In this easy to follow cooking video tutorial, learn How to Make a Traditional Homemade French Onion Soup. This is a classic French Onion Soup recipe that is made with caramelized onions. This is real homemade French Onion Soup with all of the goodness provided by caramelized onions and lots of good melted cheese on top, also known as French Onion Soup Gratinée! ⬇️ FRENCH ONION SOUP RECIPE BELOW ⬇️ ➡️WATCH NEXT: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U12d9DsrmYgWaWI2CB7-I_s&si=JBYAbPuIEBrsz7Zp
➡️ORDER THE MODERN PIONEER COOKBOOK HERE: https://marysnest.com/my-cookbook
🍎FREE 250+ PAGE MODERN PIONEER COOKBOOK CURRICULUM: https://marysnest.com/cookbook-curriculum/ (No Email Required.)
➡️If you enjoy learning how to be a Modern Pioneer in the Kitchen, consider SUBSCRIBING to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/marysnest?sub_confirmation=1 It’s free!
➡️My YouTube Channel Home Page: https://YouTube.com/MarysNest
🍎FRENCH ONION SOUP INGREDIENTS:
5 Medium Yellow Onions
3 tbsp Butter – unsalted
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Unrefined Whole Cane Sugar – if using white sugar, decrease to 1/2 tsp
3 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
2 qt (or 8 c) Brown Beef Stock
1/2 c Dry White Wine or Dry White Vermouth
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Baguette
2 Cups Gruyère or Emmental Cheese
🍎 PRINT RECIPE HERE: https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-traditional-french-onion-soup/
➡️TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
0:25 French Onion Soup Ingredients
3:48 How to Make French Onion Soup
28:13 How to Serve French Onion Soup Gratinée
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Some of my links below are affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission. It does not affect the price you pay.
✳️MARY’S NEST AMAZON SHOP: Visit https://www.amazon.com/shop/marysnest
✳️KITCHEN EQUIPMENT USED IN THIS VIDEO:
►Portable Cooktop: https://amzn.to/4a3WUmd
►Heavy Bottom Soup Pot: https://amzn.to/4a2SHz9
►Electric Salt and Pepper Mills: https://amzn.to/3v05un0
►Glass Bowls: https://amzn.to/3OT86tz
✳️ALWAYS IN MY KITCHEN:
►See EVERYTHING in My Shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/marysnest
►Favorite Aprons: https://www.amazon.com/shop/marysnest/list/1TY5Q86EU2YT3
►Santoku Knife: https://amzn.to/3T6ybYT
►Maple Cutting Board: https://amzn.to/46zvHWc
►Large Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven: https://amzn.to/3TcsKIh
✳️RECOMMENDED READING:
►The Modern Pioneer Cookbook: https://amzn.to/3MBU8fo
►Nourishing Traditions: https://amzn.to/2PLIXTG
✳️DISCOUNT CODES: https://marysnest.com/shopping-guide/ Get up to 15% off discounts from US Wellness Meats, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, GreenStalk, and More!
➡️FREE 36-PAGE ESSENTIAL TRADITIONAL FOODS PANTRY LIST: https://marysnest.com/free-traditional-foods-pantry-list/
➡️SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE MARY’S NEST NEWSLETTER: https://marysnest.com/newsletter/
➡️JOIN THE TRADITIONAL FOODS KITCHEN ACADEMY (Optional Membership Community): https://youtube.com/marysnest/join
➡️RELATED VIDEOS:
▶️How to Make Brown Beef Stock: https://youtu.be/AzTMtZU2MS8?si=9ADkcJrJZmVmGrk4
▶️How to Make a Simple Beef Stock: https://youtu.be/1Q61_p-ajj8?si=-D-QkE5VEDZTCCqN
▶️How to Make Beef Bone Broth: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U1HA6YCQyqjV6ZLBxy_Y7Dz&si=P0EtnBAyk5IjZVSw
▶️Broth, Stock, and Bone Broth: https://youtu.be/DHC68NdrPDs?si=HQa2qA2x2rXo8uAW
➡️POPULAR VIDEO SERIES:
▶️MASTER THE BASICS OF TRADITIONAL NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS COOKING: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U3b4eu0QraZReKlGzA11h3y
▶️ULTIMATE PREPPER PANTRY SERIES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U0WCxRNWm60Yt0ihEQbfpUl
▶️RECENT VIDEO UPLOADS: https://www.youtube.com/c/MarysNest/videos
❤️CONNECT:
►WEBSITE: https://marysnest.com/
►ALL MY RECIPES and VIDEOS: https://marysnest.com/blog-and-videos/
📬I’d love to hear from you!
Mary’s Nest
P.O. Box 342001
Austin, TX 78734
#MarysNest #MaryBryantShrader #ModernPioneerCookbook #FrenchOnionSoup
▶Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, YouTube Channel, and related social media, including: text, images, videos, or other formats were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched on this video or read on the corresponding website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this channel and the corresponding website.
(upbeat music) – Today I want to share with you how to make a traditional homemade French onion soup. This is a classic recipe that’s easy to make. Plus, you can make this ahead of time because it’s even better if you can refrigerate it overnight. Hi, sweet friends. I’m Mary from MarysNest.com,
And author of “The Modern Pioneer Cookbook.” And welcome to my kitchen. The ingredients that you need to make French onion soup, of course, start with onions. You’re going to want five medium-sized yellow onions. You don’t need any sort of fancy sweet onion, just your plain, medium sized yellow onion,
And you’re going to want to slice it into half moons. Next, you’re going to need eight cups or two quarts of brown beef stock. Now, don’t worry if you don’t know how to make a brown beef stock. In my previous video, I showed you how to make this,
And I share a lot of tips and tricks so that it’ll come out nice and dark and perfect every time. And I’ll be sure to link to that video along with the printable recipe in the description below this video. Now, although using a brown beef stock is traditional
When making a French onion soup, if you have a simple beef stock on hand or even a beef bone broth, you can substitute either of those. The other ingredients that you’re going to need are three tablespoons of unsalted butter. I got us French butter since we’re making French onion soup,
But certainly any butter will do. You’re also going to need one tablespoon of olive oil. And maybe this is not traditional. I’m using Texas olive oil, but I am a Texan. Next, you’re going to need three tablespoons of all purpose flour and one teaspoon of salt.
I’m just using a fine ground sea salt, and then I have one teaspoon of sucanat. It stands for sugar cane natural. All it is is dried sugarcane juice. Depending on where you are on your traditional foods journey, if you’re still using white sugar in your kitchen, that’s fine too.
Now, something you want to keep in mind is that these type of recipes, these traditional recipes have been made by home cooks for hundreds of years, and so there’s a lot of variation from one home cook to another. Now, not everyone will add sugar, so that’s really up to you,
But it does help with browning the onions. Then what I’ve got here is a dry white vermouth, and we’re going to use a half a cup of this. Now, this is a fortified wine. You can also use just a regular white wine if you drink. We don’t drink,
So when I use different spirits like this in cooking, I tend to use fortified wines because they come with a screw top and there’s no fear of them turning into vinegar while they sit in the pantry opened. But if you want to leave this out, you certainly can.
As the topping for your soup, you’re going to want a baguette that we’re going to slice into about half inch rounds. And then you’re going to need approximately two cups of grated cheese. Now, you’ve got some options when it comes to the type of cheese
That you use to top your French onion soup. Now, what I’ve got here is gruyere, and it’s very traditional for using to top French onion soup, but it does have a strong flavor. So some people prefer to go with an emmental. And emmental is basically
What we call here in the United States a Swiss cheese. Other cheeses that can work very well for using as a topping on your French onion soup are comte, or something that my Italian mother really enjoyed doing was putting some grated parmigiano reggiano on top of her French onion soup.
Well, I’ve got my butter and my olive oil in my soup pot here. And this is a heavy bottom soup pot. It’s enamel cast iron. Other options could be a heavy bottom stainless steel soup pot or a stock pot. You want something that has a nice thick bottom
Because that’ll prevent your onions from burning. We want to brown them, but we don’t want to burn them. I’m just going to put this on low heat and let that butter melt along with the olive oil. And then we’ll go ahead and add in our onions.
Now, the reason we add in a little olive oil along with the butter is because the olive oil helps raise the smoke point of the butter, which has a lower smoke point, smoke point meaning as to what temperature can you heat a fat to without it smoking, without it burning.
And so the olive oil helps raise the smoke point of the butter a little bit, which helps the butter or helps to prevent the butter from burning. And this makes for a nice combination because the butter adds a beautiful taste to the soup. Could you use something like clarified butter or ghee,
Which is very similar to clarified butter, it’s where the milk solids have been removed from both of them, clarified butter as well as ghee? Yes, certainly you could do that, but you do miss out a little bit on the luscious flavor that full butter brings, not clarified or ghee.
Having the full butter, having the milk fat in there does bring a lovely flavor to the final product. Once the butter is melted, we’re going to go ahead and start adding in our onions. Now we’re just going to toss our onions in the butter and olive oil mixture
And let them start to simmer and soften a bit before we add any of the other ingredients. Now, allowing these to start softening up a bit will just take about 10 to 15 minutes. Some people like to cover it. We’re always doing this on very low heat.
