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A Simple Onion Soup
Mince half a dozen medium-sized onions very finely. Put in a stewpan over a slow fire with 3 ounces of melted butter, dredge a little flour over them, and shake about until they are soft and lightly browned. Add a quart of boiling water, and season with salt and pepper and a grated nutmeg. Have 2 well-beaten eggs in the tureen; after the soup has boiled up well, stir in among the eggs, and serve at once. It should take about half an hour for this soup to cook.
A plain onion soup thickened at the last moment with beaten egg, in the manner of an avgolemono or a French soupe à l'oignon without the cheese crust. Two things decide whether it succeeds: how patiently the onions cook, and how carefully the egg goes in.
- The egg liaisonLadle the hot soup into the eggs slowly, a little at a time, whisking constantly, rather than tipping it in at once. Poured in fast, the eggs scramble into threads and the soup turns grainy. Once combined, do not return it to the heat.
- Slow fire means slow"Over a slow fire" here means the lowest workable heat on a burner, and the half hour quoted is mostly the onions. Rushing them gives raw onion sharpness rather than the sweetness the soup depends on.
- A whole grated nutmegOne entire nutmeg in a quart of soup is far more than modern palates expect and will dominate everything. A quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg is closer to the intent.
- Butter quantityThree ounces is about six tablespoons, generous for six onions but it carries the flour and keeps the mince from catching. Two to three tablespoons is enough if you prefer a lighter soup.
- The flour dredge"Dredge a little flour" means a light dusting, roughly a tablespoon, shaken in and cooked a minute or two before the liquid goes in. It is there to thicken slightly and to help the browning, not to make a roux.
- Water or stockA quart of boiling water was the economical choice; the same quantity of light chicken or beef stock gives the body this soup otherwise lacks. Salt accordingly if the stock is already seasoned.
- YieldA quart of liquid plus the onions serves four as a first course, two as a light supper. It does not reheat well once the egg is in, so make only what will be eaten.
Onion soup earned its place in nineteenth-century household books because it cost almost nothing: onions kept for months in a cellar, and the only other outlays were butter, a spoonful of flour and a couple of eggs. This version belongs to the older, thinner tradition rather than the gratinéed Parisian bowl of melted cheese that later came to define "French onion soup" in English-speaking kitchens. Finishing a soup by stirring it into beaten eggs waiting in the tureen was a familiar practice in English and American cookery of the period; the egg supplied richness and a faint thickening.