I want to make FOS for a friend of mine, for whom it is one of her favorite consumables. Which doper has the best recipe for it? Please? Family secrets can be emailed to me, and a code of *omerta *will be observed.
No, post them here!
I want a piece of the FOS action!
Julia Child’s. 'Nuff said.
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Go to Trader Joe’s.
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Buy the frozen French onion soup. (Two for $5.)
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Remove the soup from the bag, and put it in an oven-safe bowl.
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Put the bowl in a pre-heated 400°F oven and cook for 40 minutes.
lots of onions, slow carmelize, in olive oil. Several hours until they are a nice slippery slimy brown sweet smelling mess, I add a bit (tons) of real garlic, and a bit of herbs, (italian seasoning), towards the end, salt, pepper. Add stock (good base or canned), bring to a simmer, thicken ever so slightly with a bit of corn starch slurry, (just a very little), then add Sherry, (the wine not the girl) the sweet stuff, cream sherry not that dry nasty stuff, I like a lot, some like a little, this is what really makes the soup. Cook for a bit to bring it together, then do as you please with the bread and cheese.
This fails to score me romantic points.
Thanks bubba! Could you break that down into measurable portions by chance? I tend to overdo things if left to my own devices. 
You’re not sneaky enough! 
I second this! French Onion soup is divine, and I’ve often thought about making it myself.
Please, bubba?
Measureable portions??? Whats that???
Normal size soup pot, 12" round, 6"high, heavy bottom.
Olive oil. a bit, enough to coat the bottom liberally. this is no time to be conservative.
Onions, whatever I have left in the frig. But lots and lots, they get really small, basically fill the pot up with raw onions, I like the big white ones, though, red or yellow works just as well. Sometime I’ll use 2 pans to cook them down.
Garlic, couple cloves, a few extra if someone “special” is coming over, (I love garlic breath)
Seasoning, whatever suits your fancy, I tend to like generic italian seasoning, a half teaspoon maybe, always crush it up between your fingers though. fresh ground pepper, until I get sick of grinding it.
Beef stock. I don’t use the canned stuff, though it is susposed to be pretty good, and would probably work better than my method, I buy the one pound containers of the really good base. I would say fill up the pot with the stuff, or at 2/3rds.
Sherry: I really really like lots of this stuff, but I would probably start with about a cup. Let the alcohol cook out and try it, if it needs more add more.
Did you notice that all your directions end with “basically fill the pot with it”. Doesn’t the pot get too full?
Whatever recipe you use, just make sure the onions thoroughly caramelize. Just before serving, toast a couple of slices of French bread. Turn on your broiler.
Place the slices in oven-proof soup bowls. Ladle the soup over the bread, then cover the top of the soup with shredded Swiss and gruyere. Shove the bowls under the broiler and cook until the cheese melts and gets nice and brown. Heaven.
Most receipe requests go in Cafe Society. I’ll move this thread over there.
Veb
One way to amortize the labour is to make an onion confit.
During a spare weekend, by a ye olde big ass bag of onions (around 10lb should do it) and, using a mandolin (or a knife if you like to torture yourself), slice them into rounds. Set your crockpot or very large dutch oven on high and melt about 2tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add as much onion as you can fit into the pot, a very hefty pinch of salt, some pepper, some bayleaves and whatever dried herbs you feel like (I like thyme). Let it soften and reduce, and then proceed to add more onions in until all the onions are gone, stirring every 15 minutes or so with the lid off. Keep it on high until nearly all the onion juice has evaoporated and then turn it down to low , put the lid on and keep it at a bare simmer for the rest of the day. Stir every hour or so and just enjoy the lovely onion smell filling the house.
What you should end up with at the end of the day is a lovely, dark, treacly mass of onion confit which should have reduced about 5 or 6 fold and should fit within 2 or 3 1 lb glass jars. You can now store the confit in your fridge for up to 6 months and use it in anything from spreads to gravies to garnishes to FOC.
To make FOC, simmer some onion confit and some beef stock (home made, this is one where home made stock is essential) for 10 min, adjusting the favours to make sure you have the right balance of onion to beef to seasoning to water. Finish off with a splash of sherry, pour it into a oven proof crock, top with a piece of french bread toasted on the inside only and then top with some gruyere and run under the broiler. FOC made in 20 minutes yet still giving that lovely warmth of long cooked onions.