Essential · about 2 hours, almost all of it caramelizing · Serves 4
French onion soup with bread and Gruyère gratin
The same root as the Signature caramelized onion consommé with Gruyère royale: onion cooked long until caramelized, broth, wine and Gruyère cheese. This version is the soupe à l'oignon of the Parisian bistros, in an earthenware bowl, with toasted bread and a lid of broiled cheese.
The twist is the caramelizing. The onion cooks slowly for a good hour, with a little water each time the bottom sticks, until it reaches a dark mahogany color and a deep sweetness, without burning. That fond, deglazed with wine and cooked with the broth, is the whole soup: the bread and cheese finish it.
Special equipment: heavy-bottomed pot; oven-safe bowls; broiler
Ingredients
Onion soup
- 1 kg onion, in thin slices
- 40 g butter
- 15 ml olive oil
- 1 pinch of sugar
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 15 g flour
- 150 ml dry white wine
- 1.2 liters beef or chicken stock
- 2 thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf
- Fine salt and black pepper
Gratin
- 8 slices of country bread or baguette, 1.5 cm thick
- 1 garlic clove, for rubbing
- 160 g grated Gruyère cheese, or a mix of Gruyère and Emmental
Method
Onion soup
- Caramelizing. Melt the butter with the oil in the pot over medium heat, add the onion and a pinch of salt, and stir until it softens, 10 minutes. Lower to medium-low heat, add the sugar and cook 50–70 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes and scraping the bottom. When the bottom sticks and browns, add 2 tablespoons of water and scrape: that fond is the flavor. It should reach a dark mahogany color, soft and sweet, with no black spots.
- Soup. Add the garlic for 1 minute and the flour, stirring 2 minutes. Deglaze with the wine, scraping, and reduce by half. Add the stock, thyme and bay leaf, bring to a boil and cook gently for 25–30 minutes. Remove the herbs and adjust the salt and pepper.
Gratin
- Bread. Toast the bread slices in the oven at 200 °C (390 °F) for 8–10 minutes, until dry and golden, and rub them with the garlic.
- Gratin. Turn on the broiler. Serve the very hot soup in the bowls, set on a tray, lay two bread slices on top and cover them with the cheese, reaching the rim. Broil 10–12 cm from the element for 3–5 minutes, until the cheese is melted, bubbling and golden in spots.
The dish
Use earthenware or oven-safe ceramic bowls, about 350 ml, and flat plates with a folded napkin as a base. When taking them out of the broiler, check that the cheese lid is golden in spots and bubbling, and wipe with a damp cloth any cheese that has run down the outside. Set each bowl on its plate with the napkin, so it does not slide or burn the table, and serve at once with a soup spoon, warning that it is very hot. Final look: a golden, bubbling cheese lid that barely overflows the bowl, with the bread sunk underneath and the mahogany soup showing at the edges.
Key points
- Caramelize slowly, deglazing with water each time the fond browns.
- Do not rush the heat: burnt onion makes the soup bitter.
- Toast the bread well so it does not dissolve in the soup.
- Broil with the soup very hot.
Pairing
A Chardonnay with some oak or a Pinot Noir. Without alcohol, non-alcoholic cider.
Notes
- Storage: the soup without the gratin keeps up to 3 days at 5 °C (41 °F) or below, or 3 months in the freezer; it improves from one day to the next. Reheat it to a boil before broiling.