On this cook-along episode, Babish is making you french onion soup in 2 hours!
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**French Onion Soup with Bone Marrow Toasts**
**Ingredients**
For the Bone Marrow and Toasts:
– 4–6 marrow bones, cut lengthwise or crosswise
– Cold water & salt (for brining)
– 1 baguette, sliced into 2 cm pieces (about 4 per serving)
– Reserved rendered marrow fat (or substitute with butter/oil)
– 1 garlic clove
– Salt, to taste
For the Soup:
– 8 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
– 4 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
– 1–2 tbsp all-purpose flour
– 1–2 tsp tomato paste (optional)
– 2–3 tbsp brandy
– 6 cups beef stock or bone broth
– 1 tbsp soy sauce
– 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (or to taste)
– 1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
– Salt, to taste
For the Bouquet Garni:
– 2–3 sprigs thyme
– 2–3 sprigs parsley
– 1 bay leaf
– 1 leek green or cheesecloth for wrapping
– Kitchen twine
For Serving:
– Bone marrow (whipped into a paste)
– 1½–2 cups grated Gruyère cheese
– Optional: finely chopped fresh chives
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**Instructions**
**1. Prepare Bone Marrow:**
1. **Brine the bones**: Soak marrow bones in salted water overnight (if frozen, this also helps thaw them).
2. **Roast**: Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Place bones cut side up on a foil “cradle” to prevent tipping. Roast for ~20–25 minutes until marrow is puffed and fat is rendered.
3. **Separate fat and marrow**: Cool slightly. Scoop out marrow and reserve. Strain and reserve rendered fat for toasts.
**2. Toast the Baguette:**
1. Slice baguette into 2 cm rounds. Cut some pieces in half if needed to fit soup crocks.
2. Brush both sides with marrow fat. Sprinkle with salt.
3. Toast in a 400°F oven (preferably convection) on a wire rack until golden brown and crispy, flipping if needed.
**3. Caramelize the Onions:**
1. In a large nonstick or heavy-bottomed sauté pan, melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat.
2. Add sliced onions and a splash (~½ cup) of water. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until softened (~5–10 min).
3. Remove lid, stir frequently, and cook down for 45–60 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent burning. You want them soft, sweet, and deeply golden.
**4. Build the Soup:**
1. Transfer onions to a soup pot with 1–2 tbsp butter.
2. Add 1–2 tbsp flour and cook, stirring, for 1–2 minutes to lightly brown and cook off raw flour taste.
3. Stir in tomato paste (if using).
4. Deglaze with brandy, scraping up fond.
5. Add stock in stages, stirring well to incorporate flour.
6. Add soy sauce, Worcestershire, and fish sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes.
**5. Add Bouquet Garni:**
1. Tie herbs in leek greens or cheesecloth.
2. Add to soup and simmer during the last 15–20 minutes. Remove before serving.
**6. Assemble & Broil:**
1. Preheat broiler.
2. Spread whipped bone marrow on toasts, then grate raw garlic over each one.
3. Ladle hot soup into oven-safe crocks, place toasts on top, and generously top with grated Gruyère.
4. Broil until cheese is melted, bubbly, and golden brown (2–5 minutes depending on your broiler).
**7. Finish & Serve:**
1. Garnish with chopped chives.
2. Enjoy with temperature-aware caution
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35 Comments
amazing i love the format!! Thank you soooooo much! French onion soup is our favorite. Also I love that you were praising Elton Brown he is a fantastic and creative person, I learned so much from him. And your no slouch lol. Here at my house we all love you. Thank you so very much!
I was thinking, what gets more scary but more safe at the same time, and it reminded me of when people are able to display great feats of strength under times of emergency. Our minds can become like knives in that way.
I'm so happy you brought this series back! It's the only one I regularly watch. No offense, but most of your current content is the TV equivalent of junk food. I watch it and then I feel worse afterwards. Tier lists/ranked/babish eats
I was filled with so much gratitude during your 5 minutes of reflection that it actually brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for holding space for calm and reflection. Respect.
this man can't fuggin peel a boiled egg. All future input should be considered null.
Really appreciated the mindfulness tips! Would love more of this combined with food content like this! ❤
Me: "No way I am watching a guy make soup for 2 hours.
Me: (2 hours later) "Well, I'll be dammed"
Babish, this might just be one of my favorite episodes that you have ever made. Relaxed, conversational, calm, and focused on cooking something delicious. Mindful indeed! Thank you.
funnily enough tthis is a bit reminiscent of the way my dad makes curry
You had Aljo on, Hes dangerous and safe
loving this series! its nice to have chill cooking somtimes
I love how real this is, in a sea of curated, planned and produced content, this seems truly authentic. Especially the small interludes while the food cooks.
i love the concept of rover… i dont like the execution. the constant need to follow you and keep your face in the center of the camera was almost nauseating. if the movement were also smoother it may not have been so bad .
Really really loving this show ❤
My knifes are razor sharp. Dull knives are dangerous
I’m 400 times on my knife sharpener
id like to see him do a fish dish
love it
Loved every part of this. You're about to catch lightning in a bottle again. I can't wait to see more. Thank you so much.
Love this content – real, vulnerable and intimate…with some cooking! Thank you <3
A classic grocery run dinner. I'd be a fan of Coq Au Vin.
Appreciate!
This new cooking show called Babish in the background, is pretty chill. He's always back there, lurking, cooking, doing stuff.
These are some of my favorite videos ever on YouTube – except for your ranking videos.
"You cant be winning ALL the time. Forget the people who say you need to do X or you're a loser. You might be a loser by their metric, but I wouldnt want to be judged by their metric. That'd make me a REAL loser."
Andrew, please do this series as much as you want for as long as you want, because in my opinion, it's the most important thing thats ever come out of your channel, maybe out of all of Youtube. Thank you for this.
I would personally love a 5 minute mindfulness break in these videos… and i'm excited to try and make this soup myself some day!
I got so excited when I saw this video I love this series
Thanks Andrew. Can you make a whole line of utensils for me to buy please?
I learned so many small things from this that they don't tell you in cooking vids and books, and from being able to watch you do things from start to finish. The real talk about your experiences with hospice anchored me into the five minutes of quiet. It felt like peacefully not being alone in the world for a little while. I'll definitely be tuning in to others you make like this. Great you see you enjoying the format, too, it makes me feel better as a viewer.
P.S. if you end up messing up something you're cooking, I'd love to see how you'd deal with it if you were just home alone and off camera. There are plenty of times I have to salvage something, or decide if I need to call it and throw all or part away.
Contact lenses or glasses help with the onion cutting too. I never have a problem when I'm wearing my contacts. Also, use some of the onion skins when making the marrow broth – it adds flavor and color.
It’s this show, the meditation, the mental health commentary, and of course the cooking, that makes me want to send my dollars.
I’ve always meant to do the AB method for caramelized onions with the electric skillet.
Let’s play a game called how many times will I fall asleep to a YouTube video before finishing it
The safest version is also the scariest version = Epstein‘s Island
I love this video, it's the first I've watched of this series and I love how relaxing it is. How you get into things that are more personal (and I think the quips are perfectly appropriate), how you also just sprinkle some minutes of silence in to just listen, hang out, and well, practice mindfulness. So…thank you for the video 🙂
Only thing I'd think of could improve it was if you'd record the cooking sounds separately and maybe make a mix, just to get less of the room noise in 🙂 ik it's a bit more work, so it's kinda whatever yk