Soup · France
French onion soup
Onions cooked down until mahogany, simmered in stock, under a lid of bread and melted Gruyère.
About the dish
Onion soups are old French country cooking, and the version known around the world, a dark broth under a slice of toasted bread and melted cheese, became famous in the cafés around Les Halles, the old central market of Paris, where it fed market workers late at night.
Nearly all the flavor comes from browning the onions. A large pot of sliced onions, which cook down to a fraction of their volume, is cooked slowly in butter for an hour or more, stirring and scraping, until they are soft and mahogany brown. The color comes from the onions’ sugars caramelizing and from browning reactions between sugars and proteins. Rushing them over high heat scorches them and makes the soup bitter.
The browned onions are simmered in stock, usually beef, which adds savory depth and salt to the onions’ sweetness. Each bowl is topped with toasted bread and grated Gruyère, or Comté or Emmental, and set under a broiler until the cheese bubbles and browns. A little acid at the end, such as a few drops of vinegar, keeps the sweetness from feeling heavy.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
French onion soup in Night Kitchen
In the game, French onion soup is a soup in the recipe book. A plate is named French onion soup when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly this technique, with at most one extra ingredient, and tastes the part: sweet 4 or more.
Ingredients
- Onion
- Chicken stock
- Gruyère
Technique
- Caramelize
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Gus (2 stars), Theo (2 stars) and Mr. Vane (2 stars) most.
“Onions cooked till they give up, a good stock, and a crust of cheese on top. My old man’s idea of a vegetable.”
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