My first French Friday fail! Oh we've enjoyed some of the dishes more than others. Maybe one component of a dish was not our favorite but this is the first time we just didn't get it all. Simply did not work for us...in its first incarnation that is! So I tried to deconstruct it. What do you do with 4 pounds of cooked onions? I don't know about the rest of the world but if you're from Oklahoma you think Onion Burgers!
I had some questions about the recipe from the beginning. This was one time I REALLY needed the P&Q section we used to have! Not complaining...I know Laurie has a whole life apart from us...I'm just saying. In studying other recipes and calling on experience I think the problem was two fold for me. My onions didn't caramelize, not even after close to 3 HOURS! And I used a big pot, like 7 or 9 quarts. The other issue was the chicken broth. I wondered how to get the full rich flavor of a delicious soup using chicken broth but I decided to try it. I felt like I needed to roast beef bones and then gently simmer for hours. If Dorie says you can get a delicious soup using chicken stock (and she has said French cooks often using bouillon cubes for broth) I was willing to try it with packaged stock.
What I learned is you can probably do that with deeply caramelized onions as the recipe calls for but not with onions that have cooked but not caramelized...after almost 3 HOURS! What's THAT about? I think I just had too many onions at too low a temp. Yes, I said too low. I hope to try the recipe again this weekend using 1/2 the onions and beef stock. I can't wait to see what the other French Friday cooks experienced. This is a resourceful bunch that always seem to pull off success after success!
In the words of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi "No soup for you!" I mean us. We're stuck eating delicious French Onion Burgers:)
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| Oklahoma Style French Onion Burger! |
I had some questions about the recipe from the beginning. This was one time I REALLY needed the P&Q section we used to have! Not complaining...I know Laurie has a whole life apart from us...I'm just saying. In studying other recipes and calling on experience I think the problem was two fold for me. My onions didn't caramelize, not even after close to 3 HOURS! And I used a big pot, like 7 or 9 quarts. The other issue was the chicken broth. I wondered how to get the full rich flavor of a delicious soup using chicken broth but I decided to try it. I felt like I needed to roast beef bones and then gently simmer for hours. If Dorie says you can get a delicious soup using chicken stock (and she has said French cooks often using bouillon cubes for broth) I was willing to try it with packaged stock.
What I learned is you can probably do that with deeply caramelized onions as the recipe calls for but not with onions that have cooked but not caramelized...after almost 3 HOURS! What's THAT about? I think I just had too many onions at too low a temp. Yes, I said too low. I hope to try the recipe again this weekend using 1/2 the onions and beef stock. I can't wait to see what the other French Friday cooks experienced. This is a resourceful bunch that always seem to pull off success after success!
In the words of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi "No soup for you!" I mean us. We're stuck eating delicious French Onion Burgers:)
your burgers look great! My onions didn't caramelize as much as I would have liked, but by 10 pm we were SO hungry.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great use for the onions not meant for soup! The burgers looks simply mouth-watering.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, but I'm here really laughing out loud as I read your post. It took my onions almost SIX HOURS to caramelize. This was a 2 day project. The soup is really good, but I'd have preferred beef stock...the chicken was good...but cooking those onions on low went on and on and on and ...... I can totally relate to your experience. If I'd not been up late at night and letting them cook forever while I did paperwork, this recipe would never have been finished. Onion burgers sound like a great alternative.
ReplyDeleteThe onions look rather dashing on top of that burger...
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that variations in stoves have a huge impact - one persons low is another persons almost no heat. I finally learned to be a little less afraid of turning up the heat with onions (to about a medium) and eventually they come to color.
I hope you are able to give this one a do over at some point.
Have a great weekend.
Oh no, I'm scared now - I haven't even started mine yet (it is 8:30 on Friday morning) -- you make me happy I didn't attempt to pull this off last night when I was tired. You did make me laugh w/your post -- thanks for sharing (and nice recovery!)
ReplyDeleteAmy
I used beef stock, and I had to raise the temperature. There was no way that mine would ever have caramelized if I hadn't - and even then it took over an hour. While I like the soup, I think your burger looks fantastic too! Yum!!(I don't think it was you... just sayin')
ReplyDeleteYeah, I ended up cranking up the heat on my onions after an hour, but I still didn't get them dark enough...I ran out of time. I agree that beef stock would have been better, but I still enjoyed my pale soup :) Your burgers look great!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips on making this soup, I plan on making mine this weekend. Your burger looks great though;-)
ReplyDeleteOh dear, sorry to hear that. But I think we've all had a few recipes which just don't work. I think most of us ended up turning up the heat in order to get our onions caramelized. There is no way mine would have ever cooked on the lowest setting. Happy to hear that you were at least able to get some use out of all those onions. Your burger looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteI miss the P&Q too. My only suggestion is, if you use Facebook, you can actually post questions on the FFwD FB page. A few have started doing that since we don't seem to have P&Qs anymore and there are enough Doristas on there to provide answers.