I have this on my lowest setting on my little portable burner here, and you want to just keep an eye on them. So I prefer to just let these soften uncovered so I can keep an eye on them, so nothing is ever burning, even on a low setting,
But some folks like to put the lid on, they feel it kind of speeds it up. But I feel this is going to work out fine being uncovered, and especially if you’re new to making French onion soup, being able to watch and see everything that’s going on can be kind of reassuring.
And this is a great recipe to make as you’re doing other things in your kitchen because you can be checking in every once in a while, looking at how your onions are doing while you’re doing your other tasks. Now, I just want to mention when you go to cut up your onions
And you’re going to be cutting these in half and then cutting each half into all of these various moon shapes, you don’t want to throw out your onion skins. Put your onion skins into your scrap bag that you later use when you make bone broth. Onion skins are very nutritious.
They’re as nutritious as the onion itself, so you never want to throw them out. Well, our onions are softening beautifully. And the reason that we hold off on adding the salt and the sugar is because as the onions are softening in just the olive oil and butter,
It allows them to absorb the flavor of the butter, and then we’ll add the salt and the sugar after they’ve had a chance to soften and absorb some of that flavor, ’cause if we add these first, the salt will make the onion sweat. Then there’s more water that’s being released from the onions.
And water and oil fats don’t mix very well, and then the sugar may start to caramelize and brown a little too quickly before the onions have really had a chance to soften nicely. So that’s basically why we want to just soften the onions
For about 10 to 15 minutes in the butter and olive oil to really create the best flavor and the best texture of the final product. Well, it’s been just about 15 minutes and our onions are beautifully softened and very glossy, covered with the butter and the olive oil.
Now it’s time to go ahead and add in our salt and sugar and give everything a good stir. Well, now that we’ve added the salt and the sugar, the salt will help flavor the onions beautifully and the sugar will help with the browning process. Now, you don’t want to rush this process
Because as I mentioned earlier, we always want to be very careful not to burn our onions. We don’t want that burnt flavor being transferred to our soup. We just want to brown them beautifully where they’re caramelized and very rich in flavor.
So what I recommend is you can turn this up a little bit, maybe to like a medium or a medium low. Everyone’s stove top is different. This particular portable cooktop tends to run hot. So I’m probably going to just move this up from its lowest setting to a medium low, not a medium,
But keep an eye on it. If this is the first time that you’re caramelizing onions on your stove top, just keep an eye on it, just watch it closely and see if you can keep it on medium or if you need to keep it on medium low. Now, if for any reason,
As maybe you’re doing other tasks in the kitchen and you look over and it looks like it’s very hot and maybe browning a little too quickly, if you have a gas stove, you’re in luck, because you can just turn off the gas and chances are everything will be fine.
If you have an electric cooktop like I do or a little portable burner like this, you can easily just lift this off, transfer it to a heat proof surface, let everything cool down, and then once your cooktop is cooled down, you can transfer your onions back onto your cooktop
And just use a lower setting. Browning your onions on a cooktop on medium heat may take about 30 minutes, but don’t rush this process. If at 30 minutes they’ve not caramelized to a nice rich brown color that you like, and I’ll be sure to show you what that is,
Don’t try to crank up the heat and rush it along. Just give it a little time. It may take 40 minutes, it may take 45 minutes, but just keep checking in on them until they’ve reached that lovely golden brown color. Just don’t rush the process. You will be rewarded in the end
With a wonderful French onion soup. Now, can you do this in the oven? Yes, people will just put the lid on and pop this into maybe a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven and just periodically check on it and turn the onions around and whatnot.
But again, I always find when it comes to browning things and caramelizing things that I like to do this on the stove top and be able to keep a watchful eye on it. And especially if you’re a new home cook, doing things that you can watch and learn the process
And learn how long things tend to take when you’re cooking them on your stove top can be a wonderful learning experience and then something that you can record in your kitchen journal so that as time goes by and you start making recipes again and again,
Each time you can refer to your kitchen journal, make some notes, use the notes that you’ve already recorded from making this on previous occasions. And before you know it, you’re going to be making it off the top of your head simply through memorization. While we’re waiting for those onions to brown up,
This is a good time to talk about how to go about serving your French onion soup. If you’ve got little soup bowls like this that are little crocks, they work beautifully, but any type of soup bowl will work. Now, how to go about putting the soup into your soup bowl?
Well, there are different ways people like to do this. So let’s go over all the options. Keep in mind this is a very traditional recipe that’s been made by home cooks for a very long time, and it’s one of those recipes that make good use of maybe a bumper crop of onions
Or just an inexpensive onion. Making onion soup was a very affordable dish, and as a matter of fact, making just a very simple onion soup goes way back to even Roman times. But when it came to serving French onion soup, housewives, homemakers, home cooks had different ways of presenting this to their families.
