Food Prep - Making Onion Soup

Making good onion soup is all about how well the onions are caramelized, and which onions you use. Once you have that down, it is the easiest soup in the world to make...but very time consuming.

Always Use Sweet Onions

Cutting the onions to caramelize

I usually cut both ends off, then cut in half.

If you like to make soup, and be able to see at the same time ;) keep a bowl of very cold water next to you, and at this point, drop the onion halves into the cold water. It will take most of the sting out, but cut quickly so they don't stay in the water for too long.

After about 7 - 10 onions, change out the cold water.

Next, slice top to bottom, same direction as the lines...

Caramelizing

For this I pull out the cast iron pan...it works far better than steel. We will need;

about 1/3 C olive oil

2 T butter

Melt the butter into the oil in the pan, then add your onions. Add as many onions as you can fit (our pan holds 10 cut onions), and carefully mix to coat the onions in the oil and butter...On a medium/low heat. These are super easy to do on a wood stove too.

Then stir every few minutes.

Caramelized does not equal browned. We are actually trying Not to brown...though as they caramelize they will darken.

What we are concerned with, is the juice. Slow cooking, mixed with the oil and butter, the sugars in the juice of the onions is what turns to a caramel. Don't let the onions burn, or brown too much.

It takes patience...this is what mine look like after 1/2 hour

After 1 hour...you can see them starting to caramelize slightly...Once they reach this point, stay right by the pan, and stir at least once a minute

After 1 1/4 hours...

And 1 1/2 hours, they are done enough. I could have kept them on a little longer, but I needed to go pay our rent :O

You can see though, the juice is no longer milky at all, it is a nice clear caramelized glaze. Leaving them on another 15 minutes would deepen the flavor, and the colour a bit.

Making the Soup

Scoop the onions into a soup pot...then we will need

64 oz of Beef Broth (or more if you like to drink broth)

1 t Thyme

1 t salt

1 t black pepper

1 Bay Leaf

Optional - 1/4 C cooking wine or sherry (I add a glug of Worcestershire instead, because we are not alcohol people)

Pour a little broth into the onion pan to de-glaze (we want ALL of the caramelized juices in the soup...)

Then add this and the rest of the broth, along with the spices...into the soup pot.

I am making a double batch for canning, which is why you see 2 bay leaves.

Simmer for about an hour, and your soup is done!

While it is simmering, cut some thick slices of bread, and add either sharp cheddar, or swiss cheese...and bake, or broil until the cheese melts. Put the cheese bread in a bowl and spoon the soup over it.

If you want to make it fancy...put the soup in an oven safe soup bowl...place the bread on top, add the cheese...and broil.

You MUST have sharp cheese with onion soup. The soup alone will act as a strong laxative, but cheese is binding, so will balance it out. It can actually be used medicinally for this purpose...and it is also perfect for cold and flu healing. Very good to have on hand in the winter!

Onion soup is processed in a pressure canner, but I will make a post on that another day. This one is already long enough!! :)

#food-prep #recipe #onion-soup