KITCHEN PRACTICE 1 — A Full Onion Base From Scratch
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Chapter: Hungarian Cookery 2 — Onions: The Real Foundation

TASK
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Build a full onion base from scratch — finely diced onion cooked low
and slow in lard until soft, translucent, and only lightly coloured,
managing the heat to avoid real browning.

WHAT TO DO
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1. Finely dice a generous amount of onion.
2. Melt a real, generous spoonful of lard in a heavy pot over
   medium-low heat.
3. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 20-30 minutes or
   more.
4. If the onion starts catching or browning too fast, reduce the
   heat, add a small splash of water, or cover the pot partially.
5. The onion is ready once it's fully soft and translucent, with at
   most a light golden colour — not a real, even brown.

WHAT TO EXPECT
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- The onion should shrink down substantially in volume as it cooks,
  losing its raw sharpness and becoming genuinely soft and jammy.
- It should smell sweet and mellow, not sharp or raw, well before it
  reaches full softness.
- The finished base should look pale to lightly golden throughout,
  with no real dark-brown patches.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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This exercise runs the chapter's own core technique end to end for
the first time, and is the direct foundation every later chapter in
this course builds on — the pörkölt, paprikás, and gulyás chapters
all start from exactly this base.