For a very long time, one of my goals was to learn how to make a good French onion soup. If I were to have a culinary bucket list, this would have been number one. The only thing stopping me from taking the plunge was the fact that I had not found a recipe that inspired me. That all changed when one of my very good friends got me Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook for Christmas. His recipe for French onion soup looked so simple and authentic and most importantly, so delicious.
I was surprised at how amazingly simple the recipe is. It is essentially onions, butter, and beef stock topped with cheese and bread. Granted there are some herbs involved and if you decide to make his beef stock recipe as I did, that introduces a whole new list of ingredients, but on the surface, this is not a fussy recipe. It really speaks to what chefs are talking about when they say that the best foods come from the simplest recipes. On the flip side of that, they also say that the simplest recipes are the hardest to pull off. Yes. After my experience with this soup, I cannot disagree.
Before I was even halfway through making this recipe, I was already commenting to anyone who would listen that this soup had better cure cancer because anything that took 18 hours to make from start to finish had to have mystical powers associated with it. Chef Keller states very explicitly that if you are not planning on using a homemade beef stock for the soup, you are better off using water rather than the boxed/canned stuff. He says the caramelized onions have so much sweetness and a subtle natural flavor that processed beef stock would overpower it. Taking his advice to heart, I decided to make his beef stock which required roasting bones and vegetables and simmering it all for several hours.
More than six hours later, I had a very fragrant stock. Chef Keller stresses that the stock needs to be strained twice which turned out to be completely necessary. I was surprised to see how much sediment had found it's way into the stock after the first strain.
After letting the stock refrigerate overnight so I could take off the resulting layer of fat, I had three and a half quarts of some of the best beef stock I have ever made. I was also barely halfway to the finish line.
On day 2, I tackled the onions. I cut 8 pounds of yellow onions. Eight pounds! At some point I lost count but I am quite sure I was well over 20 onions. As I was cutting, I started to get nervous that I had far too many onions because I had filled my two largest mixing bowls with onions and still had more to go. Thank goodness M had a pair of laboratory goggles left from his mad scientist Halloween costume because there was no way my eyes would have been able to handle cutting all those onions. Amazingly, I had the right amount of onions. What started out as this.....
ended up as this.
The first picture is a little misleading. There were so many onions that I had to add them in batches. I literally set up a stool in front of my stove and babysat the onions for seven straight hours because I was so afraid of scorching them. Also, I felt so invested in this soup at this point with a 6+ hour beef stock and more onions than I had ever seen in one place at one time. I wanted to make sure that I did not ruin it all by burning the key component.
Once I had the caramelized onions and the stock, I was essentially done. I combined the two and prepared my lion's head tureens for the final presentation.
{finishing touches}
The recipe calls for aged comté and/or aged emmentaler cheese. I used sliced comté to cover the top of the tureens and shredded emmentaler to try to fill the gaps. My biggest problem in the end turned out to have nothing to do with the soup itself. It turns out my tureens are enormous. Although they are personal sized, they hold what seemed like an infinite amount of soup, and the bowl was so wide that I didn't have enough cheese to cover the top which meant that I was not able to get a nice bubbly crust. Of course, no one cared but it still bothered me. Regardless, I was ecstatic over my final product. It was everything I wanted in a french onion soup - not too salty, a little sweet with a rich beefy flavor.
{french onion soup}
French Onion Soup (serves 6, as found in Thomas Keller's Bouchon)
Sachet:
2 bay leaves
12 black peppercorns
6 large thyme sprigs
Soup:
8 lbs yellow onions
8 tbs (4 ounces) unsalted butter
kosher salt
1½ teaspoons all-purpose flour
3½ quarts beef stock (recipe below)
freshly ground black pepper
sherry wine vinegar
Croutons:
1 baguette (about 2 ½ inches in diameter)
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
6 to 12 slices (1/8 inch thick) aged Comte or Emmentaler cheese**
1 ½ cups grated aged Comte or Emmentaler cheese, or a combination
**cheese must be aged or it will not form a crust when broiled
*
For the sachet – Cut a piece of cheesecloth about 7 inches square. Place the bay leaves, peppercorns, and thyme in the center, bring up the edges and tie with kitchen twine to for a sachet.
*
For the soup – Cut off the tops and bottoms of the onions, then cut the onions lengthwise in half. Remove the peels and tough outer layers. Cut a V wedge in each one to remove the core and pull out any solid, flat pieces of onion running up from the core.
*Lay an onion half cut side down on a cutting board with the root end toward you. Note that there are lines on the outside of the onion. Cutting on the lines (with the grain) rather than against them will help the onions soften. Holding the knife on an angle, almost parallel to the board, cut the onion lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick slices. Once you’ve cut past the center of the onion, the knife angle will become awkward: Flip the onion onto its side, toward the knife, and finish slicing it, again along the grain. Separate the slices of onion, trimming away any root sections that are still attached and holding the slices together. Repeat with the remaining onions. You should have about 7 quarts of onions.
