[Sca-cooks] onion soup not period?

[A F Murphy]

Remember, when I posted a while back about making a brown stock (or, in
my case, not making a really brown stock) for soup, Muirdach gently
explained to me that you don't use brown stock for soup anyway. You
explained to him that us weird Americans do...

So, what does that say about the question of brown stock in soup in
period Europe? If it isn't standard now, at least in fine French
cooking, is the problem not that it didn't happen, but that we (perhaps
incorrectly) think it should? Am I making sense?

I know I've seen a modern recipe for onion soup that called for chicken
stock, which was supposed to be from a French restaurant.

Anne

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

>
> In general, one of the big limitations on soups in period Europe is
> likely to be an effective absence of brown stocks. While I could see
> the bones from roast meat going into the stockpot (hopefully not
> after being among the scented rushes and chewed by dogs), the kind of
> caramelization of the bones required for a good brown beef or veal
> stock doesn't seem to be happening in period, AFAIK.
>