NEVER Fry Your Blooming Onion Again — Try This Old RANCH Trick

📖 Texas Ranch Cooking (Straight from the Chuckwagon) — 428 pages, 116 recipes, 36 old ranch tricks. Link in the top comment 👇 A blooming onion isn't its own recipe in the book, because it isn't ranch food, but every frying trick behind it is. Its closest cousins are Cornmeal-Fried Okra, Recipe No. 073 (pages 172–173), Cornmeal-Fried Catfish, No. 059 (pages 140–141), Hushpuppies, No. 082 (pages 190–191), and Buttermilk Skillet-Fried Chicken, No. 024 (pages 64–65). Pages below. Most folks who try a blooming onion at home end up with a greasy lump that's raw in the middle, and it was never their fault. ⭐ WHAT YOU NEED (1 large onion) • 1 large sweet or yellow onion, firm, with dry skin • Ice water for the soak • 1½ cups buttermilk and 1 teaspoon hot sauce • Coating: 1 cup flour, ½ cup cornmeal, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon cayenne • Oil for frying, about 3 inches deep • Dip: 1 cup sour cream, 1 spoon of Salsa Ranchera (page 250), a squeeze of lime • A sharp knife, a heavy Dutch oven, a clip-on thermometer, and a wire rack ⭐ THE 7 TRICKS (counting down) 7. Start with the biggest, firmest onion you can find. 6. Cut it, leaving the root on, then soak it in ice water for 30 minutes and pat it dry. [p. 51] 5. Soak it in buttermilk and hot sauce for 30 minutes, then let it drip. [pp. 140, 141, 64] 4. Flour, cornmeal, or both. Neither is wrong. Press the coating on. [pp. 172, 140, 173] 3. Rest the coated onion on a rack for 15 minutes. [p. 65] 2. Drain it on a rack, not paper towels, and salt it the second it comes out. Serve it with the dip. [pp. 65, 141, 250] 1. Hold the oil at 350°F and cook one at a time. [pp. 173, 191, 141] 📄 EVERY PAGE NAMED IN THIS VIDEO • p. 51 · Cast Iron Cowboy Ribeye trick: "The enemy of a good crust is water" • p. 64 · Buttermilk Skillet-Fried Chicken (No. 024): the buttermilk soak seasons all the way through • p. 65 · Fried chicken method: rest the coating 15 minutes on a rack, drain on a rack, not paper towels • p. 120 · Frito Pie (next video) • p. 140 · Cornmeal-Fried Catfish (No. 059): the buttermilk soak helps the cornmeal stick • p. 141 · Catfish method: soak 30 minutes, fry at 350°F, salt right away • p. 172 · Cornmeal-Fried Okra (No. 073): Grandma June fried it almost every night in August • p. 173 · Okra method: oil at 350°F, press the cornmeal on, fry in small batches • p. 190 · Hushpuppies (No. 082): half a grated onion in the batter • p. 191 · Hushpuppies method: fry in the same oil, don't crowd, too hot is raw in the middle, too cool is greasy • p. 250 · Salsa Ranchera (No. 109) • p. 278 · Keep a Grease Crock: strain out the burnt bits THE HONEST WORDS: • Greasy → the oil was too cool, or the pot was crowded [pp. 191, 173] • Raw in the middle → the oil was too hot; lower it to 340°F [p. 191] • Coating slid off → it didn't rest, or it wasn't pressed on [pp. 65, 173] • Onion fell apart → you cut through the root • Little crisp bits in the oil → not a failure, that's the cook's private reward A ranch cook never had much, and she never wasted a drop of good oil. Did you think this one belonged to the restaurants too? Tell me your county in the comments. The best comment picks the next video. 👇