Today we’re going to make French onion soup,<\/p>\n
also known as Soupe a l’oignon in France.<\/p>\n
It’s the best poor man’s dish, in my opinion,<\/p>\n
and is also the dish<\/p>\n
that you can find in any French brasserie.<\/p>\n
So these are all the different components<\/p>\n
I need for my beef broth.<\/p>\n
We have oxtails, some knuckles, marrow,<\/p>\n
bit of bones with a bit of meat on it.<\/p>\n
First things first, roasting the bones.<\/p>\n
Very high heat, you really want deep caramelization.<\/p>\n
The more color you get, the more flavor.<\/p>\n
We’re roasting the bones at 450 for about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
The roasting is really for flavor.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t affect the texture.<\/p>\n
It’s really to just bring those golden notes.<\/p>\n
You really want a deep brown that will just maximize flavor.<\/p>\n
Next, cutting the aromatics.<\/p>\n
For this part, it’s quite nice<\/p>\n
because it’s extremely simple and it’s a big rough chop.<\/p>\n
The broth is going to cook from anywhere to six to 12 hours,<\/p>\n
so you’re really not looking for precision here.<\/p>\n
You want something that can hold for that long,<\/p>\n
but also just in more pieces so when you roast it,<\/p>\n
you have, again, more caramelization.<\/p>\n
Making stock at home is definitely a big process.<\/p>\n
It takes time, care.<\/p>\n
It’s worth it because it just brings a taste<\/p>\n
that you can control.<\/p>\n
You can also make it your own<\/p>\n
and buying store bought stock is just unknown.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to cut onions.<\/p>\n
That’s the most important part of this soup.<\/p>\n
Depending on how you cut them, how thick you cut them,<\/p>\n
it will definitely affect the end result.<\/p>\n
Here, we’re going to take our time.<\/p>\n
Cut it with a mandolin to get a paper thin cut.<\/p>\n
We’re just going to cut the face, cut the top, peel.<\/p>\n
Choosing a yellow onion compared to a white onion<\/p>\n
or any other onion, basically, it’s a question of taste<\/p>\n
and it’s a question also of historically<\/p>\n
that’s how it’s been made.<\/p>\n
And for example, if you use Vidalia onions,<\/p>\n
any onion that’s more on the sweeter side,<\/p>\n
I think it’s going to be too sweet.<\/p>\n
I definitely cry with onions.<\/p>\n
The trick is to have a sharp knife.<\/p>\n
The sharper your knife,<\/p>\n
the less you basically press on the fiber<\/p>\n
and it is what makes you pry.<\/p>\n
Putting water in your mouth while you’re fighting onions<\/p>\n
kind of works.<\/p>\n
This is the way to cut the onion.<\/p>\n
You should cut from top to bottom instead of a half a moon.<\/p>\n
When you bite into a cooked onion<\/p>\n
that still has this fiber section, it really throws me off.<\/p>\n
So what I like about onion soup<\/p>\n
is that the right way to cut it is the other way<\/p>\n
and you actually don’t feel the fiber,<\/p>\n
especially when it cooks for an hour and a half.<\/p>\n
You can also do it with a knife.<\/p>\n
It’s not mandatory to do it with mandolin.<\/p>\n
What I love about mandolins, even though they are dangerous<\/p>\n
and you need to be careful, it just brings consistency<\/p>\n
and consistency is what brings like restaurant level food<\/p>\n
to your home.<\/p>\n
All the rest will be for scraps or stock.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to cook the onions.<\/p>\n
This process is where a lot of people mess up the recipe<\/p>\n
and why it never tastes quite right.<\/p>\n
We’re going to cook them for an hour and a half,<\/p>\n
which seems like a crazy amount of time for onions,<\/p>\n
but this is how you’re going to break down the fiber<\/p>\n
and it’s going to be soft and luscious.<\/p>\n
The goal is not to caramelize too fast.<\/p>\n
It has to go low in skull for a good hour<\/p>\n
until you pump it up a bit,<\/p>\n
and you’re looking for a light golden color.<\/p>\n
