Onion Soup

For you guys/gals that like to cook out there, I found a receipt in the NYTimes for Onion Soup, but one of the respondends recommended making the onions in a slow cooker. So what the heck. I got about 5 lbs of red onions, thinly sliced them (sort of), it about filled up the crock pot, put it on high, it only cooks for 4 hours on high, so I started it in the morning and cooked it on high for 8 hours (2x4 hours), it was still not done, a bit stringy, so the next day I cooked it another 2-3 hours on high. Boy did this stuff turn out great, carmalized onions with only slicing, no stove work. Really sweet onions when done, it could almost be used as a side dish, better than cabbage. Dumped 4 cups of beef stock and a bit of Pino in it and it made enough soup for 12 servings. I put it all in 3 containers for 4 servings each and froze it. Next is to thaw it out, add some sherry and toast some sourdough or french bread and put in the oven with crock pots and choice of cheese. I'll report later when we actually do it.

That sounds like a real nice meal for this difficult part of year .... yes please post your opinion once you have eaten a bowl of it !

My wife and I love a nice bowl of french onion soup. Yours sounds like it's gonna be fantastic. Some years back I was PCS'ing and being sent to Guam from where I was stationed in Japan. But first I had to go to service school in San Diego for the Sikorsky Seahawk. While there in san dog we got in the habit of visiting Croce' s restaurant in the gas lamp district (Jim Croce's widow owned the place and she used her recipes from when she and Jim would have some of the other performers over at their house from Woodstock). Anyway we stumbled upon the restaurant and discovered their onion soup was outta sight. It's now our hallmark memory of what good onion soup should be. Cj

Nothing like a good onion soup. I forgot, I added a third a cup of olive oil to the onions before cooking. And another good thing, I was in Seattle years ago and ate their hard smoked salmon all the time, but the best thing was going into a bar for lunch and they made a real Caesar salad, right there in front of me. I didn't mind looking at the bartender (barmaid?) either. A friend of my wife makes a pretty good one, but not as good as that one. Of course it probably had to do with the situation too. Around here what they try to pass off as a Caesar I wouldn't even call salad. I'd rather have a wedge of iceberg with some vinegar and oil and maybe anchovy on the side.

I ordered some ceramic pots yesterday to make the soup in since we didn't have any. I'll try it when they get here.

I was on a mission a while back to find the perfect French onion soup recipe. This one turned out the best:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/91192/french-onion-soup-gratinee/

The key is in the stock and carmelizing the onions. Your method of using a crock pot is interesting, as using the stove requires constant attention and stirring to keep them from burning and sticking to the pan. It takes 35 minutes, not a minute less.

For the stock I have done the marrow bone, beef & mirepoix thing -

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_beef_stock/

but it takes all day and honestly was no better than store bought.

Of course, you need the proper crocks for serving, and toasted French bread baguette slices and Gruyère cheese to be correctly French.

I've done the onions on the stove and it's not fun. I'll report on the final results.

Sounds great Dog. I love a good French onion soup.

In University, I worked at a French restaurant in Pike Place Market in Seattle and we would make the soup kinda like that. Cooking the onion/beef bone/vegetable stock for 12 hours in a ~30 gallon soup crock. Electric fired, mounted on a pivot with a long arm to pour it out into 5 gallon pails. Used stale baguettes and sharp Gruyere cheese. Mmm.

One night one of my friends who was a waiter was asked to separate the stock and veges and throw the rubbish out before he went home. Not being cooking minded, he kept what was cooked and threw out the water. Chef was not pleased.

DogT said:

…. but the best thing was going into a bar for lunch and they made a real Caesar salad, right there in front of me. I didn't mind looking at the bartender (barmaid?) either. A friend of my wife makes a pretty good one, but not as good as that one. Of course it probably had to do with the situation too. Around here what they try to pass off as a Caesar I wouldn't even call salad. I'd rather have a wedge of iceberg with some vinegar and oil and maybe anchovy on the side.....

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Funny that you should say that DogT. When we go to restaurants here, and they have "Ceasar Salad" on the menu, the wait staff almost always asks you " what type of dressing would you like" on it.

cjandme said:

Funny that you should say that DogT. When we go to restaurants here, and they have "Ceasar Salad" on the menu, the wait staff almost always asks you " what type of dressing would you like" on it.

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I worked at another French restaurant in New Orleans that got its first Michelin star when I was a waiter there, and I learned how to make proper Ceaser salads we did by the tableside. They were pretty darned good. I use the same basic technique for that to make a whole variety of dressings. Funny thing, all thru the 90s it was always my job to bring the salad to parties.

Got home after a trackday, 40 degrees F and some snowflakes. Had a problem , oil temperature never over 100 F in the Manx. A very freezing experience.
Forgot the caramelizing. But fairly good anyhow. Used some thyme in the soup. Best thing when chilled to the bones.

