[Sca-cooks] Onion soup (was Chicken broth)

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Sue Clemenger:
>Thanks, Avraham/Randy...
>I was a bit confused there, since I couldn't really get my mind around a
>"white" stock made from beef....
>--maire
>
>Avraham haRofeh wrote:
>>
>>  Just so everyone is clear, since Gorgeous wasn't, exactly - this
>>is a "white"
>>  beef stock - the stock is made from plain beef bones - as opposed to a more
>  > typical "brown" beef stock, where the bones are roasted first.

Yep. "White" as opposed to "brown", is all. Canned chicken broth is
probably the most common example of what most people think of when
they think of a "white" stock, but it can be made from unroasted beef
and/or veal bones, less commonly from the bones of pork or lamb, and
from poultry.

In classical French cookery, the cuisine that has gone to the most
trouble to define and categorize this type of thing, brown stocks are
mostly made from veal and/or beef, but occasionally other meats,
especially for special purposes such as game sauces.

As for confusion over French onion soup, I think GM is simply
thinking --rightly-- of the kind of onion soup you get in France
(where there is no need to explain that it is "French" onion soup;
it's simply onion soup), made generally from a white beef consomme,
and often topped with a crouton on which a cheese like
Parmigiano-Reggiano or Gruyere has been melted/gratineed. But what
Americans call "French Onion Soup" is an American variation,
generally done with brown stock and sometimes darkened further by
partially caramelizing the onions; the whole toast-and-cheese
presentation is somewhat different from European counterparts.

Adamantius