You want to add the salt from the beginning<\/p>\n
to really season those onions<\/p>\n
and will also help them sweat and break down faster.<\/p>\n
At the beginning, there’s no risk of the onions coloring<\/p>\n
just because they’re going to release moisture.<\/p>\n
As soon as the moisture is out though,<\/p>\n
you have to stir regularly to make sure<\/p>\n
that nothing is being stuck at the bottom<\/p>\n
and you don’t have a layer of two caramelized onions.<\/p>\n
So it’s starting to sweat a bit.<\/p>\n
You can start to see them soften.<\/p>\n
These are going to cook for another an hour and 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
So now it’s time to go watch a movie,<\/p>\n
come back every five, 10 minutes,<\/p>\n
mix it for a sec and make sure nothing is burnt.<\/p>\n
It’s been roughly 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
The bones are roasted.<\/p>\n
The veg are as well.<\/p>\n
I added them for the last 15 minutes of the roast<\/p>\n
and now it’s time to make the stock.<\/p>\n
When you make stock, it’s really important<\/p>\n
that the meat is deeply caramelized.<\/p>\n
It really is the base of any great stock.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to put everything in the stock pot.<\/p>\n
So you need a big pot.<\/p>\n
For stock, it’s really important to have space,<\/p>\n
to have enough water that the ratio is right.<\/p>\n
So now it’s time to put all of the bones<\/p>\n
and the veg in that pot.<\/p>\n
I like to add a touch of fat, but definitely not everything.<\/p>\n
Just a touch because we roasted the marrow.<\/p>\n
Want to make sure all that flavor gets in there.<\/p>\n
For aromatics, I’m going to go very simple,<\/p>\n
bay leaf, black peppercorn, put a touch of salt.<\/p>\n
For me, flavoring things at every single stage<\/p>\n
creates a better balance and taste.<\/p>\n
For tomato paste, you want to use roughly<\/p>\n
say a big tablespoon or two.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time for red wine,<\/p>\n
like roughly like half a ball for this amount.<\/p>\n
We’re also adding water.<\/p>\n
The base to any great French sauce<\/p>\n
is with wine or at least alcohol.<\/p>\n
We’re adding red wine<\/p>\n
and bringing this other layer of complexity.<\/p>\n
What you should do is a slow simmer.<\/p>\n
You don’t really want the water to evaporate.<\/p>\n
You want to concentrate flavor<\/p>\n
by breaking down the collagen and the bones.<\/p>\n
This is the result of long, slow, steady cooking,<\/p>\n
which will give a very rich mouthfeel<\/p>\n
without adding butter or cream to anything.<\/p>\n
So everything is covered right now.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to go low and slow for six to 12 hours.<\/p>\n
It’s a big range.<\/p>\n
You can even go in restaurants.<\/p>\n
We go 24 hours.<\/p>\n
The onions have been cooking for an hour and 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
And for the last 10 minutes before I add the broth,<\/p>\n
I’m going to add some garlic.<\/p>\n
So just take the center out to make sure it stays subtle.<\/p>\n
Garlic goes in.<\/p>\n
And now you really smell this caramelized onion<\/p>\n
kind of tarte Tatin situation.<\/p>\n
As you can see, the onions are really completely broken down<\/p>\n
and this is the result of an hour and a half of cooking.<\/p>\n
This is not something you can get after 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
It really deepens the flavor,<\/p>\n
brings the sweetness and complexity that you’re looking for.<\/p>\n
You want to scrape all of the sides<\/p>\n
’cause this is where the flavor comes.<\/p>\n
It’s this Maillard reaction where it caramelizes<\/p>\n
and this is where all the flavor lands.<\/p>\n
It’s time to add sherry.<\/p>\n
Sherry is a fortified wine from Spain<\/p>\n
and I do think it brings it to another level.<\/p>\n
It’s not conventional.<\/p>\n
I like sherry because of the sweetness<\/p>\n
and this prune-like taste.<\/p>\n