I remember being in basic training in Ft Dix, NJ in November. It didn't matter what kind of soup they brought to us when we were outside all day, as long as it was hot. I doubt we ever got French Onion soup however. I'd pass on the Mutton stew though.

I got the pots yesterday, I'll go to town and see what the little store has for cheese and bread. I may get lucky. Need some more Jamesons anyhow.

Lucky day. Local store had some Swiss Gruyère, wasn't cheap. I got 2. They even had some bake yourself French baguette. Plan is to cut the baguette in toast size pieces, freeze it, thaw in microwave when needed and then toast. We're going to try it tomorrow.

I buy sourdough bagels from this store, they're pretty good, and freeze them because I only use maybe a half once in a while. They thaw out real nice in the microwave in 1 minute and then I toast them or whatever.

Oh, oh, I just read about croque monsieur, I'll have to try that. I love a good ham and cheese. When I was in Berlin, I could go into any pub and get an excellent toasted cheese 'mit senf und 'ne pilsner'. Excelante, to mix my metaphors. I wish I could find that good German senf here in the US.

Off to start the grill, having steak tonight.

DogT said:

Oh, oh, I just read about croque monsieur, I'll have to try that. I love a good ham and cheese.

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National bar food of choice in France. The secret is in a good bechemel.

OMG. Unrelated to this discussion, tonight the wife made a lovely home grown creamed pumpkin, garlic and ginger soup garnished with cilantro and Sriracha . MMM!!

Well, it certainly needs improvement. Every item from the onions to the Gruyère to the baguettes was good. But the bowls were way to large. 18oz, more than enough for a meal in itself. I didn't even fill the bowls up a quarter the way since we already had lasagna on the table. The baguettes I bought as 'take and bake', so I just cut them in 1/2" pieces and they toasted up nicely in the toaster and tasted great. Problem was the wife wanted to thicken the broth with arrowroot. I think that didn't help, it didn't need thickening, much less with arrowroot. It all toasted nicely in the broiler but I think it needs salt and pepper which is rare for me to say. I rarely put that in anything since I don't use salt nor much pepper, but I think this could help. I find there's usually enough salt in cheese and bread, but there's certainly none in the onions. I did forget the Sherry, but all we had was extra dry anyhow.

But all is not lost. Cooking is about refinement. I've still got 2 more containers of the onion/broth. All the ingredients are singularly good. We may try just making it in a regular smaller soup bowl, heating it to melt the cheese on the baguettes in the oven with the onion broth and then Flambéing it with a torch.

I may toast up a few baguettes for breakfast with my sautéed egg/pepper/onions/nuts combo. Certainly simple enough and with a bit of butter on them they're great. I get bread so infrequently.

Then on to the croque monsieur, I'll need to pick up some nice sliced ham.

DogT said:

Then on to the croque monsieur, I'll need to pick up some nice sliced ham.

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Have you tried a croquet madame? Simply the monsieur with a poached egg added - I love 'em.

robs ss said:

Have you tried a croquet madame? Simply the monsieur with a poached egg added - I love 'em.

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The perfect breakfast with a cafe au lait on the way to pick up your new Godet.

gortnipper said:

The perfect breakfast with a cafe au lait on the way to pick up your new Godet.

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Well, my experience was not as nearly luxurious as yours...
I was in Lille for a week or so for work, a couple of times about 10 years ago, doing acceptance testing for specialised gantry cranes and developed a liking for these gems of French cooking.
They hate the Poms you know.. a couple of times the response to my "Parlez vous englais?" was a very cautious and suspicious "Englais?"
When I realised and said "Non! Australie!" we were almost always immediately the best of mates.
Didn't mention Agincourt though.

robs ss said:

Well, my experience was not as nearly luxurious as yours...
I was in Lille for a week or so for work, a couple of times about 10 years ago, doing acceptance testing for specialised gantry cranes and developed a liking for these gems of French cooking.
They hate the Poms you know.. a couple of times the response to my "Parlez vous englais?" was a very cautious and suspicious "Englais?"
When I realised and said "Non! Australie!" we were almost always immediately the best of mates.
Didn't mention Agincourt though.

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Lol. I was an exchange student in Normandy, and used to dream in French. Being a Yank, back then they loved me. And I them. My host family were a pair of grandparents, she was in the Resistance and he was a POW and fairly shell shocked. Lovely folks.

The Godet is only a fantasy.

I did read about the croquet madame. It sounds good, but at my age, I stick to one egg a day. I have to eat like a bird to keep my weight under 180, my max BMI. We used to eat Wienerschintzel with the fried egg. We'd pound chicken out flat and it was a good substitute. I never got to France, just passed through Paris on the way to Berlin from Madrid one day.