French Onion Soup

Name: French Onion Soup
Yield: Serves 8–10
Ingredients: 175–200 g/6–7 oz Gruyère, Emmental or Beaufort cheese, grated; 2–3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 baguette, cut into thin slices; 2 litres/3½ pints hot beef or dark brown chicken stock; a few sprigs of thyme; 4 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar; 150 ml/5 fl oz dry white wine (or a glug of Port if you want a slightly sweeter, richer note); salt and freshly ground black pepper; ½ tablespoon plain flour; 8 large Spanish onions, sliced as thin as possible (a mandolin is perfect for this); 300 g/10½ oz butter

Preparation info

Serves
8–10

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Let's Eat

By Tom Parker Bowles

Published 2013

About

This is one of those dishes for which you really have to make your own stock. Or buy some good stuff from the butcher. There’s nowhere for bad ingredients to hide. The onions are easy enough to cook (although be prepared to keep a constant eye on them for up to 3 hours … this requires concentration rather than any real skill), but good stock provides the depth. My wife sometimes complains that the 3-hour caramelised onions are a little too sweet. She has a point: this is a dish to be served

Ingredients

Soup

Ingredients

Method