The Best Onion Soup Recipe

Ok, here is the Onion Soup Recipe post I shared 3+ years ago.....gee was it really that long ago? 8-0

As for the recipe......

* If you have homemade stock instead of boxed stock, use that.
* If you have French Bread, toast/dry that one in slices and use that instead of the croutons from the recipe post.  It will be less sodium and other processed things they put into croutons OR make your own croutons.  I prefer the slice of dried bread to float the cheese on myself but don't always have that so croutons will do in a pinch.

Here it is again.
It's really rather easy to make and hard to screw up so even if you aren't much of a cook, give it a go!
Id like to hear if anyone tries it and how you like it.

Sluggy

*******************

What Do Vincent Price & Onion Soup Have In Common?

If you are like me you try to avoid eating Onion Soup at most restaurants out there.
Most restaurant pantries are stocked by food service mega-corporations like Sysco, US Foods and PFG in the US.  These corporations are the processed food suppliers to the majority of eating establishments.
Restaurants begin their French Onion Soup dishes with Onion Soup Base......a dark brown liquid or granular powder like the one pictured here.

Onion Soup based on this gives you an artificially onion flavored SALT LICK.
Yes, these soup bases have a very high sodium content.
They are nasty!

One of the more surprising cookbooks I have was given to me by my mother.
She passed it down to me from HER mother.
I find this quite hilarious since my grandmother was a country cook and cared not at all for grand living and fancy restaurants.  Why and where she would have picked up this cookbook is a mystery to me!

This cookbook is a collection of recipes from famous restaurants that Vincent and Mary Price visited in their travels around the world during their marriage, which spanned from 1949-1973.  (She was his second wife.)

Yes, this Vincent Price.....

In addition to being a famous Hollywood leading man and later, a B Movie Villain and all around "ham".....

He was a Gourmand Extraordinaire!

Or as they like to call them nowadays, he was a Foodiebefore there were Foodies!

This huge compendium of classic cooking recipes from the top dining spots around the world was my 1st Cookbook as a newly married woman.

While other 1980's newly marrieds were working on their meatloaves, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casseroles and pancakes, I was trying my hand at Coq au Vin, Steak au Poivre, Yorkshire Pudding, Haricot Verts a la Lyonnaise, Crepe Suzette and Gateaux Grand Marnier. ;-)

This book holds the best recipe for French Onion Soup bar none!
But over the years, I have made this recipe my own with changes and substitutions to make this heartier and more of a main course.
*My ingredient substitutions/changes are marked by asterisks.

From "A Treasury of Great Recipes", page 46, here is MY VARIATION....

SOUP À L'OIGNON (Onion Soup) À LA SLUGGY
serves 6 as a starter/4 as a meal 

3 tablespoons bacon drippings   *can use olive oil if no drippings are available
4 large onions, chopped fine    *Sliced thinly, not chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt     *"good" salt, like Himalayan or Sea Salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 clove garlic, smashed   *or minced or powdered
1 sprig parsley
1 pinch thyme
1 quart chicken stock  * you can sub chicken bouillon cubes or granules(cut the amount of salt you add by half), but not onion soup ones
1 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon cognac   * I omit because I don't have any
6 slices toasted French bread   * I use croutons

1 cup grated parmesan cheese  * I use shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1  You will need oven safe bowls for presentation/serving.

2 Over medium temperature in a large skillet, heat a deep skillet with the olive oil.

3  Add thinly sliced onions and cook until translucent.

4 Add the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic and cook until it is golden brown (careful not to burn).

 

5  Add the parsley sprig, thyme, chicken stock, wine, and simmer for 45 minutes, then remove from heat.

 6 While soup simmers, try to look busy.

 Presentation--

7  To make it Soupe à L'Oignon Gratinée: preheat your oven's broiler setting;  laden soup into each bowl being careful not to overfill.  Float croutons on top of soup.

 Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over croutons.

Place bowls on baking sheet under broiler in oven until the cheese bubbles and browns.  Keep a close watch so you don't burn your cheese!

Remove the soup from the oven and eat.

Nom Nom Nom.

Sluggy

What Do Vincent Price & Onion Soup Have In Common?

If you are like me you try to avoid eating Onion Soup at most restaurants out there.
Most restaurant pantries are stocked by food service mega-corporations like Sysco, US Foods and PFG in the US.  These corporations are the processed food suppliers to the majority of eating establishments.
Restaurants begin their French Onion Soup dishes with Onion Soup Base......a dark brown liquid or granular powder like the one pictured here.

Onion Soup based on this gives you an artificially onion flavored SALT LICK.
Yes, these soup bases have a very high sodium content.
They are nasty!

One of the more surprising cookbooks I have was given to me by my mother.
She passed it down to me from HER mother.
I find this quite hilarious since my grandmother was a country cook and cared not at all for grand living and fancy restaurants.  Why and where she would have picked up this cookbook is a mystery to me!

This cookbook is a collection of recipes from famous restaurants that Vincent and Mary Price visited in their travels around the world during their marriage, which spanned from 1949-1973.  (She was his second wife.)

Yes, this Vincent Price.....

In addition to being a famous Hollywood leading man and later, a B Movie Villain and all around "ham".....

He was a Gourmand Extraordinaire!

Or as they like to call them nowadays, he was a Foodie before there were Foodies!

This huge compendium of classic cooking recipes from the top dining spots around the world was my 1st Cookbook as a newly married woman.

