Recently I cooked the most amazing French Onion Soup…without beef broth!
Instead of using stock, this soup uses only onions, water, and seasonings, and of course bread and cheese, as the peasants would have hundreds of years ago.
PEASANTS DID NOT USE BEEF BROTH
Loving to watch Iron Chef America on Food Network, I started reading one of the judge’s food blogs.
Most recipes for onion soup I’ve seen call for stock or broth, and yet this changes the soup completely—it becomes beef-onion soup or chicken-onion soup. I could not find a historical basis for my conviction until I began researching a specific style of bistro in Lyon, France, called a bouchon. There are only about twenty of these restaurants in Lyon, and they serve a distinct, country-style, family-meal menu. At some, you sit at communal tables, and platters are passed from table to table. What I like about bouchons is that they serve elemental, efficient food. It had to be, as a husband and wife usually worked the place. I spoke with a journalist in Lyon, an expert on the subject of la vrai bouchon, “the true bouchon,” who confirmed what I’d always suspected. At a bouchon, and indeed at most peasant households, a time-consuming and costly stock would not be used for onion soup. Onions and a splash of wine for seasoning and a crust of bread with some cheese melted on it—that is all you need to make a fine soup with a pure caramelized onion flavor. –Michael Ruhlman
FROM BOUCHONS TO A KING
Digging for more details, I read all the articles I could on French bouchons, which repeatedly shared their hearty fare of peasantry origin.
Dating back to Ancient Rome, onion soup was made (without beef broth) for centuries.
Rumor has it that by the 17th century, royalists took notice.
Apparently King Louis XV wanted a midnight snack while at his hunting lodge.
Digging solo in the panty, he only found onion, butter, and champagne.
Allegedly he made French Onion soup with those three ingredients…which I should try sometime!
SOLD ON THE PEASANT STYLE
Intrigued by a true onion soup, I varied Ruhlman’s recipe, yet kept to the heart of his instructions to use NO broth. =)
The happy result is a far more flavorful soft mellow onion, which I like far more than the traditional roux and beef broth versions.
Trying to tone down the beef broth flavor for years, I’m elated to find this wonderful peasant-style recipe.
The highest star rating for French Onion soup totally goes to the peasants, who created the best version of the historic soup.
Sometimes simplicity allows the true flavors to shine through, and that is exactly what this recipe does.
Meanwhile the beef broth versions taste like…beef, negating the name of the recipe.
BECOMING HISTORY WITH COOKING
Planning for future Becoming History presentations, I have a few ideas.
This recipe would be perfect for Bastille Day.
Another great application would be to cook this with grammar age students while reading the classic children’s book, Stone Soup, by Marcia Brown.
I’m sure the French soldiers and peasants would exclaim: Bon Appetit!
MY VERSION OF PEASANT-STYLE FRENCH ONION SOUP
I sliced 3-4 massively huge Vidalia onions to sauté in the heavy cooking pan in a bit of olive oil and salt.
Turning the heat to a lower setting so they would not burn, I stirred occasionally so they could caramelize., which took about 3 hours.
I was surprised by how much they cooked down, so I’m using more onions next time.
Purposefully adding more water than I needed, I let it cook down.
Tasting it occasionally let me know exactly when to stop cooking.
This is the first time I’ve ever used Gruyere Cheese, which I highly recommend. It added an amazingly subtle nuttiness to the soup!
While the onions were cooking, I dried out the cubed baguette in the oven.
Since bread was baked daily in the old days, stale bread was often used in soups.
Drying out the bread in the oven enables it to hold the soup without falling apart, which creates a marvelous texture.
If fresher bread is used, it simply becomes mush.
Although I used white bread this time, I’m using whole wheat next time, which I’m liking more all the time, anyway.
Meanwhile I placed 3 oven/broiler safe soup bowls onto a large baking sheet, then I filled the bowls with the toasted croutons while the broiler was heating up.
I ladled soup on top of the croutons in the bowls…
Then I topped the bowls with the grated Gruyere cheese.
After placing them under the broiler, I kept a close eye on them.
You want the cheese to brown but not burn. The time varies according to oven, about 5-10 minutes.
This is the toasty look that I like to take out from the broiler. It actually looked a bit more toasty than this in reality.
I served the soup with a red leaf toss salad with lemon vinaigrette, croutons, and a soft cooked egg.
When you break into that egg the yolk becomes part of the lemony vinaigrette…
