"This recipe says caramelize the onions for 5 minutes, then add some stock. That's ridiculous, it takes at least 45 minutes to caramelize onions, so I need to add 40 minutes to this recipe."
No, this issue isn't with the timing, it's simply with the word "caramelize." Yes, cookbook authors are guilty of incorrectly using the word "caramelize" when they mean brown and soften. No, they are not guilty of simply pretending that they didn't spend half an hour gently caramelizing onions when they write "for five minutes."
People learn that caramelization takes a half hour or more, and then they incorrectly assume that this is what you should do with all recipes that brown onions.
I grew up and continue to cook classic Italian and classic French recipes (grew up in Italy and France, my family is still in Italy). There are very few Italian recipes that require caramelizing onions, and few French recipes, except those where caramelized onions are a specific feature. For heaven's sake, don't caramelize onions for 45 minutes when making a pasta sauce.
Sautéeing, softening, frying "until golden", browning, and caramelizing are all (consecutive) stages of frying onions -- approximately something like 5 min, 8 min, 12-15 min, 20-25 min, 40-45 min.
They are all entirely different things, and recipe writers can be maddeningly imprecise about which one they actually mean. They all have different tastes and/or textures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_browning#Non-enzymatic_br...
I suspect most recipe writers are using brown to mean the verb "to dark golden"
Browning is about color and deepening flavor, caramelizing is specifically about sweetening on top of that, hence the name.
The brown bits are the result of the Maillard reaction not proper caramelization which takes time for the sugars to break down, but what you have isn't "caramelized onions" what you have is softened onions that are a bit brown.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-brown-onions-913397
> The problem with using the term "caramelized" for browned onions is more than just inaccuracy. What causes confusion is that the term is used for two very different methods and results. The first method, which involves very slow cooking, results in onions whose cells have broken down so far that they almost form a paste. They brown slowly and evenly, almost from the inside out.
> The second method cooks the onions more quickly over higher heat so that they brown before they have a chance to break down. You end up with browned onions that retain their shape and some texture. They also retain much more of their volume.
Same general issue, although they documented this shift in meaning of "caramelized onions" and how it affects dishes. I remember it well because if how long it took to do and how different carmelized onions are from browned sauteed onions.