French Onion Soup
Local name : Soupe à l'oignon gratinée
Onions caramelised for a patient fifty minutes, a white wine broth, and a lid of baguette under bubbling gruyère.
Photo : jeffreyw · CC BY 2.0
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 70 min
- Total
- 90 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
Method
- Slice the onions into thin half-moons, as evenly as you can manage.
- Melt the butter with the oil in a large casserole, add the onions and sugar, and sweat them covered over low heat for 10 minutes.
- Uncover and caramelise for 40 minutes over medium-low heat, scraping the base every five minutes, until the onions are a deep mahogany brown.
- Sprinkle over the flour, stir for 2 minutes, then deglaze with the white wine, scraping up everything stuck to the pan.
- Pour in the stock, add the bay leaves, season, and simmer covered for 20 minutes.
- Ladle into ovenproof bowls, top with toasted bread and gruyère, and grill for 5 minutes until the cheese bubbles and browns.
There is no shortcut to the caramelisation: those fifty minutes of onions are the whole recipe. A properly browned base, deglazed with wine, is what separates a great soup from a bland one.
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