We have been making French Onion Soup from scratch for many years. However, I had not documented the process. Here is our version. It is, for us, a mid sized batch (8 lbs of onions). Usually, we will do 6 to 10 lbs of onions. The thought being that: “If you are going to make a mess, make a big mess”. This is really not that much of a mess, but there is a lot of stirring time involved in caramelizing the onions and the total time does not change much if you do 4 lbs or 10 lbs. Plus the soup keeps beautifully in the freezer ready to be pulled out on a sub-zero winter day or as we like it for New Year’s Eve dinner.
When I mention to friends that we recently made French Onion Soup from scratch, the common questions are:
- How long does it take?
- How far do you cook down the onions?
- How dark should the finished onions be?
- What do you use for stock / broth?
We have also made this with dinner guests. Everyone gets a chance to stir the onions, and drink wine or beer while doing so. It is a great way to share the kitchen and have some appetizers while cooking.
Beef Stock
We make the beef stock the day before the soup.
Figure on using about half as many pounds of meaty beef bones as onions. So for this batch we used 4 lbs of neck bones. Our favorite is to use ox tails when they are available. The good butchers (such as the Baraboo Meat Market) often sell out, and what you often find in the grocery store is puny and overpriced. Beef shanks (leg / ankle bones) are also good for this.
Lightly oil a large pot. Scrape the bones to remove any “grit” from the butcher slicing the pieces on the bandsaw. Place the bones in the pan with about 1/4″ of water. Season liberally with Penzey’s Seasoned Salt and some black pepper. Bake at 300-325F until well browned. Replenish the water as needed to keep the juices and meaty bits that stick from burning. Turn every 15 minutes or so. After a few turns, pull the pieces out and slice / break the meat off into ~1/4″ thick pieces. Return to the pan and bake some more until evenly browned. This should take 1.5 to 2 hours total. Having the meat well browned and slightly crispy is a key part of the flavor development.
Add the water to cover the bones. Simmer for 2-3 hours. Stir once in a while to make sure nothing is sticking and the meat and bones are separating.
Chill overnight. With winter approaching we cool the hot pan off in the “big fridge”, a.k.a. garage, placing the still covered pan on the floor. After a couple of hours it is put in the refrigerator for the night.
Next day it should be nice and thick like gelatin (or at least Karo syrup consistency), skim off the fat and strain the broth through a colander. We discard the bone bits and meat scraps. You can pick through the meat bits removing bone bits, but it is pretty flavorless at this point and we like the texture of the soup better without the meat bits and strings. You may want to use some of the fat for browning the onions later.
Onions
Peel and chop the large yellow onions into 1/4-1/2″ pieces. I do not like to merely slice as then you end up with “strings” when you eat the soup which is messy. We like using yellow onions for the right flavor balance. Once we used sweet (Vidalia) onions and the soup ended up far too sweet for our tastes.
Place in a large stock pot (low and wide is better than tall and narrow). With a wider pot, you can fit it in the oven (as for browning the bones / meat) and the onions seem to cook down a bit faster due to more surface area. With a tall stock pot it is easy to end up with “lobster claw” as your hand turns red from the steam.
Add 3-4 TB of fat. Butter and olive oil mixed is our favorite. Heat and start stirring the onions. Every 3-5 min at first.
I try to leave the burner on high as long as I can.
I think it is better to stir frequently with high heat rather than dragging it out forever on medium. For this batch the burner was on high for 1 hour, then I turned it down to medium as the aroma started to smell a little bit scorched.
Cook down until well caramelized (mahogany brown, darker than the darkest onion peels). The volume of onions will reduce by a factor of 7 or 8 in the process.
Soup
Add the broth and water to the pan. It should be about 1/2 -2/3 the volume of the onions.
Add 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme
Cover and simmer for 30-60 min. You can always add more water after 10 min or so, once the onions swell up. The bits of onion that were stuck to the sides of the pan, now come off easily and become part of the soup.
At this point you can freeze and save or proceed to the traditional baking with toast and cheese on top.
Baking
Use heat proof casserole dishes for the individual servings. We like the French White Corning 500ml/ 16oz dishes / ramekins. The straight sides work well for containing the toast and cheese. Plus they have snap on lids for freezing. https://www.corningware.com/product/french-white-16-ounce-round-bakeware-dish.
Place the ramekins on a sheet pan (to contain the spills / boil over ). Fill 2/3 full with the soup. Place a toasted piece or pieces of bread (french or fresh made sourdough is ideal). The bread should cover the soup completely. Cover with shredded cheese (Swiss, Monterey Jack or your favorite melty cheese). Bake at 375F for 30-45 min until the cheese is browned and bubbly.
Serving
Pull from the oven and let cool for 5-10 min before serving (below the re-hot lava stage). We place them on small cutting boards for serving. You may need to add salt an pepper to taste. However, take a few bites without adding the salt and savor the rich flavor. Most French Onion Soup is far too salty and too sparing of onions.
Will you ever go back to store bought soup? How about making REAL French Onion dip with caramelized onions like these? Such as: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/triple-onion-dip/ (but we go for fully browned onions). It is so much better than store bought or using the powdered soup mix.
Gadgets:
Large wooden spatula as seen in the photos. The large size and flat blade make it much easier to scrape up the onions as they caramelize. https://amzn.to/3RztVAe
Note that commissions may be earned on Amazon links
Mark Bronkalla