Steak with Balsamic Vinegar Caramelized Onions

A Delicious Condiment/Steak Sauce Rolled Into One

Hey, everyone!

This is one of my favorite recipes I’ve created in a while. It’s super simple, but it’s a really fun riff on steak if you want to change things up a bit.

I’ve always enjoyed the combination of caramelized onions and steak, but you can take it up a level by adding some balsamic vinegar into the mix. The buttery caramelized onions bring fat, sweetness, umami, and complexity from the Maillard. The addition of balsamic vinegar adds even more sweetness, umami, and a dash of acidity. It hits all the notes, and it feels like a condiment and a steak sauce rolled into one. Plus it’s more than easy enough to execute on a weeknight.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Myles

Ingredients

• 1 steak

• 1 large yellow onion

• 1/2-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• salt

• butter

• tallow or ghee

This is one of those recipes where the ingredient list is simple, so getting the best-quality ingredients is of utmost importance.

The most crucial thing here is to get a really high-quality balsamic vinegar, ideally from Modena. A lot of what’s sold as balsamic vinegar is really just a cheap knockoff. You won’t get that magical mix of umami, sweetness, and acidity unless you seek out the good stuff. My personal favorite is Villa Manodori, and I like Sardel as well. Try to find a version that only has two ingredients— cooked grape must and wine vinegar. You want it to be thick and syrupy. A lot of the knockoff brands are pure liquid (like a regular vinegar) and won’t work nearly as well.

This works with any steak cut that you can easily cook in a pan. My personal favorites are ribeye, Denver, underblade, flatiron, or NY strip.

Process

Start by cooking the balsamic vinegar onions.

Cut your yellow onion into thin slices.

Heat a large pan over medium heat. Once it’s heated, add in 2 tsbp of fat. I prefer to use butter here, but ghee, tallow, or even olive oil all work. I prefer butter, since the end result has all the richness of the butter, plus the umami, sweetness, and acidity.

Allow the fat to melt, then add in your onions.

Stir the onions to coat them in the fat.

Once they have softened a little bit, season them with salt. Continue cooking until they become soft and translucent.

At this point, turn the heat down to medium-low or low and slowly cook them, stirring occasionally to move them around.

You want these to cook low and slow to bring out the natural sweetness in the onions. To do so, you’ll have to keep an eye on your heat, and maybe add in a bit more fat if you feel like they need it. Usually I’ll cook these about 20-30 minutes.

Once the onions are well caramelized, turn off the heat and add in your balsamic vinegar.

I cooked one whole yellow onion and added just shy of 1 tbsp of balsamic. Add in a bit at at time and stir to incorporate throughout the onions. Taste and adjust as needed with more salt and balsamic until you’re happy with them. They should have a beautiful balance of fat, sweetness, umami, and acidity.

Once they’re done, set the onions aside.

Next, cook your steak.

Heat a pan over high heat.

Salt your steak generously on both sides.

Once the pan is hot, add in a tbsp or so of fat and allow it to melt. For this, a high-heat fat like ghee or tallow works best.

Sear the steak on both sides.

Once both sides have developed some nice browning, turn the heat down to medium / medium-low.

Add 2 tsbp of butter to the pan, and immediately start basting the steak with the hot butter. Use a large spoon to scoop up the liquid butter and pour it over the steak over and over again, occasionally flipping the steak.

Side note: this is where a Gray Kunz spoon, a Mercer plating spoon, or a Gestura spoon come in handy. I own all three and love them. They’re all fantastic for basting.

Keep basting and turning until the steak reaches your desired temperature, then pull it from the pan and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Slice the steak and serve it with the balsamic vinegar onions. I recommend eating immediately with your hands.

Enjoy!