French Fridays with Dorie, et al: A Comparative Study of French Onion Soup

I wanted to love this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Cheese-Topped Onion Soup - I really did. I know I've eaten a bowl or two of French Onion Soup before, but never had the desire to make it at home. Now that I've made it at home, with less than stellar results, I either need to go back to the drawing board, or fly to France, find a bouchon in Lyon, and taste the real deal...just to make sure I'm not missing the boat.

For such a simple, peasant soup, why are there so many variations? Sweet onions, Spanish onions, yellow onions, red onions; chicken broth, beef broth, beef consomme, beef stock, or a combination thereof, canned broth versus homemade stock; red wine, white wine, sherry, apple cider, vinegar; thyme, bay leaves, parsley, sage, garlic; a splash of Cognac; Gruyère, Comte, Emmental, Fontina...my head is spinning.

After reading Dorie's recipe, and comparing it to several other recipes from favorite chefs and reputable sources, I was most intrigued with Michael Ruhlman's version, from Ruhman's Twenty, because it claimed to be a traditional onion soup, like those served at bouchon, a specific style of bistro in Lyon, France. Michael warns against using stock or broth, even homemade, because it changes the soup completely—transforming it into beef-onion soup or chicken-onion soup..."At a bouchon, and indeed at most peasant households, a time-consuming and costly stock would not be used for onion soup. Onions and a splash of wine for seasoning and a crust of bread with some cheese melted on it—that is all you need to make a fine soup with a pure caramelized onion flavor."

My first homemade French Onion Soup

So, I sloooowly caramelized the onions as directed. FIVE hours to sloooowly caramelize SEVEN onions. You can speed up the process by simmering the onions over higher heat, but you need to tend the pot and stir often. Obviously, I had nothing better to do with my Saturday. I also used Spanish onions and sherry, as recommended. No stock,  just water, and I didn't use any fresh herbs or garlic. After tasting, I did feel the soup was too sweet, and added the optional vinegar. I also desired a little more depth, and added the optional splash of red wine. Michael prefers the onion-to-liquid ratio with 6 cups of water, but I opted for a more delicate soup, and added the additional cup of water.

Beautiful Onions

Beautiful sliced onions, that take FIVE hours to sloooowly caramelize

I used a nice country-style bread, toasted and cut to fit the top of my lion's-head soup bowls (love these bowls), grated Gruyère, and a last-minute rebellious sprinkling of thyme leaves over the top. I was all set to enjoy this fine soup with a pure caramelized onion flavor.

The top half of the soup was fine, but as soon as I ran out of nutty, cheesy bread to accompany the remaining heap of onions soaking in an inadequate amount of caramelized onion-flavored water, I was done. A heap of sweet onions just didn't do it for me.

The next day, I attempted to revitalize the leftover soup (i.e., heap of sweet, caramelized onions remaining in the pan). This time, I sauteed the onions a little longer with garlic, added some chicken broth and white wine, let it simmer, and finished it with a touch of Cognac, following Dorie's recipe.

Sorry, Dorie, I still couldn't get beyond that top half of the bowl. When I ran out of bread and cheese, it was over. Maybe I'm just not a French Onion Soup kind of gal, but I'll reserve judgment until I try Keller's Soupe a L'Oignon from his Bouchon cookbook, because it really does sound amazing the way he describes it. From my reading and comparative research, I tend to think this soup needs the richness of homemade (not canned) beef stock to balance the sweetness of the onions. I'll switch to yellow onions, and use a splash of red wine or vinegar, a few sprigs of thyme, and a bay leaf. Stay tuned. 

Out of the French Onion Soup recipes I compared, Dorie's recipe is the only one with chicken broth, and Michael Ruhlman's is the only one with water (Keller uses homemade beef stock, but says it's okay to use vegetable or chicken stock, or even water, but never canned broth). Here's my comparison table of the key ingredients (all of the chefs use a bit of butter to start caramelizing the onions, salt and pepper, and either a baguette or country-style bread for the crouton).

CHEFS	ONIONS	BROTH/ STOCK	WINE/ VINEGAR	GARLIC/ HERBS	CHEESE
DORIE GREENSPAN	Spanish (White)	Chicken broth	White wine, splash of Cognac	Garlic	Gruyere
JULIA CHILD	Yellow	Beef stock	Sherry	Parsley, thyme, bay leaves, garlic	Gruyere and Parmesan
THOMAS KELLER	Yellow	Beef stock	Sherry wine vinegar	Bay leaves, thyme	Comte
TYLER FLORENCE	(Type not specified)	Beef broth	Red wine	Garlic, bay leaves, thyme, parsley	Gruyere
ALTON BROWN	Sweet (Vidalia)	Combo beef consomme, chicken broth, and apple cider	White wine, splash of Cognac	Thyme, bay leaves, parsley	Fontina or Gruyere
MICHAEL RUHLMAN	Spanish (White)	Water	Sherry; optional red or white wine vinegar and/or red wine	None	Gruyere or Emmenthal
GOURMET	(Type not specified)	Combo Beef broth and water	White wine	Thyme, bay leaves	Gruyere, Comte, or Emmental and Parmesan
BON APPETIT	Type not specified	Combo chicken broth and beef broth	White wine	Garlic	Swiss and Parmesan
COOK’S ILLUSTRATED	Yellow	Combo chicken and beef broth	Sherry	Thyme, bay leaf	Gruyere
SAVEUR (PATRICIA WELLS)	Yellow (Oven braise 1 hour, 45 min)	Beef stock	White wine and sherry	Parsley, thyme, bay leaves, garlic	Gruyere and Parmesan

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French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!