If they had some slices of stale bread, they might just put them down into the bottom of the soup dish and then pour the onion soup on top. And then if they had some cheese, it would be grated, passed around, and everyone could sprinkle a little cheese
On top of their soup that would then melt and just make a luscious soup dish, a luscious dish of soup, because the onion soup would soften the bread on the bottom and provide a little bit of thickness, and the cheese would melt on top, giving that lovely sort of ooey gooey feature
That is so popular about French onion soup. Alternatively, the onion soup could be ladled right into the bowl, and then the slices of bread would be toasted until they were very crisp, and then they would be placed on top of the soup. Or if they were already stale,
They could be placed on top of the soup and would start to absorb the liquid, and then the cheese would be passed around and could be sprinkled on top. The bottom line is there was a very good way to make use of old bread or stale bread.
You could put it on the bottom of your soup bowl, let the soup soften and absorb it, or you could put it on the top and let it sort of start to sink into the soup and absorb the liquid. And then, of course, was always the cheese topping
That would make it extra special. And that’s why, as I shared with you in the beginning, there was always a variety of what type of cheeses the home cook might grate on top, because often it might just be little bits and bobs of various cheeses that the home cook had
Either back when, hundreds of years ago, they didn’t have refrigeration, and maybe just had it wrapped in a little bit of cloth and it was getting to the point where it needed to be used up, or once refrigeration was invented, home cooks would maybe look around in their fridge
And say, okay, I’ve got a little bit of this or that and I want to use it up, and I’m going to grate that on top. So there are a lot of options available to you. There’s really no, shall we say, official recipe when it comes to many of the traditional recipes
That I share with you, because traditional recipes were often, as my Italian mother would say, they were cucina povera. This was the cooking of the poor or the poor kitchens, but there was nothing poor about it because the food was delicious. And many of these cucina povera recipes
Are today considered fancy recipes at fine restaurants. But the important thing to remember is that you always have the ability to make substitutions and use what you have on hand, and most importantly, use up things so that you don’t waste them, whether it’s a little bits and bobs,
Some little bits and bobs of cheese or some stale bread, whatever the case may be. And you can take these little pieces of stale bread and bits and bobs of cheese, a few humble onions, and you can turn this into a luscious delicious meal. But even more importantly than that,
You turn it into a nutrient rich or nutrient dense meal because you’re using your beef stock or your beef bone broth. Or in this case, we’re going very traditional with a brown beef stock and you’re using butter and you’re using olive oil. And so you’re serving something
That when put all together is extremely nutritious. And that’s as traditional home cooks, as traditional foods home cooks, we always want to be maximizing the nutrition of our meals. This is very important. So we do our best to keep things affordable and to make things nutritious,
And also to always remember we want to make them delicious. Well, these are starting to show a little bit of browning, so I’m getting very excited. This smells so wonderful. When you make this dish, there’s nothing like cooking yellow onions in butter and olive oil. It just starts to smell so good.
Onions, even naturally, you don’t need Vidalias or the Texas sweet, just plain all regular yellow onions cooked in butter and olive oil start to become so rich in flavor and sweet. Now, what about the other serving options that we’ve come to really expect when it comes to French onion soup,
Where everything looks all toasted and bubbly and the cheese is caramelized? There are two ways to do that. And when we serve up this onion soup, I’m going to go into both ways in detail so you’ll know how to do this. One way is by making croutons that are topped with cheese
And then broiled in the oven and then placed on top of the soup. That’s very easy and it’s a good place for beginners to start. The other way is to take the slices of your toasted baguette, put it on top of your onion soup,
And then basically just cover the whole top with cheese, and then put the soup bowl under the broiler. And so if you take that option, you want to make sure that your soup bowl is oven proof under a broiler. And number two, a very good way to do it,
If say you’ve got a couple of bowls, say you’re doing four bowls of this, to put them on a baking sheet and put them into your oven, and then pull them out when they’re ready. And it’s the type of thing, whether you make the croutons with the cheese on top,
Under the broiler, or you put in your whole soup bowl, whatever you do, you want to keep an eye on it. Well, our onions are a perfect golden brown. Now I have a picture for you of what they looked like at the 15 minute mark, still rather white, but getting more translucent.
Then I have a picture for you of what they looked like at the 30 minute mark. I’m hoping that this will help you get a feel for how long it takes to get them to the color that you want. So I let them go for another 10 minutes,
So for a total of 40 minutes on medium. Well, on my cooktop, medium low, but it may be medium on your cooktop. But at 40 minutes, they were perfect. And look, this is what they look like. They’re gorgeous, the perfect color that you’re looking for. Now, over the course of that 40 minutes,
I was periodically checking in, keeping my eye on it, making sure that they weren’t darkening too quickly or potentially burning. I’d stir them around a bit and then just leave them be and let them go a little longer. And so you’ll want to do the same thing,
Just check them periodically, stir them around, make sure nothing’s sticking, nothing’s burning, and just let them simmer very slowly until they achieve the color that you’re looking for. Now that I’ve got these to the deep, golden brown color that I want, I’m going to go ahead and sprinkle in my flour.
