be bagged and frozen. They actually cook better on the BBQ once defrosted.

[fundj&e]

after slicing the onions ,give them a good rise under running water to rise the acid out of them and drain well b4 baging them, will last a week or more if u remove the acid,some with capsicums

[Wonder]

There is such conflicting information on the web. DH trying to help googled about freezing the onions and came back that it was a definite no no and that they would be watery and turn to mush when cooked!! Thankfully I have the great members of this forum to fall back on. The fundraiser is for my DD's world expedition to Cambodia so I am making her do as much of the organizing as possible. I'm hoping to make some biscuits to sell alongside the BBQ to help for my Dry July fundraiser, but after the events of the last few days and needing to get back into work I'm not sure I'll have the energy to make them come Saturday.  Emraldsue, every $ counts and I was able to get our 10kgs for only $4.50 so I think it will be a good learning experience for DD to get stuck into the peeling and chopping  

[astarra]

You can buy frozen sliced onions at the supermarket, so they must be OK to freeze!!!

[Wonder]

Uni that's great advice, I feel so much more comfortable getting her to start them tonight now.