[Sca-cooks] Christmas Dinner
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Wed Dec 24 14:29:17 PST 2008
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
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