This is one of the most delicious things I've had in recent memory!

Any tricks for peeling these little suckers?

To make them easier to peel, you could blanch them for about 10 seconds in boiling water. Then quickly shock them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

I will say though, they do get a little bit water logged, but it does make it easier to peel them. If I have the patience I actually just peel them (with out blanching them), but it sure does extend the prep time. Hope this helps!

I thought that you might respond with "blanch them and then shock them in an ice bath", but I've been apprehensive to try this with onions which are going to get sautéed. I didn't want them to take on too much water as you suggested might happen.

Oh well, good things take patience. Thanks for the response.

I have made these 5 times now. The second time I used the blanching method but I think I may have blanched them longer than 10 seconds. I found that I lost more of the outer layer of onion doing it this way. Although it was definitely faster, I went back to the original way. I just peel them sitting at the kitchen table and am mentally prepared that it is going to take awhile but the end result is so worth it.

It seems the insides of the pearl onions want to push themselves out while cooking. Anyone know how to prevent this? I peeled my onions 48 hours prior and kept them in the fridge. I also noticed some of the insides started pushing themselves out in the fridge.

do you cut off one the ends first or just peel away

There are a couple of ways of doing these onions. You can blanch them first and then peel them. This method is the quickest; however I find it wastes more of the onion as not only does the skin come off, so does the entire outer layer

Instead, I usually just cut off the very tip and then peel the pearl onions like I would a regular onion. Because the skin is very delicate and thin on pearl onions, they are a bit of a pain to peel, but they are delicious so I suppose it's worth it. Cheers!

Would you cut the root end off for peeling or should you try to leave most of it?

As mentioned above, I would cut off the "very tip" (or root end) and then peel them. Cheers!

How about blanching them in boiling stock and shocking them in cold stock ?

For blanching, I don't think you will gain much (or any) flavor benefit from a quick blanch in stock. It certainly wouldn't hurt. I personally would do this in boiling salted water only.

Love that you are putting on your thinking cap. Really. This is great thinking. I say try it once and prove me wrong (or right). This is how you will become a really great cook - by thinking and trying things.

Cheers, Joe.

I am adding these onions as side to my prime rib Christmas dinner. However I think a nice addition would be adding a gourmet mushroom medley I buy at the grocery store. At what point in the recipe would I want to add the mushrooms. I'm thinking maybe at the same time you add the stock? Or perhaps even later than that. I don't want to cook all the flavor out of them or dissolve them to nothing. I want the dish to have a nice presentation.

After reading all the questions about peeling the onions I am planning on using frozen pearl onions.

I would saute the mushrooms separately as they will release a lot of moisture. You also want them to have nice color so sauteing them separately will help this.

Also note, that frozen pearl onions will work but you may not achieve the same rich color when sauteing them due to the excess moisture. Good luck and enjoy!

All that peeling and crying was well worth it!!! I did the braised onions for my boeuf Bourguignon that I'm going to eat today. They looked so good in the pan, that I had to sneak and eat one before putting it in the dish! Next time I'll make them to go along with steak! Oh so yummy!

I have noticed that grapeseed oil is recommended in several recipes. Is there something special about this oil? I tend to use canola oil for most cooking reserving olive oil for dishes where I want to impart its flavor.

Grapeseed oil is used in several recipes as it has a high smoke point and a neutral flavor, which makes it a pretty good choice for cooking. You may also want to search for "oil" or "grapeseed" in the forum (and then click on the discussion tab) you will find many other discussions on this subject. Cheers!