French Onion Soup

Is there anything more comforting on a chilly day than a hot bowl of French onion soup? Especially with a thick slice of toasted bread loaded with melty Gruyere cheese and lots of caramelized onions.

There are two essential components of a good French onion soup.

The first is the stock. Your soup will only be as good as the stock you are using. This soup traditionally is made with beef stock, though sometimes a good beef stock can be hard to come by and expensive to make.

If you use boxed stock, taste it first! If you don’t like the taste, don’t use it. (If you cook a lot of beef or beef roasts, save the scraps and freeze them to make a stock with later.)

The second most important element is to properly caramelize the onions. Caramelizing the amount of onions needed in this recipe will take at least 40 minutes. Caramelizing is a chemical process that occurs when the sugars in the onions reach a certain temperature.

This only happens after a long cooking time (the addition of a little extra sugar will help). The more caramelized, the deeper the color of the onions and the more flavor you’ll get from them.

French Onion Soup Recipe

Much of the success of this soup depends on the stock that you are using, and stock varies tremendously in its taste. Depending on your stock, you may need to bump up the flavor with some beef bouillon (we recommend "Better than Bouillon brand").

Taste the soup before putting it in the oven, and if it needs more seasoning, don't be afraid to add more!

Ingredients

• 6 large red or yellow onions (about 3 pounds), peeled and thinly sliced root to stem (see How to Slice an Onion), about 10 cups of sliced onions total
• 4 Tbsp Olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• Salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 cups of beef stock, chicken stock, or a combination of the two (traditionally the soup is made with beef stock)
• 1/2 cup of dry vermouth or dry white wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 teaspoons of fresh thyme (can also use a few sprigs of fresh thyme) OR 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp brandy (optional)
• 8 inch-thick slices of French bread or baguette
• 1 1/2 cups of grated Swiss Gruyere and a sprinkling of Parmesan

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