What's cooking? French onion soup

The french onion soup, a typical winter dish after you were skiing, if you are hangover or just got married. This soup has a history.

The history of the onion soup

It is so interesting to look at the past and see how food has evolved.

For the onion soup, it goes back a long way back.

Called "the poor people soup" or the "the drunks soup", based on beef jus or broth, onions and bread, the soup was cheap to make. 

There are a couple of theories to how and when it was born. 

One is that in his  Guillaume Tirel (1310 - 1395), famous Chef of the medieval times, wrote the "Viandier", the most famous cooking book of these times. In there, he cooks sliced onions in butter and garnishes them with peas and verjus (a sour juice made of pressed young grapes, it is milder than vinegar).

Another theory is that King Louis the XVth (1710 - 1774), after hunting, came back to his cabin, starving. All the ingredients he could find were onions, champagne and butter. He made a soup out of them. It is somewhat difficult to imagine a king at the time who would cook, but he was, according to some sources

a good cook himself.

Alexander Dumas mentions in his famous Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine that Stanislav Leszcynski, Duc of Lorraine and father of the Queen of France, tasted the soup in an Inn in the Champagne region and found it so delicious that he wanted to learn how to make a similar one.

For 4 servings:

6 sliced large onions

olive oil

butter

2 tbsp raw sugar

In a pan or pot, pace the onions and cook them until transparent. Add the raw sugar and caramelise the onions. 

I made a vegetable broth:

3 carrots

1 celeriac bulb

1 bunch of parsley

1 turnip

1 onion

salt and pepper

3 bay leaves

Add the broth to the caramelised onions

Prepare the bread.

I used a baguette, sliced.

Sprinkle some olive oil.

Grate cheese over it. I used emmenthal and parmesan.

For the onion soup I used a Riess pot, which I love. I prepared the onions in it, grilled the cheesed baguette on top. All in one, and I love the design!

I may seem unspecific with the recipe, but as I said, it is basically caramelised onions, a broth (using meat or vegetables) and melted cheese on bread. Enjoy!

Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine from Alexandre Dumas is a great source of information for medieval Cuisine.

"as the smell of the onions gave him large tears, he observed everything, took note, and went back in the car only once he was certain to possess the art of making an excellent onion soup". Source

The onion soup that we know today, served in bowls with melted cheese on top, comes from the 19th century Paris, in Les Halles. Les Halles exist since 1135 and were founded by the King Philippe-Auguste in about 1183. He was very interested in the development this central market and grew so much over the years that cemeteries were moved to allow it to prosper. It played a major role in the food business so that Emile Zola would named it "The Parisian belly" .It has been developing along the years but kept its central role of market exchange until 1970, when it was moved to Rungis. 

It is there, where all kinds of people from different metiers and different social backgrounds would meet, that in the 19th century the Gratinée des Halles, onion soup served in bowls placed under the grill with melted cheese was born and became a national Parisian dish. It is enjoyed by the market workers and the party goers of the area as a perfect hangover remedy but also from tourists.

So, with these informations and enlightenment I will share my version of the onion soup. It is always material for improvement or variations. That's what's great about it.