Ah, well, beef stock sounds like a good idea. I had similar caremlizing issues. Glad that you weren't defeated, though, since the onions look great on the burgers!
ReplyDeletePeggy at Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Mmmmmm...buuuuurger.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if there is a special trick to finding the FFwD FB page. I think that I just typed French Fridays with Dorie into the search box at the top of the FB screen and it popped right up. But here is how the group link appears for me, maybe it will help you too... https://www.facebook.com/groups/111593052232298/. Once you are on the page there is a button you need to click in order to request membership. Laurie needs to approve you, which for me was pretty quick, and then you will be able to post and respond to comments on this page. Hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteI know you wrote a serious Post but your Post made me laugh out loud. I have had two real disasters in my past month of cooking and baking and I feel your pain. I have some suggestions if you want to give-it-a-go again but I think you need to re-group regarding FOS. March recipes look amazing. I LOVE hamburgers with onions. Glad those onions were good for something.
ReplyDeleteYour burger looks delicious. My soup didn't really take either. I added some beef stock to the leftovers today, and they were a lot better, but I would definitely use a higher heat on the onion if I were to make this again.
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only one who had trouble with their onions caramelizing, and I even turned my stove up to medium! I really enjoyed reading your post and your burger looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteLove the looks of that onion burger! It's enough to make me want to plan a trip to Oklahoma. I think we're all ready to line up and tell Dorie that 4 pounds of onions do not caramelize in one hour if you use the lowest heat.
ReplyDeleteI hope you try it again - we really enjoyed the soup, but the onions were really caramelized (and it took a whole afternoon on the back of the stove). That burger looks amazing with the repurposed onions!
ReplyDeleteOh no! Sorry this didn't work out. I have an aggressive stovetop, so after just on an hour, my onions were ready.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry for the problems you had with this soup! I haven't made it yet but from what I've read I think I'll do it with beef broth. Great way to use the onions! The burgers look great!
ReplyDeleteYour burger looks delicious - so glad you got something good out of your attempt to make the soup. I turned the temperature up on my onions after the first hour - I finally accepted that they weren't going to get anywhere on low.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that we all had "onion issues" this week- kinda funny, huh? Yes, after 2 1/2 hours of browning; still not much color- so I revved up the heat, added a bit more butter & a spoon of cognac- it finally became acceptable. I am with you though on the choice of broth- I always assumed that beef stock would be the base. My soup did become very lovely & delicious after all the time. BTW, those onion burgers rock!
ReplyDeleteThe burger looks like a terrific reincarnation of the soup. I didn't do this one, it was just to hot to make a heavy soup. It is interesting though that the onions took so long for so many people. I also questioned the chicken broth when I was reading the recipe - it didn't seem like a fit, but what do I know. Have a question for you - have you ever taken a photo where you are trying to blur the background and focus the foreground, first photo turns out exactly what you want, and next photo is in reverse where foreground is blurred and background focused and you haven't changed anything? I don't know what I did and can't find an explanation in my books. If you have a suggestion, let me know.
ReplyDeleteyou could have kicked up the temp a bit, you would just have to be more diligent about stirring your onions that way. Just the same with making caramel, most recipes say to make caramel on super low heat and constantly swirl, but the low temp makes it take longer and give you more control to avoid burning... the same is true here, too high a heat and you wont get caramelized onions but too low and you are just watching onions rot I think.... :) better luck next time! I hope you enjoyed the soup as much as you were expecting though! :)
ReplyDeleteAlice @ http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com
The burgers sound like a good way to save the day. My onions took forever, and never got anywhere close to caramelized. However, homemade chicken stock added the right depth of flavor. I hope your second attempt is more satisfying because I know that I personally loved this recipe.
ReplyDeleteMove me into the camp of recipe lovers! I tried it again today with great success:)
ReplyDeletehttp://lolalive2day.blogspot.com/2012/02/ffwd-cheese-topped-onion-soup-part.html