The perfect onion soup in its melted, bubbly glory. (All photos credit: George Graham)
According to the French there are two ways to make classic onion soup – the right way and the wrong way. And even though the French are accustomed to being a bit arrogant when it comes to their cuisine, I must agree. Here’s why.
Like many, for years I made my onion soup with the usual mistakes. Onions simmered for an hour or so in a store-bought chicken broth topped with a toasted slice of French bread and a topping of melted mozzarella. Ouch! Now, don’t get me wrong, back in those days I was quite pleased with my dish, and it was tasty enough that my friends were most complimentary. Well, if it’s true that ignorance is bliss, I was in a state of euphoric stupidity.
Flash forward a bunch of years and a trip to New York that opened my eyes. Not France, but New York was where I had my first taste of an exquisitely prepared French onion soup. I’ve eaten onion soup in France since, but I’ve yet to have a version that tops that one. It was a simple chef-owned French bistro in Soho that focused on the classics, and one taste of his rich, beefy, oniony broth was a mind-expanding experience that set me on the path to discovery.
After dinner and lingering for a while over a glass of Burgundy and a wooden board of cheese, the chef finally appeared from the kitchen. He was a crusty, well-worn Frenchman. He sat sipping a glass of vin rouge and shared the recipe for his classic dish. With a heavy Parisian accent, he disclosed his secrets to me. I took notes.
Beef bones, deeply caramelized onions, a Gruyere gratin and a splash of dry sherry, oh, and chicken feet. Uh, what?
Chicken feet add body and flavor.
Yes, it seems that cooking with chicken feet is classic French – Asian and Latin, too. Traditionally, the classic onion soup is made from a hearty beef stock. And while it’s always about the flavor, he told me he uses specifically chicken feet for the gelatinous thickening it gives his stock. The secret to the rich, round mouth-feel of his beef stock is, of all things, chicken feet. Well, that is essentially all he told me before he finished off his wine and quickly disappeared back into the kitchen. But, that was enough for me to understand the required complexity of a dish that otherwise appears simple. Oh, and one more thing he told me, you’ll spend a couple of days making it.
Okay, please stay with me. I’m not talking about two whole days stolen from your precious life to make a bowl of soup. It just means that ingredients need to come together slowly and with proper time to meld together into perfection. Unattended stovetop cooking is a technique that separates restaurant chefs from home cooks. Long, slow, wine-infused braises, flavor-filled stockpots simmering on a low fire, and marrow-filled bones roasting for hours in a hot oven – these are the French techniques that elevate dishes of all kinds.
Rural Cajun and Creole cooks have known these techniques for generations. And with that in mind, I set out to link classic French with classic Cajun in an interpretation of this dish that could very well become one of your favorites as well. I admit it wasn’t easy. I stumbled through several versions only to find my way back to a more basic version reminiscent of the one I discovered in that little Soho bistro, but with a few Louisiana enhancements.
Patience is the basic ingredient for making this dish. Slip into your culinary rhythm and relax. The broth – dark, rich with beefy body – is the prime reason most amateurs, like me, take so long to discover how good this dish can be. It is time intensive and takes forethought and patience to reach that ultimate flavor that wraps around and infuses the onions.
I use a variety of onions.
Oh, the onions. You’ll need to sweat them out, coaxing the sugars to release in a slow, patient dance over a low flame, stirring intermittently. The process can take an hour, sometimes longer. It’s a therapeutic kind of cooking, where you’ve got to pay attention, but not too much. The onions will tell you when they’re ready—when they’ve taken on that deep, dark, caramelized hue, sweet but slightly bitter, with a layer of complexity that feels almost like it was there all along, just waiting to come forward.
Now, let’s talk about the bread. It can’t be any bread; it must be a rustic, crusty French baguette that’s become the foundation of nearly every French dish worth its salt. It’s the kind of bread that, when toasted, holds its own against the weight of that molten cheese. The cheese is just as essential. Gruyère, or Comté, melted and golden, bubbling away like a dream. It blankets the soup, creating that divine contrast of crisp, caramelized edges and gooey, creamy depths beneath.
Velvety, luscious and dark with rich flavor — the perfect French onion soup.
French onion soup is more than just a meal; it’s a piece of culture that asks for patience, reverence, and a little time. And at the end of it, you’ve got a bowl of something that tastes like everything good in the world—simple, soulful, and timeless. There’s no rush, no pretense, just the honest, satisfying embrace of one of France’s most enduring classics.
Eat it slow. It’s worth it.
