I’m a huge Buy Nothing fan despite spouse’s continual skepticism about “used” things that I bring home and give away. Yesterday I put him over the edge when I went out to pick up a frozen bag of prime rib bones that I “won”. In my defense, I know the gifter in real life. But regardless of your feelings about Buy Nothing food (“ew gross” or “yay free stuff I will use”), I’d like your input on Operation French Onion soup. Step one, later today: Beef stock. Step two, next weekend: Soup itself. I’ve only made FO soup once or twice in my life and that was with purchased stock. And was OK, not swoon-worthy.
I like to add a small amount of brandy to each serving right before I put in the bread and melt the cheese. Not much. I never measure it. Probably a little more than a teaspoon. I have not always done this and found it to be a great improvement. I also like to put a few small dices of cheese in the soup as well as on top. I’m not sure that all recipes call for doing that. I don’t add much but I like finding those globs of cheese as I am eating the soup. I also make more carnalized onions than I think I need in case the onion cooks so much that I need to add a little for texture towards the end of cooking.
methinks the biggest tip / ‘thang’ for stocks - especially beef… - is:
after the initial simmer to create, remove solids and reduce liquid volume at ultra-low temps by 50% or so.
taste as you go along . . .
for the onions, pan fry at low temps. takes about an hour for 1/4 inch slices…
good FOS is not fast food.
use a vegetable peeler to ‘shave’ off the cheese - no ‘prepackaged’ stuff allowed . . .
Roast your bones
Add a marrow bone
In your mirrepoix, add a blackened onion
Cheat by using demiglace
Parm rinds
Reduce to 1/4
For the soup:
Don’t use preshredded cheese
Sub Comte for Greuerye
Use Vidalias or Walla Walla sweets
Consider par-frying some of the onions, flour-dusted, in lots of oil (chill and skim later)
Prepare about 4x the onions you think you need, maybe start with 1-2 lbs per serving.
I like a little brandy in there somewhere, and add a splash to deglaze the onions at the end of caramelizing. It will carry on through to the soup.
My other tip is to replace some (up to 50%) of the beef stock with chicken stock when making the soup; the resulting broth has something extra above straight beef stock.
My daughter needed a cat stand, found a brand new one on Buy Nothing … 10 minutes away. The woman’s cat didn’t take to it. People: Don’t give up so quickly, many cats are cautious. Her cat took about a day. My cat took about a year to take to a cat teepee, now she loves it.
She just removed the cat litter box and put the cat litter contraption on the toilet to train her to go there. As of Day Two, it’s working so far. I’ll keep you posted.
