French Onion Soup

Ever since I confessed in my Gazpacho post that French Onion Soup was my favorite soup, I've had an on again, off again craving for it. I decided to satisfy that craving by re-testing a recipe from Taste & Technique, which I reviewed in mid-2016, to see if I could get better results the second time around. Right before the Holiday Chocolates Class, I bought eight onions and three quarts of beet stock because I figured the momentum of that weekend would propel me into the French Onion Soup project. It didn’t. The ingredients sat on my counter throughout my Holiday Baking Marathon and my Christmas Soup Making, and into the New Year. Three of the onions sprouted and had to be replaced. Finally, when gingerbread house construction was cancelled due to a snowstorm, I motivated to tackle the laborious project.

Preparing the Ingredients

Right off the bat, I made some substitutions to the ingredient list. I used a one-quart carton of College Inn beef stock and a one-quart carton of Swanson beef stock instead of two and a half quarts of homemade beef stock. I forgot to add the salt. I couldn’t really tell whether the recipe required ¼ cup dry sherry or ¾ cup dry sherry, so I added ¾ cup Taylor golden sherry. I didn’t have 30-year aged balsamic vinegar; I only had 18-year aged vinegar, so I figured that would do. I skipped the scant amounts of fish sauce (which I had run out of) and Tabasco sauce (which was just odd). I also skipped buttering the bread and substituted Cracker Barrel 2% milk cheddar cheese for 1¾ pounds of Gruyere (so my nutritionist wouldn't hate me).

The last time I made the soup I apparently used Vidalia onions, which produced a lot of water and refused to caramelize properly. This time I made sure to select onions from the “yellow onion” bin in the supermarket. Unfortunately, when it came time to prep the onions, I noticed that they all had “sweet onion” labels on them. But I was snowed in and committed to making the soup that day, so I was determined to work with what I had.

The onions are supposed to be “quartered lengthwise and sliced into half-moons 1/8 inch thick.” The last time I made the soup, I did this step by hand, which took a very long time. This time, I decided to work smarter and use my mandoline. So all I had to do was clean, peel and quarter the onions before slicing them on the mandoline, and then manually slice the last piece left over from the mandoline. I was amazed by how much eight onions sliced up to be: a full mixing bowl plus some leftover on the cutting board!

Caramelizing the Onions

Despite the work that goes into slicing the onions, the majority of the work in making French Onion Soup is in the caramelization of the onions, which takes place in three stages. According to the recipe, first the onions are cooked over medium high heat for 20 to 25 minutes until “translucent … very soft, almost soupy.” Then the heat is lowered to just below medium and a fond, or crust, is allowed to develop on the bottom of the pot, which is periodically scraped back into the onions. After 45 minutes, the balsamic vinegar and the sherry are added. It should only take another 15 minutes to cook down the sherry and vinegar and finish the onions to approximately the same shade as the beef stock. Total cooking time to caramelize the onions is just under 90 minutes.

I will admit that I didn’t read my review of my first attempt at the recipe until after I finished the soup, so I didn’t know what pitfalls may lie ahead. During my first attempt, the carmelization went really awry – the onions were too soupy after the first stage and the fond started burning in the second stage. I didn’t have any of those problems during this attempt. I was able to fit all the onions in my big enamel cast iron Dansk soup pot, which conducts heat very slowly and evenly. I started out on medium high as directed, and, while there was some onion liquid by the end of the 25 minutes, there wasn’t so much that I felt like I had to drain it off to effectively caramelize the onions. The color of the onions was very a light brown.

At the beginning of the 45 minute caramelization period, I turned the dial to halfway between medium and low (I don’t have numbers on my stove dials) to get a nice low flame. Rather than stir constantly, I would walk away and do something for two or three minutes, return to the pot, scrape the fond, and then walk away again. The onions were moist enough that the fond always dissolved back into the onions, and I never walked away for so long that the fond was so browned that I couldn’t easily scrape it off. By the time I added the balsamic vinegar and the sherry, the onions had turned a nice deep caramel. I poured a sample of the broth to compare the colors, and the onions were still lighter than the broth so I gave them the extra 15 minutes. After the extra 15 minutes, the onions were still not quite as brown as the broth, but I decided they were good enough.

Finishing and Serving the Soup

According to the recipe, finishing the soup requires adding the beef stock, fish sauce, Tabasco, ground black pepper, and salt. I just added the beef stock, turned the heat to low, and let it simmer for the recommended 30 minutes. I didn’t add the other ingredients because they were such small amounts relative to the two quarts of beef stock that I didn’t see how they could make a difference. In short, I was being lazy.

Serving French Onion Soup is a production, but it is the best part. According to the recipe, the baguette slices should be brushed with melted butter, toasted, and rubbed with a raw garlic clove. I simply toasted enough baguette slices to cover the surface of the soup in one of my ceramic soup bowls. Once the soup was done simmering, I filled ¾ of a ceramic soup bowl with soup. Then I floated the toasted baguette slices on top of the soup. Then I grated Cracker Barrel 2% Milk cheddar cheese to cover the baguette slices. I carefully placed the bowl in my toaster oven so as not to disturb the arrangement, and toasted on medium to melt the cheese. When it came out it looked great!

The Verdict

I enjoy almost any kind of French Onion Soup, even the lukewarm watery ones with just a little melted cheese. There is something about being able to push your spoon through the layer of cheese to discover the soup below, regardless of how that discovery may turn out. I was really pleased to discover that my soup was worth all the effort that I put into it. Melted cheese experience aside, the soup was rich with onion flavor, which meant that I had done the caramelization correctly. And it is a good thing that I liked my handiwork because I have three containers of the soup in the refrigerator, which is probably enough for six meals! I suspect that I’ll be freezing at least one of those containers, if I can find room in my freezer…