4 slices french bread baguette
2 tbsp (1/4 stick) butter
4 cup sliced onions
2 10 1/4-oz cans beef broth
1 1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
1/8 tbsp pepper
1/8 tbsp dried thyme, crumbled
2 tbsp port
1 cup grated swiss cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan
Directions
Preheat broiler. Broil bread until golden, about 1 minute per side.
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat. Add onions and
cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broth and next 4
ingredients. Increase heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat. Add Port.
Cover and simmer 5 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover soup
and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing.)
Preheat broiler. Place bread in 4 ovenproof bowls; place bowls in
baking dish. Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese. Top
with Parmesan. Broil until cheese melts and turns golden, about 1
minute. Serve hot.
Bon Appetit/August/89 Scanned & fixed by Di and Gary
Servings: 4 servings
My French Onion Soup - Bon Appetit Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: French; Soup; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
It is possible to follow the history of written recipes way back into distant history, in fact as far as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and possibly even further than that. However, these, old records were just primitive pictorial instructions for meal preparation.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe discovered, according to experts are some clay tablets in ancient Sumerian which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made those who drank it feel exhilarated. Later on, in Roman times 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a collection of scripts describing recipes cooked by the Romans. In his works, Apicius recounts how the roman meals were separated into starters, entrees and desserts, a style of dining still practiced today. He also describes how the cooks of his times were skilled in the use of many different aromatic flavors, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs such as bay, mint and asafoetida. As our culinary historical trip moves on a few more years we have a couple of interesting recipe books from the 14th Century - a recipe book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, they are nothing to do with the indian curry that is popular today, but rather accounts of the types of meals enjoyed by the rich and powerful of the period. In the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought back many foods, spices and herbs from the holy land, such as coriander, parsley, and rosemary. These new spices and herbs led to a surge in recipe books, many of which still exist in private cookery archives. Like it or not, the introduction of television brings us cooking programs and the spin-off recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing everyone to access massive numbers of recipes like those on sites such as this. |
We hope you enjoy this My French Onion Soup Bon Appetit recipe.
