French Onion Soup
- Cook onions on medium heat for 20 minute covered. Add spice mix and cook uncovered until done. Done to me is dark brown. You don’t want to burn them but they should be dark and nasty looking. Scrape the bottom often near the end or they will burn. 10 lbs of onions will be around 10 quarts to start with and it will cook down to around 2 quart. The whole art to onion soup is how to deeply caramelize the onions.
- Add beef stock and cool. Split into 2 containers and freeze.
- When ready to eat add the following to one container and cook for a good 20 to 30 minutes to remove strong alcohol flavor.
42 oz water (3 14 oz cans or 5.25 cups)
1.5 cup white wine
4 T sherry
- cube and dry french bread. Toast with swiss cheese. Gruyere is the traditional choice but it’s expensive. Emmentaler would be my second choice and it’s cheaper. Any swiss would be the third choice and cheeper still. maybe olive oil and garlic on bread before cheese. I serve the toasted cheesey cubes on the side and toss them in as I eat. This keeps them nice and crispy throughout the full bowl of soup and saves you the decorative step of baking the bread/cheese on top of the soup.
- Note for next time: Cooks Illustrated recommends using normal yellow onions. I tend to use Vidalia and they say this makes the soup very sweet (which is does). Also, Cook’s Illustrated and Alton Brown both like a oven baked version of this. Easier since you don’t have to pay attention to the onions as much. My way really makes you stand over the onions for the last 1/2 hour or so.
- 4/11/11 - changed numbers to fix errors. Now a full batch makes 2 freezer boxes and a 1/2 batch makes 1 freezer box