- 5 pounds beef bones
- 2 large yellow onions, quartered
- 4 celery stalks, broken into large pieces
- 4 whole carrots, chopped into large chunks
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Creole mustard or coarse-grained mustard
- 1 cup red wine
- 4 quarts water
- 1 pound chicken feet
- 6 black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup bacon fat
- 10 large yellow onions
- 5 medium sweet onions, such as Vidalia
- 2 purple onions
- 3 stalks of leeks, green stems removed
- 6 large spring onions, green stems removed
- 1 tablespoon sugarcane molasses
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ½ cup dry sherry
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Bunch of fresh thyme sprigs tied in a bundle
- Slices of French baguette, toasted
- 3 cups shredded Gruyere cheese or Comté cheese
- Several sprigs of fresh thyme, for garnish
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- Rinse the beef bones in cold water until all of the blood is removed. Assemble the bones on a large sheet pan and place in the oven. Roast for 1 hour and add the tomato paste and Creole mustard by brushing on the bones. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and continue roasting until browned, about 30 minutes. Once completely browned and caramelized remove from the oven and let cool.
- In a large stockpot over medium heat, add all the meats and vegetables from the pan. Pour off all the grease from the roasting pan. Turn a high burner under the pan and add the wine. With a spatula scrape up the bits and piece as you deglaze the pan and reduce the wine by at least half. Add all the contents to the stockpot. Add the chicken feet, peppercorns and bay leaf. Cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. Cook for 5 hours skimming the surface to remove residual fat and scum every hour.
- Once done, strain the liquids in a fine strainer removing the bones and chicken feet, and place in a covered container to cool. Refrigerate overnight. The next day, skim the fat from the top of the liquid. The beef stock can be used immediately or frozen for future use.
- Peel all of the yellow, sweet, and purple onions and remove the stem parts of the leeks and spring onions. Slice the yellow onions ¼-inch thick so that once cooked down they will hold their shape. Slice the rest of the onions thin for flavor.
- In a large cast-iron pot over medium heat, add the bacon fat along with all the onions and leeks. Cook slowly and caramelize to eliminate bitterness and achieve sweetness. Try not to stir too much as it will prevent caramelizing. Once the onions begin to brown, add the dark sugarcane molasses – a touch of Cajun country sweetness. Cook for 45 minutes total.
- Cooking these onions requires the same attention as making a dark Cajun roux. Speaking of roux, this is where you add 1 tablespoon of flour.
- Stir the onions and let the flour combine with the bacon grease. You want to achieve a dark caramel color to bring out all the sugars inside the onions, but stop short of burning or they will go from sugary sweet to a burnt bitterness in no time at all. Low, slow, and stirring constantly is the key.
- Remove the onions from the pot to a platter. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the sherry. Stir with a spatula and deglaze the pot scraping up all the browned bits along the bottom. Reduce the sherry by half and turn off the heat.
- Add the onion mixture to a stockpot over medium heat. Add the beef stock until just covering the onion mixture. Add the thyme and let cook for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour, the soup should be combined and thickened. Remove the bundle of thyme. Taste the soup and adjust with salt and pepper.
- In an ovenproof individual bowl, fill with soup and place a toasted baguette on top. Sprinkle a generous handful of cheese and run under a broiler until browned and gratinéed. Garnish with a small sprig of fresh thyme.
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Please tell me exactly which Gruyere you use and where you get it in Lft.
Also you have me stumped on another ingredient…”spring onions”…What exactly are spring onions??
I usualy shop at my neighborhood grocery, The Fresh Market.
Where do you get your beef bones? I was thinking either TFM or Kirk Martin in Carencro.
I love this soup. I’m going to try it!!!
Thanks
Ken Falterman
PS: I’ve always found it interesting that with all of the French cultural and culinary identity we have in Acadiana there is not one classic French restaurant ,like Crepe Nanou,in New Orleans. do you know of any?
I use the cave-aged Gruyere at Rouse’s, but Fresh Market has a good Emmi brand Gruyere as well. Spring onions, green onions and scallions are essentially the same. I refer to the larger ones with the large white bulb as spring onions and buy them at either La Morenita or Fresh Market when they have them. Kirk Martin for sure on the bones. Jolie’s Bistro has a French flair and farm-to-table roots. Be sure to order their charcuterie platter and tell owner Stephen Santillo I sent you. Bon appétit.
Hi George, I love your recipe’s!! We have tried a few and they are very good. This is one I will try for sure. Where do you get your beef bones, from a butcher? Can’t wait to try it.
Yes, any good butcher can supply you. Thanks.
Yummy.I will Try For sure.
Can’t wait to prepare this recipe! Thanks for sharing.