Friday, June 22, 2018

Old-Style San Francisco French Onion Soup (1884)

  • 1 cup sweet butter
  • 4 large white onions
  • 6 cups beef stock
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 4 slices San Francisco sour dough bread, toasted
  • 4 tbspns grated Parmesan cheese, or more to taste
  • 4 egg yolks
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Melt the butter over low heat in a deep. heavy pan. Cut the onions into large pieces, and heat them in the butter, adding salt and pepper, but do not brown. Immediately add 3 cups of beef stock and 1/4 cup of milk. 

Cook 1 hour at a slow simmer, the slower the better. After 1 hour, add the additional 3 cups of beef stock and 1/4 cup of milk to the soup mixture. Again simmer slowly for 1 hour. 

In a separate deep, heavy pan, arrange the 4 slices of the toasted sour dough bread. Sprinkle over each a tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese. Just before the soup is finished simmering, beat the 4 egg yolks, and add to them 2 tablespoons of the soup. Pour this egg mixture over the bread and cheese. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

Then pour the rest of the soup over the bread and cheese. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on the soup, and serve at once. Serves 4.


(Origin - "Sumptuous Dining in Gaslight San Francisco" by Frances de  Talavera Berger and John Parks Custis, 1985. This dish was by Chef Edward Blanquie, proprietor of Jack's from the 1890s until the Great Fire of 1906.) 

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