She took bones of the sort that I'd buy for my dog then roasted them on high for an hour. The bones drained part of their marrow onto the tray and everything stuck to the tray was deglazed with red wine.
Those tiny bits formed black dots that stayed suspended in the broth similar to black pepper but intensely flavorful and to me they became the mark that distinguished authentic French Onion soup prepared in the manner of French peasants. Onions. The dumbest and cheapest of all possible vegetables paired with bones that you give to your dog brought to the height of culinary possibility with toasted bread and Swiss cheese.
No black dots, no authenticity.
All of the other French onion soup videos treat the beef broth as afterthought. They all use commercial broth just dumped in unceremoniously. (My sister was so proud of her recipe but I stopped listening after she mentioned a package of Lipton's French onion soup.)
There used to be a French restaurant in Denver downtown that served soup made this way along with other things prepared authentically but it's gone now and I've tried to find a replacement but failed. No black dots. Or some other shortcoming, so I'm perpetually disappointed.
None of the videos for French Onion soup mention starting by making your own beef broth. It's not so easy to find excellent beef broth. Most is made from a concentrate and you really can tell the difference. Nothing compares to the original something from nothing version.
All of the beef broth from bones videos show long simmering of bones, for hours, either previously roasted for intensified flavor and color, or not roasted, but I believe this can be done under pressure in 1/3 the time. I think that because I do this with chicken bones. The larger bones are broken open with pliers specifically for the kitchen.
I fell in love with the cook in this video by noticing her playful voices as she demonstrates a simple process. None of the women I know have ever done this. If asked, I would say playful voices is mostly a guy thing. A male form of silliness. Not 100% true, but generally. Seeing her goofing around this way while talking about something serious but mundane and uninteresting makes me like her more automatically. She and I would hit it right off. Because of her silliness. She's not afraid of being perceived as a silly person. That doesn't stop her from having fun in tasks that are otherwise drudgery.
And top score for the ecru lace top paired with dull olive green sweater.
Here she is again, Camile promoting her book, Paleogasm.
Paleogasm does not come in hardcover. It's Kindle version gets a bad mark in Amazon's ratings and it's "Look Inside" feature shows only the boring beginning stuff that does not help people such as yourselves. The available photos look interesting while not looking paleo at all. There are a lot of baked things and a lot of grain, so without actually reading it I don't know what she is doing. I'm tempted to buy it just to flip through it.
Comments on YouTube to the first video are distressing. One senses by way of reading the comments that these paleo diet freaks are real cave-people. They're rude, terse, abrupt, presumptuous and they ask incredibly stupid questions.
3 comments:
I cooked and canned beef broth just last week. 8 quarts, 19 pints. I do what's she did in the video but left out the celery. I always end up with cloudy broth when I use it. I also added a cow foot for extra collagen.
A couple years ago a local market had oxtails for $1.99 a pound special. That makes the absolute best soup. Now, even at a wholesale place it's $6.00 a pound.
Of course the paleo people are rude and agitated, it's from all the hormones injected into the mass quantities of meat they eat. The hormones in food are why girls are having their first period earlier and earlier each decade.
PDF of the whole book Paleogasm here
Fun to scroll.
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