It’s really to scrape all the bottom of the pan<\/p>\n
and get all of the nice caramelized bits.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I use that with the steam to clean my pan completely.<\/p>\n
It also saves some time afterwards<\/p>\n
when you’re cleaning all the dishes.<\/p>\n
Liquid has evaporated<\/p>\n
and now it’s time to add the stock.<\/p>\n
This is the finished stock,<\/p>\n
has been cooking for roughly 12 hours.<\/p>\n
And I just passed it through shinoa.<\/p>\n
Shinoa is a sieve.<\/p>\n
What’s good with this, it’s quite deep,<\/p>\n
so all of the big chunks of bones can stay<\/p>\n
and the broth will still go through<\/p>\n
and you can just dump your garnish as it goes.<\/p>\n
And this is what you get.<\/p>\n
See a very clean, clear broth.<\/p>\n
A bit of fat, but very, very little.<\/p>\n
Now the idea is to add the stock bit by bit<\/p>\n
and really make it come as one.<\/p>\n
If you’re adding everything at once,<\/p>\n
you might have something that’s too diluted<\/p>\n
and then you reduce it and then it’s too much salt.<\/p>\n
It’s just, you know, you put so much care and effort<\/p>\n
in both those elements, just take your time<\/p>\n
and make it perfect until the end.<\/p>\n
See how it tastes.<\/p>\n
Stock is good in flavor.<\/p>\n
Just going to up the salt a bit, not too much.<\/p>\n
Final touch for this last step of the broth,<\/p>\n
it’s going to be a bit of thyme wrapped in twine.<\/p>\n
Why do I wrap it in twine?<\/p>\n
It’s just for ease so that when I have to take it out,<\/p>\n
I don’t have to start looking<\/p>\n
for every little piece of thyme.<\/p>\n
That’s that.<\/p>\n
Now we want a slow simmer, 30 minutes and we’re done.<\/p>\n
While that is cooking, I’m going to grow some bone marrow<\/p>\n
to add in the sauce to make it even more luscious.<\/p>\n
The bones are going to go in the oven for 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
I like to add bone marrow in French onion soup<\/p>\n
just so that when you’re eating it,<\/p>\n
you have a bit of texture element<\/p>\n
and you kind of fall onto a piece of bone marrow<\/p>\n
and this fat explodes<\/p>\n
and brings just another layer of joy and greatness.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to grate the cheese.<\/p>\n
In most recipes, you’ll just find Gruyere, which is fine.<\/p>\n
It’s a great cheese.<\/p>\n
I like to bring Comte.<\/p>\n
I love this nuttiness that it brings<\/p>\n
and I think it will pair very well with the onions.<\/p>\n
So we’ll do a fifty fifty.<\/p>\n
So when onion soup was introduced,<\/p>\n
it was just pure broth and onion.<\/p>\n
The cheese was introduced in Paris at Les Halles.<\/p>\n
I think it’s just for pure decadence<\/p>\n
and what we call in French gourmandise.<\/p>\n
I don’t know.<\/p>\n
It’s something that you do in cooking to round things up,<\/p>\n
bring this element of joy and decadence<\/p>\n
that is just a pure French word that describes French food,<\/p>\n
and this is just pure gourmandise.<\/p>\n
And then it was really popularized later on<\/p>\n
in Les Halles in Paris, which is a famous neighborhood<\/p>\n
where there was the [speaking French]<\/p>\n
where people would bring all the meat, all the cheese,<\/p>\n
the vegetables, and you would have the workers<\/p>\n
that would eat that before the day of work<\/p>\n
and you would have the more bourgeois<\/p>\n
and the richer people that would eat that<\/p>\n
at the end of their extravagant nights<\/p>\n
and they will all meet at the same place<\/p>\n
and enjoy the same food<\/p>\n
even though they’re from completely different worlds.<\/p>\n
And that is where the cheese element came from,<\/p>\n
is from Les Halles.<\/p>\n
Okay, so cheese is done.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to cut the baguettes.<\/p>\n
The idea is to put a few layers of baguettes toasted,<\/p>\n
preferably, at the top of the soup, under the cheese<\/p>\n
so that it soaks up all the cheese<\/p>\n