*Melt the butter in a large heavy stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions and 1 tablespoon salt. If possible, place a diffuser under the pot, and reduce the heat to low. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes and regulating the heat to keep the mixture bubbling gently, for about 1 hour, or until the onions have wilted and released a lot of liquid. At this point, you can turn up the heat slightly to reduce the liquid, but it is important to continue to cook the onions slowly to develop the maximum flavor and keep them from scorching. Continue to stir the onions every 15 minutes, being sure to scrape the bottom and get into the corners of the pot, for about 4 hours more, or until the onions are caramelized throughout and a rich deep brown. Keep a closer eye on the onions toward the end of the cooking when the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat. (You will need 1 ½ cups of onions for the soup; reserve any extra for another use. The onions can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated.)
*Transfer the caramelized onions to a 5-quart pot (if they’ve been refrigerated, reheat until hot). Sift in the flour and cook over medium-heat stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Add the beef stock and sachet, bring to a simmer, and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the liquid is reduced to 2 ½ quarts. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a few drops of vinegar. Remove from heat.
*
For the croutons – Preheat the broiler. Cut 12 3/8-inch-thick slices from the baguette and place on a baking sheet. Brush the bread lightly on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place under the broiler and toast the first side until golden brown, then turn and brown the second side. Set aside and leave the broiler on.
*
To complete – Return soup to a simmer. Place six flameproof soup tureens, with about 1½ cup capacity on a baking sheet to catch any spills (the soup will bubble up and over the tureens). Add the hot soup to the tureens, filling them to within ½ inch of the tops. Top each serving with 2 croutons: Lay them on the surface – do not push them into the soup. Lay the slices of cheese over the croutons so that the cheese overlaps the edge of the tureens by about ½ inch. Scatter the grated cheese over the sliced cheese, filling in areas where the sliced cheese is thinner, or it may melt into the soup rather than forming a crust.
*Place the tureens under the broiler for a few minutes, until the cheese bubbles, browns, and forms a thick crust. Serve immediately.
Beef Stock (yields approx. 3½ quarts, as found in Thomas Keller's Bouchon)
About 2 tbs canola oil
5 pounds meaty beef bones (neck, shank or shin, tail or short ribs – cut into 2-3 inch sections)
2 small Spanish onions, peeled (about 8 ounces)
½ tsp kosher salt
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 4 pieces (about 3 ounces)
1 large leek, roots trimmed, split lengthwise, rinsed well, and cut into 2-inch pieces, or leek tops (about 3 ounces)
3 bay leaf
1 thyme sprig
1 large sprig fresh Italian parsley
¼ tsp black peppercorns
1 head garlic, cut horizontally in half
*Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Place a large roasting pan in the oven to preheat for about 10 minutes.
*Add 1 tbs of the oil to the hot roasting pan and distribute the beef bones in a single layer. Roast the bones for about 45 minutes, or until richly browned, turning each piece only after it is well browned on the bottom side.
*Meanwhile, cut the 1 onion crosswise in half. Heat a small heavy skillet over medium-high heat for about 2-3 minutes. Place 1 onion half cut side down to one side of the skillet so that it is not over direct heat and let it brown and char black, about 30 minutes. This will add color to the stock. Set aside.
*Remove the roasting pan of bones from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Transfer the bones to a large colander set over a baking sheet to drain.
*Drain the fat from the roasting pan and discard. Add about 1 cup water to the pan, place over medium heat, and use a metal spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan and release the pan juices. Let them simmer until reduced by half. Add the resulting fond to a large deep stockpot.
*Transfer the bones to the stockpot and add about 5 quarts cold water – just enough to cover the bones. Any fat present in the juices will rise to the top when cold water is added; use a skimmer to remove and discard the fat. Add the charred onion half and the salt. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer, skimming as impurities rise to the top of the stockpot. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, skim often for 5 hours. If the level of liquid falls below the top of the bones, add additional water.
*Meanwhile, cut the remaining whole onion into quarters and cut the remaining onion half in half again. Place the onions, carrots and leeks in a roasting pan that will hold them in a single layer, toss with the remaining 1 tbs canola oil, and place in the oven to roast for 20 minutes.
*Remove from the oven and stir, then roast again for an additional 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are richly caramelized. Set aside.
*After the stock has simmered for 5 hours, add the caramelized vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, garlic and simmer for 1 hour longer. Turn off the heat and allow the stock to rest for 10 minutes.
*Prepare an ice bath. Place a strainer over a large bowl. Removing the bones or pouring out the liquid through the bones will cloud the stock. Instead, carefully ladle the stock out of the pot and pass it through the strainer, tilting the pot as necessary to get all the stock. Strain a second time through a chinois or fine-mesh strainer lined with dampened cheesecloth.
*Measure the stock: if you have more than 3½ quarts, pour it into a sauce pan and reduce to 3½ quarts. Strain the stock into a container and cool in the ice bath stirring occasionally.
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