Now, as I’ve shared with you a number of times throughout this video, yes, every home cook has her own version of how she likes to do this, or he likes to do this, but I do like to add flour. Not everyone does, but I find adding the flour
After the onions are beautifully cooked and brown just helps to bring everything together into almost like a roux, so that when we go ahead and add in our liquid, we don’t have the fat floating to the top, number one. And number two, the flour does add a little richness
And a little thickness to the soup. Now, what if you don’t want to use flour? You can certainly leave it out. Alternatively, and this is something that I believe home cooks did over the years of making French onion soup, is to sometimes add a little potato and it would just cook and soften
And basically become softened and mushy like a mashed potato. You could probably even use mashed potatoes if you had some leftover. And the potato would, in essence, thicken the soup and help homogenize, in essence, the fat that’s in the soup so that you had this nice, rich, luscious soup
And nothing with fat floating on the top. Now, if you decide to add in the flour at this point, you’ve just sprinkled it on top and you’re just going to mix it all together, and you’re going to let the flour cook with the onions for just a couple of minutes.
You just want to cook off the raw taste that flour can have. If, for example, you were able to taste it a little out of your bowl, it would have just uncooked flavor, and you want to cook that off so that you don’t have that flavor in your soup. But most importantly,
The flour and the fat that’s in with the onions and any little bit of moisture that has also developed during the sauteing of the onion process has now been absorbed by the flour. And the flour has also coated all of the onions, and that is what’s going to help
With the thickening process of the soup and also the prevention of fat coming and floating to the top. Now, if you’re using the dry white vermouth, or if you’re using white wine, this is a great time to go ahead and add it in. I’m basically going to use this in essence
As the liquid for deglazing the pan. But if you’re not using this, don’t worry, you can just go ahead and use a little of your beef stock. I just want to take a minute before we add our brown beef stock into the soup pot to talk about the herb thyme.
When I make the brown beef stock, I use thyme, so I don’t add any to the soup as it’s simmering. But if maybe you’re using a simple beef stock that you’ve not made with thyme, or a bone broth, a beef bone broth that you’ve not made with thyme,
And you want the flavor of thyme in your onion soup, you can definitely just tie this up and throw it in or put it in a little cheesecloth, whatever way that you want to handle it. I find it interesting that some recipes will call for thyme,
And I’ve been thinking about this onion soup because I can just imagine mothers of generations before us making this, especially if people in the family might’ve had colds and flu. And the reason I say that is because thyme is wonderful for helping with coughs and colds and congestions
And so on and so forth, as the sort of a natural home remedy. The other thing that’s very interesting that we’re not going to do, but many recipes will also call for topping your onion soup off with a little bit of cognac. And so it makes me wonder
If between the thyme and the cognac, the onion soup was becoming a bit of like a hot toddy if people had a cold or a flu. Now we’re going to go ahead and add in our eight cups or two quarts of our brown beef stock.
Oh, I think this is just going to be delicious. Then once you get all your brown beef stock in, just go ahead and stir this well to make sure that the onions are well distributed through the stock. Now we’re going to bring this up to a boil,
And the minute it comes up to a boil, we’re going to turn the heat down to low, and then we’re going to cover our soup pot with the lid, but we’re going to leave it slightly tilted to allow for a little bit of evaporation
So that we can get a little thickening of our soup. Well, this has come up to a boil. I’m just giving it a stir. I’m going to turn my heat down to the lowest setting and then I’m going to put this lid on.
But as I said, I’m just going to keep this slightly tilted. Now, I’m going to let this simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, help all the flavors to meld, to have any alcohol flavor from the dry vermouth cook off. And so that’s what we’re going to do.
So we’ll come back in about 20 or 30 minutes and we’ll get ready to prepare this to be served. Well, I let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes or so. It looks glorious, it’s reduced a little bit, and the aroma is amazing.
Now what I want to do is just take a little taste test here and see how the soup tastes to see if we need to add any salt and if we want some black pepper. Mm, that’s really good. I think you’re going to enjoy this. What I’m going to do, though,
Is I do feel it needs a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper. I’m just going to put in a little bit of salt. Sorry for the sound. (salt mill whirring) I love this electric salt mill. And the pepper mill is the same thing, it’s wonderful. Oops. (laughs)
It’s wonderful if your hands are tired or if you only have one clean hand, it can work great. Or if you have arthritis, I know some of you have shared that with me, these are terrific. My husband gave them to me for Christmas and I just love them. If you’re interested,
I’ll put a link in the description below. Well, that’s perfect now. So I’m going to go ahead and put this lid on just to keep that warm. And now let’s talk about how we’re going to serve this and the making of the croutons and the topping it with cheese.
