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Onion Soup Gratinee
3 onions 3 tablespoons butter 3 pints beef stock 3 tablespoons grated cheese Pepper and salt 1/8 clove garlic (if desired) 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1/4 loaf French bread Slice onions and put them into a stew-pan with butter. Stir and fry slowly until softened and slightly browned. Add beef stock, boil ten minutes, skim, season, and add parsley and garlic. Cut the bread into thin slices, dry in the oven a few minutes, pour soup into a low earthen casserole, put bread on top, sprinkle with grated cheese, and set in a very hot oven just long enough to brown the cheese.
A compact 1920s version of the Parisian classic, built on stock rather than long-caramelised onions. Two details carry it: how far you take the onions, and how briefly the soup itself cooks.
- The hinge: the onions"Stir and fry slowly until softened and slightly browned" is the whole flavour base. "Slowly" is the operative word: expect this to take a good deal longer than it reads, perhaps 25-35 minutes over medium-low heat; pale onions make a thin soup.
- "Very hot oven"Period usage generally puts this somewhere around 450-500F, and a broiler element a few inches from the surface does the same job. The aim is browned cheese in a few minutes, not reheated soup.
- Earthen casseroleIn this period a "casserole" is simply an ovenproof earthenware dish. Individual oven-safe bowls work as well and are easier to serve; make sure whatever you use can take a broiler.
- 3 pintsSix cups of stock, serving four generously. Use a well-flavoured beef stock rather than a bouillon cube; apart from salt, pepper, parsley and a scrap of garlic, the stock is carrying the soup.
- 1/8 clove garlicAn unusually timid measure. A whole clove, minced or rubbed on the toasted bread, is more in keeping with modern taste; the original quantity is close to undetectable.
- CheeseThe book just says "grated cheese." Gruyere or Comte is traditional and melts and browns well; 3 tablespoons is sparse, so allow closer to a cup for four servings if you want a proper crust.
- The breadThe recipe says only to dry thin slices in the oven a few minutes; drying them properly keeps them from dissolving into the soup. Stale bread is better than fresh here.
- SkimmingSkim after the ten-minute boil to take off butter and any scum, otherwise the surface turns greasy under the cheese.
Onion soup thickened with bread and browned under a top layer of cheese is long associated with the Paris market halls of Les Halles, where it was eaten by porters and by late-night diners alike; gratinee refers to that browned crust. Its appearance in an American cookbook of this period reflects the wider interest in named French dishes among middle-class home cooks after the First World War. Note that the recipe treats it as a cheap soup built on stock and stale bread rather than a luxury.