It isn't really worth it unless you are making a good amount. It is adjusting PH, which might get you color faster, but it is pretty easy to get too much in and have your onions taste of chemicals. The linked article went with 1/8 teaspoon (.625 grams) per pound (about 450g) of onion. It makes it really easy to get too much, especially when you are just doing 1 or two onions.
Unless the dish relies on the flavor of caramelized onions, I just go with lesser cooking time.
All true: I do mean a literal pinch. I use it for batches of French onion soup so, yes, a lot of onions (most of it goes straight to the freezer, to mature like a fine wine.
The "layer of deceit" is that they claim you can do something in a particular way within a certain time frame and that this is not actually possible. And cook books aren't written by editors.
I'm responding to moistly's comment, not the essay.
Certainly editors don't write cookbooks. But they decide what to publish. I personally think the essay is correct. My followup on this thread is that even if the essay isn't correct, there are still other "layers of deceit" to consider.
The top-level of this thread was dexwiz's statement "I don't think recipes lie". I pointed out how that statement doesn't jibe with the presented evidence. moistly followed up that it wasn't a lie, but ignorance "by people who don’t know what they are doing."
My observation is that if we accept that the authors aren't lying, but are simply incompetent, then a different layer of deceit arises - the belief that cooking columns in national newspapers and cookbooks by reputable publishing companies will have enough oversight and not publish recipes 'by people who don’t know what they are doing'.
First DDG link: https://www.onions-usa.org/onionista/faster-caramelized-onio...