Now this makes approximately four servings. So you’re going to want to get a baguette and you’re going to want to cut approximately 12 to 16 rounds because depending on the size of your soup bowl, you may need only three or you may need four. If your rounds are already stale, you’re in business,
You can move quickly to the next step. If they are fresh bread, yes, if you want, you can just use them fresh. They’re still going to absorb the broth, but it always works really well if they’re nice and stale or very crisp.
So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take these ’cause they’re cut from a fresh baguette, and I’m going to put them on a baking sheet. What I’ve got here is a lined baking sheet. I’ve just put down a piece of parchment paper, you’ll see why in a minute.
Well, in a little bit, let’s toast up these first. What I’m going to do is just put these in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven, and I’m just going to, in essence, dry them out. You are baking them, but they’ll get a little toasted,
They’ll get a little dried out, they’ll get a little crisp, and they’ll be perfect for the soup. So just keep an eye on them. Other options when you do this is you can drizzle them with a little olive oil if you want. You can rub them with a cut clove of garlic.
You can do both, whatever you like. However, I really think they’re best if they’re just kept plain, because with them just being plain and no feeling, or, not feeling, but no sense of the garlic taste really lets the onions and the cheese shine through.
And I prefer not to drizzle them with olive oil because that can sometimes interfere with the crouton really being able to absorb the soup very well. And you want it to really absorb the soup and become very soft. Alrighty, so let’s go put these in the oven, 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
We’ll just keep an eye on them. May take 15 minutes or so. Well, I am getting my soup bowls ready, but I also wanted to mention that I’ve got grated here the Swiss cheese. This is what my family likes the best so this is what I’m going to use. And you can certainly use, as we discussed earlier, any cheese that you like.
Now, I eyeballed this. That’s the beautiful thing about home cooking. It’s not an exact science, but you’re going to want about two cups of cheese so that you can, in the sense that this is four servings, with two cups of cheese,
You can put a half a cup of grated cheese on each soup bowl, which is a lovely generous amount. Now, as I mentioned before, you have a number of options as to how to serve this, and that’s what makes this great because if you’re in a rush for time,
You can just put your croutons once they come out of the oven, or if they’re stale, you can just put your croutons right into your soup bowl, put in your soup, sprinkle it with cheese, serve it, and call it a day. The other option is put your soup in first,
Put your stale croutons on top, sprinkle it with cheese, serve it, and call it a day. Now what I want to show you how to do is options three and four. Option three can be very easy to do if you’re a little nervous about transferring the soup bowls into your oven,
Or if your soup bowls are not oven safe. Once I’ve dried out my croutons, we’re going to sprinkle them with some cheese and then we’re going to pop them under the broiler. Once they’re all nice and bubbly and crisp, we can just top them right onto our soup.
Option number four, which we’ll also do, is we’ll put our soup into our soup bowl, we’ll put our toasted or dried out croutons on top, we’ll sprinkle it generously with cheese, and then we’ll pop that under the broiler and let everything broil up beautifully and become bubbly together,
And then you can serve it. Well, my croutons were in the oven for about 15 minutes. Halfway through, I just flip them over and check them, and now they’re nice and crisp. Now, what I’m going to do with six of the croutons is simply take little bits of this grated Swiss cheese
And just sprinkle it on top. Now we’re going to pop these under the broiler and the cheese is going to melt and become all bubbly and luscious. Now, when you do this, don’t worry if little pieces of the grated cheese fall to the side and fall off of the crouton, that’s fine.
They’re going to bubble up too, and it’s going to still be kind of attached to the crouton and gives its somewhat of the charm in its appearance when you go and top the soup. Now we’re going to put everything into the broiler at the same time.
So what I’m going to do is go ahead, look at this lusciousness. Mmm. I’m going to go ahead and fill my soup bowl, two of them to be exact, and then I’m going to top them with the croutons, and then I’m going to sprinkle the cheese on top,
And then we’ll put everything into the broiler. Now I’m going to take my other croutons, and I’m just going to go ahead and place these right on top of the hot soup. And then the piece de resistance. I’m going to go ahead and just start sprinkling this cheese all over the top of those croutons. And no matter where it falls, it’s going to be perfect. I just topped these off with a little extra broth just to bring it right up to the rim
To give it the appearance of what I like to call abbondanza, the appearance of abundance. So now I’m going to go and pop these under the broiler, and I’m going to watch them very closely. Well, the one where we put the croutons into the soup and then put the cheese on top
And put it under the broiler looks glorious. I can’t wait to give this a taste. However, I do want to show you how our croutons came. You’ll see it doesn’t really matter if the cheese is off a little. It’ll attach ane it’ll crisp up. It’s quite crisp.
