[hrothgar]

This is going to be one damn expensive bowl of soup...
(Even ignoring the labor)

http://www.imafoodbl...ench-onion-soup

[babalu1997]

hrothgar, on 2011-April-10, 07:21, said:

This is going to be one damn expensive bowl of soup...
(Even ignoring the labor)

http://www.imafoodbl...ench-onion-soup

the only thing really expensive is the cheese

the rest of the items you can find routinely in my kitchen ( I buy the quality olive oil by the case, 1case=24 1 liter bottles)

the labour is the most expensive, but you could choose to make the soup when visiting relatives or when relatives are visiting you, so you put them to work.

[hrothgar]

babalu1997, on 2011-April-10, 09:41, said:

the only thing really expensive is the cheese

the rest of the items you can find routinely in my kitchen ( I buy the quality olive oil by the case, 1case=24 1 liter bottles)

the labour is the most expensive, but you could choose to make the soup when visiting relatives or when relatives are visiting you, so you put them to work.

Beleive it or not, its a pain to get bones in this part of the world

Had to hit three different butcher shops before i found any, and even then had to pay $1.50 a pound

[matmat]

hrothgar, on 2011-April-10, 11:45, said:

Beleive it or not, its a pain to get bones in this part of the world

Had to hit three different butcher shops before i found any, and even then had to pay $1.50 a pound

Similar experience here, although one of the supermarkets did have "beef bones for soup" on the shelves...

maybe call the butchers ahead of time, if it is something they throw out they may keep it for you when you ask?

[jillybean]

What time should I be there for dinner?

Looks like a great recipe, maybe I will try it one day. Is the cheese available, Comte or Emmentaler cheese , I have never heard of it.

[hrothgar]

jillybean, on 2011-April-10, 12:24, said:

What time should I be there for dinner?

Looks like a great recipe, maybe I will try it one day. Is the cheese available, Comte or Emmentaler cheese , I have never heard of it.

I have the (mis)fortune to live a mile and a half from a specialty cheese shop
http://www.wasiks.com/

[FrancesHinden]

Slightly odd for an authentic recipe, Comte is a French cheese but Emmental is Swiss (you can get French Emmental but it's not the real stuff) as is Gruyere which is also mentioned. Surely you should be using a French cheese? They also have quite different tastes although either will probably taste very good - if I wasn't using Comte the closest is probably Beaufort.

[hrothgar]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-April-10, 14:39, said:

Slightly odd for an authentic recipe, Comte is a French cheese but Emmental is Swiss (you can get French Emmental but it's not the real stuff) as is Gruyere which is also mentioned. Surely you should be using a French cheese? They also have quite different tastes although either will probably taste very good - if I wasn't using Comte the closest is probably Beaufort.

Nicely done

I am use comte (I find Emmental and Gruyere too salty for french onion soup)

[matmat]

How would gouda (or smoked gouda) go, do you think?

[Vampyr]

matmat, on 2011-April-10, 15:47, said:

How would gouda (or smoked gouda) go, do you think?

It seems to me that gouda would be poor, and smoked gouda would be very poor.

[blackshoe]

<grumble stupid web browser lost my carefully crafted reply /grumble>

Gruyére is the traditional cheese for this soup. Googling "french onion soup" comes up with a lot of hits, most of which specify Gruyére, Emmentaler, or even Parmesan. Alton Brown suggested Fontina. One site I found in French just called for "grated cheese". You might try a mixture of Gruyére and Provolone. In fact, this seems like a really good candidate for experimentation.

[y66]

Have not tried gouda but I don't see why it wouldn't work, maybe mixed with pecorino and gruyere.

[onoway]

You really don't have to go out and buy bones for stock. Buy a rib roast ..it really doesn't matter if they are roasted on the roast or by themselves.If you don't make gravy the bits from the bottom of the pan should be scraped and floated off and used for your soup stock. You can add your water and then after a couple of hours strain it if you want, to get the bits out, but keep the bones in with your onions etc until the final stages, they are easy to lift out. You can use short ribs. The meat will make a wonderful stew and the bones will oblige for the soup stock. Short ribs tend to be pretty greasy but that can be solved by sticking everything into the fridge overnight after it's cooked..the fat will congeal and can easilly be lifted or scraped off. Or choose your T-bones carefully and make them into strip loins and filet mignon and then use those bones. Or any other bones as far as that goes. I wouldn't ever go out and buy bones just for soup.

The only thing that would take a lot of time is caramelizing the onions. Although I've made a lot of really rather good onion soup I've certainly never taken 5 hours to cook the onions before they saw the stock...will have to try it and see if that, rather than sauteing, really makes a difference that can be detected. The same thing goes for how you cut the onions.. At one time I worked briefly in a butcher shop and was astonished to learn it was not at all unknown for people to shop there regularly to buy "veal cutlets" and happilly carry them off saying how good they were, and frequently but not always what they were buying was pork. So I tend to be a bit cynical about most people being able to detect these nuances of flavor that take mega hours/effort to attain, especially if the people eating the food are or have been smokers.

[hrothgar]

Follow-up on the soup:

I was unhappy with the way the stock turned out. There was too much fat disolved in the stock which really ended up muting the flavors. Next time I make this, I'm going to make the stock at day in advance and chill it in the fridge. (I tried to faithfully skim the stock as it boiled, but I don't think I do nearly well enough)

The onions had an unbelievable flavor to them, however, when I think french onion soup I also think "vinegar" and "pepper". I suspect that the stock issue ended up masking some flavors more than others.

Oh well. Live and learn. Fall will be here soon enough and soup making will commence once again.

I suspect that i need to invest in a better (make that a safer) mandoline.

Working with a plastic mandoline with a ceramic blade for that many onions is a scary, scary experience.

[onoway]

Something else you might try is forgetting about the vinegar entirely and adding a little nice dry white wine just before you are dealing with the cheese.

And if you are going to all this trouble for the soup..perhaps you should make the bread to go with it?