[Sca-cooks] Christmas Dinner

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 24, 2008, at 5:02 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> What is this "gratineeing"?

Basically, browned on top, usually involving some sort of topping like  
grated cheese, bread crumbs, etc. In the French Onion Soup  
controversy, the soup (which, yes, is generally made with both brown  
stock and browned onions), you've got the French onion soup (a.k.a.  
onion soup) that is eaten in France, which is often served with a  
crouton of toasted or fried bread floating on top, and which has often  
been previously been topped with grated cheese and baked/browned on  
top. This is them served with or on top of the soup. In other places,  
what is known as French onion soup involves a specific presentation of  
the soup in a little casserole, with that same crouton floating on  
top, or in, the soup, then the whole thing is stopped with grated  
cheese (classically, Gruyere, but nowadays you often find things like  
mozzarella being used), and broiled to produce a melty-cheesy-crust on  
top of the whole thing.

While this is certainly yummy, too often it seems like a way to make  
mediocre soup an excuse to eat a bowl of melted cheese...

> When it was first mentioned, I was wondering whether this was a  
> brown or a white onion soup.  Or does "French" onion soup always  
> imply that it is brown, broth based rather than white, milk or  
> almond milk based?

Classically, French onion soup involves brown veal stock, and it is  
usually made with a brown stock. In places like Ireland and possibly  
the UK, if you simply ask for onion soup, you may get something pale  
in color (and it's good, too).

>  Until I started doing some medieval style cooking, and maybe this  
> list, I wasn't even aware that there were white onion soups.   
> However, for whatever reason, most of the period onion soup recipes  
> I've got do seem to be white ones.

I'm sure there are and will be exceptions, but speaking very  
generally, I don't recall seeing too many instances of bones being  
roasted for brown stock in period; although it's possible that some  
roasted ends of bones made it into the generic stockpot. There are a  
lot of dishes garnished with onions fried brown, though.

Happy holiday to all!

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter