French Onion Soup makers--I always use the Julia Child recipe (thx Cathy and Joe)

M

monj

Well-known member
I was looking at CI and saw their suggestion to caramelize the onions in the oven--any thoughts vs Julia's stove top method, other than perhaps less onion smell?

1. For the soup: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

2. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

4. For the croutons: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

5. To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

 
I would be certain to burn my hands on the pot after it is transferred to the stovetop.

I actually like the smell of onions cooking on the stovetop, and I would continue to do it that way, but I bet this would be a good method if you were making a larger amount.

 
It takes a lot longer to do it this way, and even when making a lot, a large stockpot

pretty much does it for me.

I have made BIG batches of caramelized onions in the crockpot and frozen them in puck sizes in muffin tins. Taking out a couple of them you can have FOS in a very short time.

Just adding--it seems to me that this CI recipe just makes the whole thing SO much harder than it needs to be (as I said already) and defeats the purpose of telling the world that FOS is not really that hard to make and can be enjoyed by all. ;o)

I also sort of shortcut the broiling part by making "cheese toasts" with a slice of baguette topped with good Swiss or emmenthaler and toasted under the broiler separately. Then just float it on a bowl of soup. Of course, not as great as having all that good gooey stuff dripping down the side of the bowl, but..... Accessible.

 
You just fill up your crockpot with sliced onions. Add some olive oil or butter

and stir. Let cook on low for up to 18 hours. Stir from time to time and see how the caramelization is coming to what you want. I do recommend doing it outside if possible because it is a LOT of "aroma". They will cook down to practically nothing of course, but it is absolute gold to have on hand.

 
Stovetop is so easy. I usually do around 12 cups of sliced onions and it is so simple to stir

 
I agree. I did the crockpot thing once and won't make that mistake again!

After 2 days I had a pot full of onion liquid and a house that stunk.

 
I guess you cooked them too long! It works really well, but you do need to

watch them. The newer slow cookers cook at a higher temp (even on low) than the older ones did, IMO (and by report). But the sheer amount of onions inside is a lot of odor.

 
Didn't mean to stir the pot on this one! smileys/wink.gif I tried the oven method, as I had a ton of things to do

in a compressed amount of time. It worked really well. I just kept setting the timer and got my other chores done. smileys/smile.gif Used a 7 quart oval LeCreuset.
I switched over to Julia's recipe once the onions went on the stove. (adding flour, deglazed the first time with 1/4 c water, dried them out, then the 1/2 cup vermouth on 1/4 cup increments.By the time I was finished, they were a medium dark brown.Amazing soup!
Joe, your comment was funny re toughing the hot handles, totally something I would do, so I left the Ove glove very close to the pot so I wouldn't forget!

Re onion odor--the first hour was intense, after that it dissipated quite a bit. I did close to 4 pounds of onions for the onion soup.....

 
From the comments by folks using the recipes, It appears there is a bit of failure

when using the method. Several people mentioned getting a pot of "soup" and having to either continue cooking without the lid or finish off on stove top. That would stem from the water content of the onions and how much liquid can evaporate from the crockpot during the cooking process due to the fit of the lid. The shape and size of the crock would also effect the result.

Several others mentioned the difference in taste between the crockpot ones and those cooked in a metal vessel on stovetop or oven.

 
Yes, sweet onions would be a problem, I'm sure. Here is a recipe that has supposedly converted

Julia's FOS recipe to use in a pressure cooker, since we are discussing the soup. It is to me, another example of making a recipe hard when the recipe isn't hard in the first place!!
http://www.yummly.co/recipe/Julia-Childs-French-Onion-Soup-Pressure-Cooker-596733?prm-v1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=popular-searches-email

And I don't think those onions will be caramelized in the 30 minutes mentioned!!

 
If you use the mandolin as she suggests and cut paper thin, they would definitely

caramelize more quickly, not sure if 30 minutes would be enough though. Then the texture of the finished product would be different.

Converting this recipe (or any other one) to the pressure cooker is not necessarily to make it easier, rather to be able to use the pressure cooker for prep.

 
Despite the written warning in the recipe, and even if I left the oven mitts in plain sight

wrote myself notes in huge letters, and left a fire extinguisher in plain site as a reminder, I would probably grab the hot handle. I do it every time.

 
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