Badische Zwiebelsuppe

Badische Zwiebelsuppe belongs to the southwest, where Baden looks across the Rhine to Alsace and France without becoming Paris. This is onion soup for a cold weeknight or a small Sunday supper: pale gold onions, clear broth, a splash of dry Baden white wine, and a piece of toasted bread with cheese if the table wants it. Not a lid of rubbery cheese hiding a bowl of salt. Das ist kein Bierzelt.

Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. In the north, the soup pot often leans on smoked meat, roots, or barley; in Swabia it may turn more rustic and thicker. Baden keeps it lighter because the wine region is right there, and the wine does a clean job: it cuts the onion sweetness and leaves the broth bright.

The step that decides the soup is the onion pan. Cook the onions slowly until they go soft, golden, and sweet, not hard brown and bitter. Too much heat gives you scorched edges before the middle has collapsed, and then no broth can repair it. Runter mit der Temperatur. Let them give up their water first, then take colour.

Use real broth. Nicht aus dem Glas. A light beef broth is good, chicken works, vegetable broth is fine if it has body from roots and browned onion. Weggeworfen wird nichts: bones, onion skins, celery ends, and parsley stems have work to do before they meet the bin.