I think it’s going to be very tasty as well. And then you can just take these and then just plop them down onto your soup, and then you can just go and finish it off with additional croutons. And if you want, you can certainly bring grated cheese
To the table if folks want to sprinkle a little more cheese on top. Well, let’s dig into this and give this a taste. Oh my goodness, look at this lusciousness. Alrighty, here we go. Mmm. Boy, that’s the ultimate comfort food, isn’t it? That’s delicious. (upbeat music) Now if you’d like to learn
How to make an assortment of broths, stocks, bone broths, and wonderfully delicious and nutritious soups, be sure to click on this video over here where I have a full playlist for you with all that and more. And I’ll see you over there in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen. Love and God bless.

26 Comments
Hi Sweet Friends, In this easy to follow cooking video tutorial, learn How to Make a Traditional Homemade French Onion Soup. This is a classic French Onion Soup recipe that is made with caramelized onions. This is real homemade French Onion Soup with all of the goodness provided by slowly caramelized onions and lots of good melted cheese on top also known as French Onion Soup Gratinée! ⬇ FRENCH ONION SOUP RECIPE BELOW ⬇ ➡WATCH NEXT: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U12d9DsrmYgWaWI2CB7-I_s&si=JBYAbPuIEBrsz7Zp
➡ORDER THE MODERN PIONEER COOKBOOK HERE: https://marysnest.com/my-cookbook
🍎FREE 250+ PAGE MODERN PIONEER COOKBOOK CURRICULUM: https://marysnest.com/cookbook-curriculum/ (No Email Required.)
➡If you enjoy learning how to be a Modern Pioneer in the Kitchen, consider SUBSCRIBING to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/marysnest?sub_confirmation=1 It’s free!
➡My YouTube Channel Home Page: https://YouTube.com/MarysNest
🍎FRENCH ONION SOUP INGREDIENTS:
5 Medium Yellow Onions
3 tbsp Butter – unsalted
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Unrefined Whole Cane Sugar – if using white sugar decrease to 1/2 tsp
3 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
2 qt (or 8 c) Brown Beef Stock
1/2 c Dry White Wine or Dry White Vermouth
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Baguette
2 Cups Gruyère or Emmental Cheese
🍎 PRINT RECIPE HERE: https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-traditional-french-onion-soup/
➡TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
0:25 French Onion Soup Ingredients
3:48 How to Make French Onion Soup
28:13 How to Serve French Onion Soup Gratinée
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some of my links below are affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, I'll receive a small commission. It does not affect the price you pay.
✳MARY'S NEST AMAZON SHOP: Visit https://www.amazon.com/shop/marysnest
✳KITCHEN EQUIPMENT USED IN THIS VIDEO:
►Portable Cooktop: https://amzn.to/4a3WUmd
►Heavy Bottom Soup Pot: https://amzn.to/4a2SHz9
►Electric Salt and Pepper Mills: https://amzn.to/3v05un0
►Glass Bowls: https://amzn.to/3OT86tz
✳ALWAYS IN MY KITCHEN:
►See EVERYTHING in My Shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/marysnest
►Favorite Aprons: https://www.amazon.com/shop/marysnest/list/1TY5Q86EU2YT3
►Santoku Knife: https://amzn.to/3T6ybYT
►Maple Cutting Board: https://amzn.to/46zvHWc
►Large Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven: https://amzn.to/3TcsKIh
✳RECOMMENDED READING:
►The Modern Pioneer Cookbook: https://amzn.to/3MBU8fo
►Nourishing Traditions: https://amzn.to/2PLIXTG
✳DISCOUNT CODES: https://marysnest.com/shopping-guide/ Get up to 15% off discounts from US Wellness Meats, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, GreenStalks, and More!
➡FREE 36-PAGE ESSENTIAL TRADITIONAL FOODS PANTRY LIST: https://marysnest.com/free-traditional-foods-pantry-list/
➡SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE MARY'S NEST NEWSLETTER: https://marysnest.com/newsletter/
➡JOIN THE TRADITIONAL FOODS KITCHEN ACADEMY (Optional Membership Community): https://youtube.com/marysnest/join
➡RELATED VIDEOS:
▶ How to Make Brown Beef Stock: https://youtu.be/AzTMtZU2MS8?si=9ADkcJrJZmVmGrk4
▶How to Make a Simple Beef Stock: https://youtu.be/1Q61_p-ajj8?si=-D-QkE5VEDZTCCqN
▶How to Make Beef Bone Broth: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U1HA6YCQyqjV6ZLBxy_Y7Dz&si=P0EtnBAyk5IjZVSw
▶ Broth, Stock, and Bone Broth: https://youtu.be/DHC68NdrPDs?si=HQa2qA2x2rXo8uAW
➡POPULAR VIDEO SERIES:
▶MASTER THE BASICS OF TRADITIONAL NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS COOKING: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U3b4eu0QraZReKlGzA11h3y
▶ULTIMATE PREPPER PANTRY SERIES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkRuW3pBo2U0WCxRNWm60Yt0ihEQbfpUl
▶RECENT VIDEO UPLOADS: https://www.youtube.com/c/MarysNest/videos
❤CONNECT:
►WEBSITE: https://marysnest.com/
►ALL MY RECIPES and VIDEOS: https://marysnest.com/blog-and-videos/
📬I’d love to hear from you!