and it also soaks the top of the soup<\/p>\n
and becomes really nice and full flavor.<\/p>\n
Hey, the bread will go onto a tray,<\/p>\n
bit of oil, a touch of salt,<\/p>\n
and this needs to be roasted at 350 for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
You’re not really looking for a lot of color,<\/p>\n
you’re mostly looking to dry out the bread.<\/p>\n
Okay, final step.<\/p>\n
Chives. We’re nearly there.<\/p>\n
This is, again, it’s a bit over the top.<\/p>\n
You don’t even need to do chives.<\/p>\n
I like it.<\/p>\n
So when you’re cutting chives,<\/p>\n
rolling it in a wet paper actually gives you stability<\/p>\n
and you can really press it and make sure it’s very tight.<\/p>\n
The chives, they bring color, they bring a bit of freshness.<\/p>\n
That’s it. You don’t need much.<\/p>\n
It’s not a chive soup.<\/p>\n
Add a touch of cognac.<\/p>\n
It’s the last finishing touch that brings a touch of luxury.<\/p>\n
So a drop, really a drop. That’s it.<\/p>\n
Cognac is actually a protected region like Champagne.<\/p>\n
You can only make cognac in Cognac.<\/p>\n
I went there a few times and it’s a really special place.<\/p>\n
Bit of pepper and we’re good to go.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to take the thyme off.<\/p>\n
Bone marrow is sizzling.<\/p>\n
You just want to poke it and see there’s any resistance.<\/p>\n
It looks pretty good to me.<\/p>\n
I love bone marrow.<\/p>\n
In France, we did on toasted bread, bit of butter.<\/p>\n
Should have it and make it fancy caramelized shallots,<\/p>\n
it’s the best.<\/p>\n
Bone marrow is like butter.<\/p>\n
It’s basically fats from the beef.<\/p>\n
It has a bit of a animal beefy flavor obviously,<\/p>\n
but it’s mostly fat.<\/p>\n
You know, you saw this recipe, I barely use butter,<\/p>\n
so I have to compensate at some point.<\/p>\n
The bread is there.<\/p>\n
We’re not looking for any color, just drying it out.<\/p>\n
We need piping hot soup.<\/p>\n
So now it’s assembly time.<\/p>\n
Using the typical [speaking French] bowl,<\/p>\n
which means lion’s head because there are lions on the bowl.<\/p>\n
Don’t ask why.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I don’t even know why we use these bowls.<\/p>\n
It’s quite of a deep bowl, which is perfect<\/p>\n
for the different layers of this soup.<\/p>\n
You want to go up to the lion’s head, basically.<\/p>\n
Now I’m just going to add a bit of marrow inside the soup.<\/p>\n
Not too much.<\/p>\n
Beautiful.<\/p>\n
The bread goes in between the soup and the cheese,<\/p>\n
so the cheese melts in the bread,<\/p>\n
but it also soaks the soup.<\/p>\n
And now we have our mixture, cheese.<\/p>\n
Go for it. Don’t be shy.<\/p>\n
You want it oozing, gooey, just decadents.<\/p>\n
Now it goes in the oven on broil<\/p>\n
for as long as it takes for it to completely melt.<\/p>\n
So you just stay in front of the oven, look at it,<\/p>\n
and make sure that it’s not burning.<\/p>\n
Great. Soup is looking good.<\/p>\n
Okay, a little bit of chives.<\/p>\n
Now it’s time to taste.<\/p>\n
This is definitely a very cheesy situation.<\/p>\n
We want to get rid of everything, rid of the bread.<\/p>\n
[bright music]<\/p>\n
The fact that the onions took so long to cook<\/p>\n
and the broth re-simmered for so many hours,<\/p>\n
it just completely transforms the onion soup that you know.<\/p>\n
[bright upbeat music]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today we’re going to make French onion soup, also known as Soupe a l’oignon in France. It’s the best poor man’s dish, in my opinion, and is also the dish that you can find in any French brasserie. So these are all the different components I need for my beef broth. We have oxtails, some<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-11351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chefs","tag-chef"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117485513187650745","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}