French Onion Soup

So I'm going to try to make French Onion Soup for the first time over the weekend. All recipes I see say to cut the onions thinly except Cooking in Russia, who says they should be quartered and caramelised before being blitzed in the blender. He says this will maximise their sweetness and minimise the strong onion taste, and is a more authentic way of doing it. However, I don't know what it's supposed to taste like or if Cooking in Russia is right about this. Any idea Veeky Forums?

Slice them thinly.

>quartered and caramelised before being blitzed in the blender.

Even if you're using cookinginrussia's recipe you still want to slice them thinly before you caramelize them. Why? The thinner you slice them the faster they will caramelize. Quartering onions before caramelizing them is just a waste of time. Cut them thinner so the process won't taste as long.

Also, consulting a russian source for a French dish seems a bit odd. Want to cook French food? Ask the French. Look up recipes from Julia Child, Paul Bocuse, Ramsay, or Jacques Pepin (etc.).

>Cooking in Russia
Non.

Cooking in Russia isn't a Russian guy, I believe he's American and an ex-professional chef (though I believe he recently opened a restaurant in Helsinki, so may be back doing it), and is usually quite highly regarded on Veeky Forums. But yeah, I was a bit dubious about this particular method, as nobody else suggests it.
How dark do you guys think the onions should be?

>blitzed in the blender
>more authentic
exactly how did you think this was logical? I'm not even mad, just puzzled

sounds like you want to make RUSSIAN onion soup, my man

French onion soup refers to frenching the onion, which is slicing thinly. Like french fries. Neither recipe is actually french

Also, if I'm not mistaken for that soup you slice the onions perpendicular to the root. I cook them on low heat, adding white wine (broth or water would work of course) whenever they start to brown a little, until they get a light brown.

>dish developed in times when the country was ruined and families had literally nothing to work with
>caramelised and blitzed in the blender
fucking wat?
I know almost everyone skips the stoy part, but it can help you get a clue of what the "original taste" should be like.

Ha ha, yeah, I was thinking that, but I don't think he meant the blender part, more the roasting part.
His logic about cutting it into just quarters first is that the more you cut through the cells, the more the harsh onion taste is released, and by roasting it first, you get more sweetness and less harsh onion flavour. I guess the blitzing (not to a smooth consistency) is just easier than trying to cut soft onions.
I'll follow the general wisdom first and experiment, I guess, but I don't know what level of sweetness to onioniness there should be.

not everyone reads history books, stoyboy

He's easily the best foodtuber

That's what I initially heard, but all sources point to it bring French.
I've read you do slice lengthwise to reduce breaking so many cells that would result in a harsh oniony taste. Cooking in Russia mentions this and says that the reason the authentic/correct way states to roast them first is to avoid cutting raw any more than necessary for the same reason (to avoid breaking cells).
I know it sounds like I'm arguing his case, but I don't want to misrepresent what he says, which I may have done.
I think I'll do a bit of experimenting and report back to Veeky Forums on my findings.

You can caramelise something without any extra resources

>not searching thoroughly about a dish before trying to make it
stay flipping burgers

Please see here
and here
for a little clarification on what I meant (obviously blenders weren't around in peasant times!)

I'm not the guy you're replying to, but a lot of classic French recipes originally called for ingredients to be pureed manually and then forced through a tamis (a fine metal screen) to make a smooth "blend". Nowadays that's done with a blender or food processor instead. Julia Child discusses this in detail in her classic French cookbook.

Obviously nobody is saying that a blender is "authentic", but it is the modern equivalent of passing food through a tamis.

>Cooking in Russia mentions this and says that the reason the authentic/correct way states to roast them first is to avoid cutting raw any more than necessary for the same reason (to avoid breaking cells).

That may have been the reason he gave but it doesn't make much sense. There's no reason to avoid breaking cells. In fact you WANT to break as many cells as possible so that the water cooks out faster.

When you carmelize onions two things happen. First, the water cooks out (evaporates). This is obvious if you look at before-and-after pics of carmelized onions. Notice how much volume you lose as they cook. Then, as the water content leaves the onion, the temperature starts to increase at which point the natural sugars in the onions caramelize.

Breaking cells has nothing to do with a harsh oniony taste. That's just nonsense. However, breaking cells (by slicing the onions very thing) creates more surface area for the water to cook out, which saves you time and effort in your cooking.

Raw onions can have a harsh taste, but that's moderated by the long slow cooking. It has nothing to do with breaking cells.

I do rate his videos. Am thinking about asking for one of his books for Christmas.

Yeah I've comsidered getting one too

OP here, FYI Cooking in Russia just blitzes it to a rough consistency to chop them up, doesn't blend it.

Best way to caramelize onions is 8 hours in a slow cooker. Traditional method is too boring.

if people aim for an "authentic" taste then they need to scrap all the fancy shit because it's peasant food so your "original" recipe is more likely to be about letting onions boils for half a day in a pot that was used for various other sooups for months and was never cleaned, just refilled.
And in the end you probably pour a glass of wine in the bowl and dried old bread in it to make it a complete peasant meal.