French onion soup

Comfort in a bubbling bowl

By Janet Eastman

IT'S FALL. You’re chilled. You’re hungry. You need soup. Hot, nourishing broth has been comforting humans almost since the invention of fire. So sit down and warm up with a classic fit for royalty: real French onion soup.

Legend has it that none other than King Louis XV of France inspired the luscious combination of flavorful beefy broth, caramelized fresh onions, buttery croutons and crusty cheese. After a long day at his hunting lodge, the 18th century monarch requested something savory to snack on, but only butter, onions and champagne remained in the pantry. Voila! A culinary icon was conceived.

Over the centuries, French onion soup has become a staple in homes, humble bistros and star-rated restaurants. Julia Child and the French cooking craze of the 1960s brought homemade and canned creations to tables throughout the U.S. Since then, France’s prized version of the universally beloved onion soup has been put on, taken off and put back on menus. In some circles, it has never gone out of style.

That’s because French onion soup is the great equalizer. Today, French mothers with tiny stovetops prepare a simple recipe that has been passed on through generations while famous chefs such as Thomas Keller of Napa Valley’s French Laundry create lofty renditions in commercial kitchens to appease picky epicureans. It’s a full meal in a bubbling bowl brimming with gooey cheese and broth-soaked bread. As Child called it, “That’s a real dish.”

In this down economy, the Campbell Soup Co. has seen an increase in home cooks on a budget dressing up dinner by simmering cooked hamburgers for five minutes in condensed French onion soup. The burgers are then served in a bowl of hot mashed potatoes covered with the onion soup.

“There’s been a resurgence in cooking at home and recipes beyond the tried and true,” says Campbell’s spokesman John Faulkner. “French onion soup is popular because it’s not a cream soup, it makes food moist and flavorful, and people have good memories of enjoying French onion soup at a restaurant.”

Cooks who start from scratch reinvent this cheese-topped soup as needed. When beef isn’t plentiful or preferred, chicken is put in the stockpot. For vegetarians, the basic broth is made from carrot, celery, and scallions.

The Spanish sopa de ceba calls for a thin layer of Meaux-type mustard seeds on toasted bread and the smallest amount of gruyere. Other cuisines contrast the sweetness of the onions with sharp, shreddable cheeses other than go-to gruyere or emmentaler. Change the accent with mozzarella, Jack cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Raclette or another mountain cheeses. For more zing, Madeira or port can be added to the thinly sliced onions as they cook slowly, their natural sugars teased out and their color turning to soft, golden brown.

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Paris-born Irène Schnaer learned how to make French onion soup from her mother, who learned it at the fabled Maxim’s culinary school. Maxim’s teacher was Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec, the food editor of Elle magazine and a famous cookbook author who was related by marriage to the great Post-Impressionist painter and Moulin Rouge poster artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

Schnaer’s ancestral credentials alone add to her cooking credibility. But she is an accomplished chef in her own right and owner of the noted foodie hangout, Chateau Brinon B&B in Brinon-sur-Sauldre in the Loire Valley.

After guests spend long days wine tasting and chateau hopping, Schnaer delights them with steaming bowls of French onion soup. Depending on her cooking mood, she tops it with shredded Comte, cheddar, Mimolette or Edam. She splashes a little white port in with the onions. Red onions are nice and spicy, she says, but for guests with tender stomachs, she uses yellow onions. “White onions are available in the U.S., but not here,” says Schnaer, from her remodeled kitchen in her 17th-century B&B.

Little do her appreciative guests know, she confesses, that her stock is not homemade. “I’ve made stock from scratch, simmered it for hours, then compared it to the store-bought stock and I can’t tell the difference,” she says, adding, “and neither can anyone else.” She prefers vegetable stock over beef or chicken because she thinks it’s more flavorful.

Most of the Parisian brasseries offer French onion soup in the fall and winter, she says. A hearty bowl of it keeps you warm for hours. After all, what better way to fire you up than onions?

Ode to onions

Cavemen ate onions. Even way back then, these wild, edible bulbs tasted good raw and were easy to grab and go. Onions were one of the earliest plants to be cultivated because they survived in good and bad soils and climates, they quenched thirsts and could be dried to eat later. The Egyptians worshiped onions, the pharaohs were buried with them and the first Olympiads ate them before they competed.

Onions have been used for medicine, prescribed to alleviate headaches, snakebites and hair loss. Modern science has shown that the quercetin in onions is a natural anti-oxidant that keep eyes and hearts healthy.

Surprisingly, onions have even served as currency. Yes, in past times, the celebrated allium has been handed over as rent payments and wedding gifts.

The ubiquitous onion, naturally, wanted to be in soup. The word “soup,” it should be known, is very old and comes from “sop,” as in using bread to soak up liquid. The Greeks and Roman ate onion soup, so did European peasants and lords in the Middle Ages. “The French Cook,” a book printed in 1651, included a recipe for potage of onion: “Let it boile a very little; you may put some capers in it. Dry your bread then stove it; take up, and serve with one drop of vinegar.”

