Cooking with Chef Jo: Canning French Onion and Mushroom Soup

I've had two six packs of Yuengling beer sitting in my refrigerator forever just taking up space. I know one six-pack has been in there for five years because it was in the refrigerator when I got here. The second one was purchased by a friend of Mel's over a year ago. I don't know how long beer keeps but it still fizzed so I figured I'd use them. Of course, I'd asked Mel before I did. She said she didn't.  I could hear her now, "Soup is such a waste of good wine." Now, I haven't drank alcohol in 35+ years so I wasn't going to drink it.  Would you chance drinking it? I also had a surplus of onions that was starting to go soft that I had to deal with. I was thinking of dehydrating them or freezing them, but what I decided to do was a good way to use them too.

There are several recipes I could have made with the beer like beer battered fish or onion rings, but I couldn't use that much to empty my refrigerator of the beer. Unless I fried them and put them in the freezer. But, I was looking forward to a bumper crop of tomatoes too that would eat into my freezer space. My other one was filling fast with meat, a side at a time. I guess I could always can the meat to free up some space too.

I took one bottle and tried it making my French Onion and Mushroom Soup, instead of red wine, with it and it turned out fabulous. It went into a 8-serving batch. It cooked for hours at a simmer, so any possible alcohol that was left in it was a moot point. After dinner, I asked Mel if this was another recipe I could can up? Basically did she like it well enough and she gave a definite affirmative answer. To reinforce the affirmative answer, she added, "I could stomach having it at least once a month or more." I knew I had the answer for the 11 bottles of beer left in my refrigerator. It turned out so well that I thought I'd share the recipe with y'all.

I created a concentrated recipe so you'll have to add a half or full jar of water when you make it for a two servings depending on how much water you add of my canned soup recipe. I have to conserve space in my storage pantry out building. So one pint will make about four servings of soup or two very large servings. I also did the conversion for roast beef 'Better Than Bouillon' instead of beef bone broth for you if you didn't can your own because honestly, I debated whether to use my own bone broth or use the store bought version. 😄 Homemade beef bone broth, while healthier, would be expensive and could be used for other things.

Jo's French Onions and Mushroom Soup
Makes 16 pints or 8 quarts
What you'll need

10 lbs of onions, diced into 1/2" pieces*
4 lbs of mushrooms, I use a combination of baby bellas and white, shaved*
4TBS butter*
2TBS olive oil*
1 whole garlic bud, smashed and minced
12 bottles of lager type beer
2 TBS dried thyme*
3 Medium Bay leaves, or 2 large, or 6 small
4 qts water + 1-3.5oz  container of Better Than Bouillon roast beef
                                                                       OR
                                                             4 qts beef stock or beef bone broth
                                                             1/4 cup + 1TBS Worcestershire sauce, 5 ozs.
                                                             1 qt of water, divided
                                                             1 cup Clear-Jel
                                                             1 1/2 TBS noniodized salt*
                                                             2 TBS black pepper

Notes- * Most standard recipes for this soup calls for the onions to be thinly sliced, but I prefer dicing the onions so you get onions with every bite to the last drop of broth.
*To shave mushrooms either 1) use a mandolin, or use a knife, slicing the mushrooms paper thin. A food processor doesn't cut them thin enough for what I wanted.
*Use dried thyme for this recipe. With fresh thyme, first you'd need 4 TBS and when canned and stored the thyme breaks down to mush in over a year.
* Salt to taste or just below. Salt tends to intensifies while canning. Remember there is salt in the broth too.
*Oils and butter tend to be a no no when canning, but you will find very little of these left after the onions caramelize. Be sure to wipe your rims with vinegar just in case before putting the lids on. Mixing the oil and butter allows for a higher/longer cooking temperature.

 Putting it all together

• The day before, dice the onions, shave the mushrooms, and mince the garlic. Store in Ziplock bags separately in the refrigerator. Do this the night before because this step takes hours!
• In a large stock pot, place the oil and butter. Heat until melted.
• Place the onions in the oil mixture. Toss onions to coat. Turn the heat to medium low. Put lid on the pot. You won't be able to put all the onions in the pot in the beginning unless you have a very large commercial pot. No worries. The onions will shrink as they cook so you can add more.
• Add 2 tsp of salt, it will help the cooking onions break down faster.
• Stir about every ten minutes. Add additional onions in as space allows.
• Once all the onions are in the pot and cooked down, remove the lid and increase the time in between stirs to every fifteen minutes. 
• Gradually as you stir you will notice a color change to your cooking onions.  They will begin to caramelize and turn yellow. This step will take 45 minutes to an hour. Add the garlic and the mushrooms, and stir well. Continue cooking with lid off for ten minutes.
• Increase temperature to medium. Add the beer to the onion mixture and continue cooking until most of the liquid has simmered away...approximately 30 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
• While the liquid is simmering away in the onions, prepare the soup base.
• Pour beef stock in another pot.
• Add Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Add enough salt until you barely taste it. Remember you salted the onions already. Bring to a boil.
• Add 2 cups of water to the pot.
• Mix clear-jel to the remaining 2 cups of water and dissolve into a slurry.
• Add clear-jel slurry to the broth by halves. Bring to a boil while stirring. Check the consistency.
• Add more clear-jel 1/4 cup at a time. Bringing the mixture to a boil after each addition.
• When the consistency is like a thin gravy, stop adding the clear-jel.
• Stir well.
• Taste it for salt. Remember to err on the side of not quite enough. You can add more when preparing to eat it. Mozzarella cheese is fairly salty.
• Ladle soup into hot jars. The onions will sink to the bottom of the jars. Ideally, you will have 1/3 to half each jar full onions.
• Wipe, lid, and ring the jars finger (armpit)tight and place in the pressure canner.
• Pressure can, weighted for your altitude, 45 minutes for pints or 60 minutes for quarts.

To serve- place in a saucepan with half to a full jar of water. Bring to a full boil. Taste for
salt and adjust to taste. Toast a thick slice of baguette until crisp. Pour soup into an oven safe container. Be sure to divide onions evenly between servings. Top with the baguette. Place a thick slice of mozzarella cheese. Place under the broiler until the cheese is toasted and melted. Serve hot.

This recipe is time consuming but well worth it!  It can also be used in other recipes too. I served this with a green salad. With all that beef flavor and goodness, what else do you need? Oh, I also made strawberry mug "shortcakes" for dessert. Ya gotta have something sweet, right?

Y'all have a blessed day!

  Chef Jo