Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Onion Soup

Yesterday, I made my first recipe from my Julia Child cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Volume 1) - Onion Soup. I’ve been intimidated to start this cookbook but just like this blog, I realized I just needed to start. The reason I chose this recipe to start is because I knew what the end result should taste like, giving me a guide for whether or not I was on the right track.

The recipe started with a good bit of butter, olive oil, and onions, which reduced over about 35-40 minutes, and slowly turned into jammy goodness. This was the best part - the smell of the onions and butter was delicious. Other than the Cognac and Dry Vermouth, all the ingredients are things you’d probably have on hand.

While the onions were cooking down, I decided to make a Negroni Sbagliato…with Prosecco. I needed something to sip on while stirring, and a certain TikTok inspired me. I love Negronis and I love Prosecco, and this was actually delicious.

Soup and spagliato

All was going well, until I decided that I could leave the onions unsupervised for long enough to put on a face mask. Unfortunately, this caused just a tiny bit of the onions to burn, which I didn’t think would be a big deal until I realized even just that tiny bit of burn would come through in the final product.

Once it was finished, I sliced some gruyere and Swiss cheese to place on top of some bread and melted it in the oven. The final product? Good. Not great.

The final product (version 1)

My takeaways:

• Next time I make this, I won’t be taking my eyes off it for even a moment. I did not master the art of French cooking on day one.

• Double the onions next time.

• The Negroni Sbagliato was the winner of the night.