When onions simmered in seasoned water, the result didn’t just create a soup but the hospitality industry. A restorative soup was so popular that a Paris shop served only this restoratif and thus the word “restaurant” was born.

Chef Chad Smith of Chateaulin Restaurant in Ashland, Oregon knows he owes a lot to onion soup, the original peasant food. Even though he changes the menu seasonally at this culinary landmark, he never takes away the crowd-pleasing Soup a L' Oignon. “It’s been a mainstay on the menu since we opened almost 40 years ago,” says Smith, adding with a smile, “People appreciate having something familiar and if we took it off the menu, there would be rioting in the streets.”

Smith is a French-appreciating chef who believes it takes 40 hours to create the best veal stock and four hours for chicken stock. He cooks them separately with carrots, celery, leeks, onions, thyme and parsley stems (he adds tomato paste to the veal stock), then combines to two stocks for his onion soup. He simmers the stock in a pan with caramelized Walla Walla sweet onions.

The soup is then poured into individual ovenproof crocks. He tops them with a diagonal slice of French bread brushed with olive oil infused with sea salt and thyme, then adds a layer of Swiss emmentaler cheese. He places the crocks under a broiler to crust the top.

Smith has experimented with other cheeses, especially from nearby Rogue Creamery in Central Point. “I really wanted to buy locally and use the Rogue Creamery’s soft and creamy TouVelle cheese, but everyone loves the classic, stringy emmentaler,” he says.

He doesn’t want to mess with success. Or tradition. There’s a lot of emotion at stake. “French onion soup is the ultimate comfort food on a cold day,” says Smith.

Versions for ladies who lunch and kids

Louis XV never worried about boring his guests or consuming too many calories. But Loretta Patterson of San Antonio, Texas does.

Although the retired business owner considers French onion soup a fine start to a fall meal, she enjoys playing with the classic recipe. When she’s hosting girlfriends for lunch, she pours portions into smaller ramekins. “I learned that the lower-fat version of everything is to just eat less of it,” she says.

She caramelizes the onions in as little butter as she can, but overall she thinks a flavorful onion soup with homemade stock is a healthy meal. Even the cheese on top, she says, is a source of calcium and shouldn’t be viewed as a guilty pleasure.

A lot of people think French cooking is a lot of butter or cream, says Patterson, who has taken French cooking lessons at the Raymond Blanc Cookery School in Oxford, England. But most French cuisine is bouillon base, not cream based. “French onion soup is something we could eat every day if – and this is the key – it’s made from a full-flavored stock,” she says.

Patterson prefers chicken stock, which she can make in advance and freeze. As for the cheese, she’s ready to experiment. She’s thinking of adapting the classic recipe to fit other cuisines: substituting a stringy Monterey Jack-like Queso Oaxaca white cheese to add a Mexican flavor, Parmigiano-Reggiano for an Italian-style onion soup and perhaps a Manchego for a touch of Spain. “Don’t just leave it with the French,” she says, “make it your own.”

Since onions are not only Texas’ official state vegetable but also its largest vegetable crop, Patterson has a lot of options in modifying the classic French onion soup recipe. She particularly likes using the famous sweet 1015 onion, which was developed by a Texas A&M University professor for planting on the 15th day of the 10th month, October 15, hence the name.

Vidalia onions are an easy sell to younger palates, Patterson says, because of a new Shrek promotion aimed at getting children to eat onions and other vegetables. Produce sections now have large cutouts of a smiling Shrek towering over bins of onions.

“Kids love French onion soup,” she says, “and why not? It’s really just a grilled cheese sandwich floating in broth.”

Janet Eastman writes for national publications and websites. An archive of her work is at www.janeteastman.com

Chef’s twists on a tradition

French onion soup has endured over time because it’s a tasty meal in a bowl. Chefs, however, love to elevate this simple recipe. Anne Snider Reece is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier. She studied cooking in France before moving back to Dallas to be the sous-chef at the Rosewood Crescent Hotel. Although she left restaurant work to obtain her MBA and work for her family business building estate homes, she still loves to entertain.

Here are her suggestions inspired by traditional French onion soup:

1. Make onion soup using red, white and yellow onions and shallots. Top grilled bruschetta with a mix of Asiago, Parmesan and mozzarella, and cold, fresh basil, a bit of garlic, tomatoes and olive oil. “You’ll have a mix of hot, gooey and chilled,” she says.

2. Put a Mexican twist on onion soup by adding cumin to the broth. Top warm, crunchy croutons or small tostada-like crisps with cheese and roasted, thinly sliced poblano. Add these to the soup right before serving so the tostadas stay crunchy.

3. Add goat cheese, warm, red-onion confit and sprinkles of fresh thyme on top of grilled or toasted bread. Float this onion-confit crouton on traditional onion soup broth.

4. Put a bit of star anise for a light licorice flavor or cumin in the onion soup. Add grilled or toasted ciabatta with Havarti or use a yummy cumin-flavored Havarti.

5. Sprinkle thyme or marjoram on top of a crouton bubbling with thinly sliced Black Forest Ham and Havarti.

–JE