That's Using The Old Onion

For the Holidays, Tradition Comes Out on Top

"I've put FFOs in meatloaf, in hamburgers, on hamburgers, in soup, on soup, in salad," says French's Janet Andreas, with a French Fried Onion-capped casserole . (Photos By Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post)

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By Monica Hesse

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 20, 2007; Page C01

MONTVALE, N.J. Here, in a gleaming stainless-steel test laboratory, six employees in hairnets and white coats are peering at our Thanksgiving destiny. It is a tray of French's French Fried Onions, or FFOs, those succulent morsels of oil and shame that must top the green bean casserole that must appear on 30 million groaning tables on Thursday.

They must taste like reliability itself, a polestar of Americana in an era of artisanal persimmon-infused oil glazing haricots verts.

They must taste like they have since 1955, when Campbell's invented the homey two-can side dish, your beans and your cream of mushroom soup, a soft, soothing mush of a thing given a kick and a crunch with your can of FFOs.

The color in this particular batch of FFOs on this particular day before Thanksgiving is uniform golden, which is nice but not necessary:

"We do think consumers appreciate a range," says Barbara Yaros, the director of marketing for French's. "Not like a Pringle -- I mean, who doesn't like a Pringle? -- but they all look the same. Some people like a darker onion. Some people like a burned one."

She pokes one gloved finger toward the onions on the tray, pointing out the unique hues and shapes of each FFO. Like snowflakes, they are.

Everybody leans in for a closer view.

This is a delicate operation. Crumbs lurk around every corner. The ideal FFO is a nice round O, or at least a crunchy strip. That's what they're after, here in the lab, where they perfect the recipe that is mass-produced and lands, in 2.8- and 6-ounce containers, in supermarkets from coast to coast (with biggest sales in the Midwest, of course). You can buy Imported Crispy Onions (all natural, from Denmark) from Whole Foods Market. You can update the recipe with a batch of homemade leek chips. But if you want authenticity, you will go for French's, which has cornered the FFO market since absorbing Durkee in 1985.

There's really only one shot for the plant to get its production right. French's mustard and its GourMayo sells all year long, but its onions? Sixty percent of the company's FFO sales come between October and December, say French's officials, or 30 million units of canned onion aroma.

The texture on this test batch is good -- thin and crispy, no soggy onions in this kitchen. The taste? Fuggedaboudit! Now this is one delicious fried onion. Sometimes, if the national crop is weak, you're going to end up with a product that's not as sweet as millions of Americans have come to expect. But these? They're good. Sprinkle on top of a green bean casserole and bake it at 350 for a couple-five minutes, and you got a holiday meal.

* * *

Janet Andreas is a former home-economics teacher who now runs the French's Test Kitchen.