Advice On the Creation of French Onion Soup
Written By: Alexandra Perez-Urbina on Mon, Aug 18th 2008
"Whaaaaah! Not another onion!" My poor little brain and eyes screamed as I slaved away in one of my internship sites. The onions were wet and released their potent fumes making my eyes tear near the point of temporary blindness, and my nose leaked like a stubborn faucet. There was a little wet spot on my right shoulder serving as a tissue for the waterfalls that were my eyes and the little cascade that was my nose. I contemplated looking like a complete nerd and purchasing goggles - I also thought about wearing my sunglasses indoors, as sunglasses are just a tad bit cooler. My brain ran off to little fantasies here and there, which always ended on a sad note - it must have been all the crying. Until finally, I was finished! I julienned what felt like a million onions, which in my more amateur days was probably more like twenty, and I got myself ready to make French Onion Soup!
The soup was made from dry bread, beef broth, and of course, delicious, swarthy caramelized onions. Traditionally, it is broiled in a ramekin with Gruyere cheese on top - sometimes, a lot of Gruyere. If you're in France and you order an onion soup, you're likely to get some onion soup with your Gruyere cheese. It's a delicious, gooey mess! Onion soups were commonly "soups for the poor," as onions were a common vegetable and were easy to grow. Supposedly, onion soups even date way back to Roman times! The onion soup we know today, or French Onion Soup to everyone but the French, is thought to have originated in France during the 17th century.
While beef broth and stock are traditional in the making of onion soup, the restaurant I worked at used veal stock and duck stock. Veal stock made the soup richer, as veal bones are chuck-full-o'-collagen and duck stock is plenty flavorful and was readily at hand since we had all kinds of duck on the menu. A lot of recipes I dug up called for a mix of bovine and feathered stock, which is why I mentioned both. You can also use a vegetable stock to make a vegetarian onion soup.
As mentioned earlier, Gruyere cheese rules the French Onion Soup, but it doesn't mean you can't be creative, or slick. For the kid in all of us who loves stringy, melted cheese, you could sneak in some soft provolone (the kind that comes sliced) along with your Gruyere. And you could experiment with other cheeses, too - why not, right? For the most part, though, a stronger, not too moist cheese would work best, so that it does not dissolve into the hot soup - cheddar, asiago, aged provolone, and even smoked Gouda might be fun alternatives.
One more thing to remember before we start cooking, for the consumer's sake, cubes of about half-an-inch to one inch work best for the croutons or dry bread. Placing a slice of bread may be easier for the cook, but it's not so easy to eat. As a chef, you have to make the eating experience pleasant; therefore, bite-size pieces are always preferred in soups.
Recipe for French Onion Soup in the next segment!
