SS
The original bb1 recipe has that much oil and less water, when cooked for a such a long time
it produces a congealed oily mass (onion sauce) for the oil to separate from this it needs water.
The waters been boiled off, leaving half a pot of gloop. (It looks like wallpaper paste)
http://youtu.be/_mT5YZ5cEhc
This is the reason why i dont like this method. All you are doing is pushing a large mass of dry paste around the pan. The only way things can fry down properly and for the oil to separate easily is by adding water!
(and yes, i have tried this dry method.)
If, like BB1 says, (or Boaby,Fred, Alex,James, all the members of wet wet wet or whoever he currently is

) No oil is added and nothing needs to be fried down, then this method isn't that different from a jar of cook-in sauce. All components can be cooked separately then added together for storage until heated in a frying pan. I dont see any difference between the first ladle and 2nd, 3rd etc.
Two questions:
Why fry onion or pepper in oil first if there is enough oil in the first ladle?
and
Can you brown the G/G paste?
Cheers, Frank.