While other 1980's newly marrieds were working on their meatloaves, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casseroles and pancakes, I was trying my hand at Coq au Vin, Steak au Poivre, Yorkshire Pudding, Haricot Verts a la Lyonnaise, Crepe Suzette and Gateaux Grand Marnier. ;-)

This book holds the best recipe for French Onion Soup bar none!
But over the years, I have made this recipe my own with changes and substitutions to make this heartier and more of a main course.
*My ingredient substitutions/changes are marked by asterisks.

From "A Treasury of Great Recipes", page 46, here is MY VARIATION....

SOUP À L'OIGNON (Onion Soup) À LA SLUGGY
serves 6 as a starter/4 as a meal 

3 tablespoons bacon drippings   *can use olive oil if no drippings are available
4 large onions, chopped fine    *Sliced thinly, not chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt     *"good" salt, like Himalayan or Sea Salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 clove garlic, smashed   *or minced or powdered
1 sprig parsley
1 pinch thyme
1 quart chicken stock  * you can sub chicken bouillon cubes or granules(cut the amount of salt you add by half), but not onion soup ones
1 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon cognac   * I omit because I don't have any
6 slices toasted French bread   * I use croutons

1 cup grated parmesan cheese  * I use shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1  You will need oven safe bowls for presentation/serving.

2 Over medium temperature in a large skillet, heat a deep skillet with the olive oil.

3  Add thinly sliced onions and cook until translucent.

4 Add the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic and cook until it is golden brown (careful not to burn).

 

5  Add the parsley sprig, thyme, chicken stock, wine, and simmer for 45 minutes, then remove from heat.

 6 While soup simmers, try to look busy.

 Presentation--

7  To make it Soupe à L'Oignon Gratinée: preheat your oven's broiler setting;  laden soup into each bowl being careful not to overfill.  Float croutons on top of soup.

 Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over croutons.

Place bowls on baking sheet under broiler in oven until the cheese bubbles and browns.  Keep a close watch so you don't burn your cheese!

Remove the soup from the oven and eat.

Nom Nom Nom.

Sluggy

Everything I Know about Bread I learned from the ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

Not only was Vincent Price a pretty good actor in his day(with a Yale education to boot), but he was also an avid art collector and  gourmand.  He, with his second wife Mary, wrote a few cookbooks which have become quite collectible.

I have an original copy of  "A Treasure of Great Recipes" that was given to me by my mother. (There were 2 copies in our family but I don't know whatever happened to the other copy.)  This cookbook has some of the (at the time)world's foremost restaurants specialties' recipes adapted for the American homecook.  Published in 1965, this tome is quite the 'hoot' now with it's full color photographs of Mr. Price and his wife in some of the classiest Restaurants in the civilized world, the food and replicas of menus from their travels.

As a young newly married wife in the early 1980's, I drew inspiration from many of it's recipes, as it was the only cookbook I owned and this was long before the days of instant recipes via the internet.
I had the nerve to attempt recipes like classical French Onion Soup, Beef Wellington with Yorkshire Pudding, Coq au Vin, Steak au Poivre, Bookbinder's Cheesecake and more.   I wasn't intimidated because being a novice, I didn't know any better, so I just cooked what sounded good and most of them came out ok if not very well.  And that's the point....don't be afraid to try something new or difficult.

This cookbook has a yeast bread recipe that Vincent Price used to make for his house breads.  It makes a very good loaf, whether you make the classic French Bread batard shape or plop it into a loaf pan to make a conventional American shaped loaf.  I use this bread recipe as a starting point for all my yeast breads(except for sweet dough breads, brioche, danish or coffee rings).

Here it is....

YEAST BREAD
makes 4 loaves, 4 dozen rolls or 4 coffee rings

1. Soften: 2 packages active dry yeast in 1/2 cup lukewarm water.

2. Scald: 2 cups milk and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add: 4 Tablespoons sugar, 4 teaspoons salt, 4 Tablespoons shortening*, and 1.5 cups likewarm water.  Cool to lukewarm. (*I use vegetable oil instead of Crisco or solid shortening.)

 
3. Stir in: 2 cups flour.  Add the softened yeast.  Then add: 4 cups flour and beat with a wooden spoon until batter is smooth and elastic.

4. Add more flour(about 6 cups)to make a dough that is light but does not stick to the hands, beating it in until the beating gets rough, then working it in with the hands.

5. Turn dough out on a lightly floured board, cover and let rest for 10 minutes, then knead until dough is smooth.  

Shape dough into a ball and put it in a lightly greased bowl. 

Brush surface of the dough with melted shortening, cover, and let rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.  

6. Punch dough down and divide into 4 equal portions.  Shape each part into a smooth ball, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.

7. Shape each part into a loaf, put loaves in greased bread pands(3 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 2 3/4 deep), cover and let rise for about 1.5 hours, or until sides of dough reach top of the pans and the center is well rounded above it.

8. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 50 minutes.

To make this Yeast Bread recipe into traditional French batards(the long think loaves), when you get to Step 7, do this....
7. Shape the dough into long thin loaves. 

With kitchen shears, make gashes on top of the loaves about 3 inches apart and 1.5 inches deep.  

Place loaves several inches apart on a greased baking sheet and let rise until double in bulk. 

Brush tops with slighly beaten egg white....

and bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for 40 minutes.  If desired, brush again with egg white and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds.  Return to the oven for 10 minutes longer, or until seeds are brown.

The finished product you want to AVOID!lolol

Sluggy