Mary’s Nest
P.O. Box 342001
Austin, TX 78734
Thanks for watching!
Love and God Bless, Mary
Please Come over and make me this & a Pot Roast!! 😋😋😀 Yummy!!!
For some reason, I have always been too intimidated to make this soup. You make it seem so simple, Mary. Plan to give it a whirl this weekend. Thank you! 🤗
We always made our French onion soup with 4 types of "onions"… regular brown skinned onions, Leek, Chives and green Spring onions. The flavor becomes more complex than with just one kind of onion. Anyway, that is how we served it in Switzerland where I am from.
Can You leave the wine or vermouth out? Thanks for Sharing.
This is one of my favorite types of soup. I love to use Vidalia when they are in season. I usually buy no less than 20 lbs of the. Some of them get processed and frozen, and others are freeze dried.
Oh, and Mary, thank you so much for introducing me to sucanat. It’s so hard to find locally so I have to order it from Azure Standard. That’s actually where I can get it at the best price.
I love that it looks like a heart
Would the onion beef broth be safe to can?
I guess I can instead use einkorn for white flour?
Classic indeed Mary thank you thank you very much stay bless with your family.
Lord Almighty Have Mercy!! 🤤🤤🤤😍
It's so unexpected and wonderful to see you in Backwoods Home magazine and also to hear your name on the podcast of Prepping 2.0. It was all very complimentary and fun.
Very nice! Thanks for the video on this favorite dish. I haven't made it in probably a decade or so. Now how did that drop off my radar screen as a yummy (and healthy) dish? Thanks so much. I so appreciate you!
My mouth was watering the entire video. I will be making this very soon. YUM!!
💜💜💜💜💜💜
Oh that just looks ohsoyum!
I appreciate you being here !
Was in the library of Orillia, ONT Canada and saw your cookbook on the desolate shelves when you come on the 2nd floor! It was the first display upon entering! I’m 15 hours away from home myself but your book traveled even further than I! I took a photo, if your interested?
Miss Mary that looked delicious and you made my mouth water. I made it one time and it was good, but I did it with store bought beef broth. I will try this with homemade beef broth next time. Thank you for sharing and God Bless you and your family. 🥰🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🍲🍲🍲🍲🍲💖💖💖💖💖👍👍👍👍👍🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟(🌹🐞🦂🌵)
What a wonderful looking soup. Thanks for sharing the recipe and tips, Mary.
Looks delicious. I love onions. They're in nearly every dish I eat. Lee doesn't like them. Daniel likes them sometimes. I guess I can make a one serving portion for myself. Still waiting for the money to get the equipment required to do the job Then I can have my orientation and start working.
I’ve said it before – you’re a wonderful teacher. It’s a rare gift.
I make a huge batch of it every year at the end of the reenactment camp I go. Everyone loves it.
Although I don't begrudge you the success of your book (I bought a copy). Advertising 2 sets of your books in the background of your small kitchen is a bit over the top. Might I kindly suggest only one set? Please accept my humble comment as constructive criticism. Thank you for all you do.
If you (the generic you, anyone except me) want to win me over in a hurry, just put a nicely broiled bowl of this in front of me. Even better, when I finish the first, put ANOTHER bowl in front of me 🙂
One of my favorites (and luckily only I like it, so i get extra!)! You have such a joyous way of explaining in great detail how to do something. I've been very nostalgic recently, thinking about my grandmother's food that I regretfully never learned her recipes. This takes me back to my childhood! Thank you! 😊
Hello Mary I love french onion soup and I love making it from scratch my daughter on the other hand is a vegetarian so I have to make hers with my homemade vegetable broth. I was wondering if you could show more vegetarian meals. I have created for her but I could always use some more fresh ideas specially on how to store certain items so they don't go bad for instance mushrooms I dehydrate them grind them into a powder and I'm able to store them that way and put the powder in the meals I make for her because that is a good protein for her to get rather than protein from meat. So any suggestions you might have I would be truly grateful
Thank you