French onion soup

Peel and cut each onion in half and then thinly slice. You should be left with a whole bunch of half-circle slices of onion. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to a medium pot over medium heat. Once the butter is melted and foamy, add all of your onions. You may want to add the onion slices in batches, allowing each batch to cook and soften a bit before adding the next batch.

Once all the onions have been added, sprinkle in 1 teaspoon of salt and stir to incorporate. Allow the onions to cook untouched for about 10 minutes. After that time, stir the onions and continue cooking and stirring occasionally until they are dark brown. This process should take about 45 minutes. If you ever notice that the onions are sticking to the bottom of the pot and starting to burn, you can add a tablespoon of water and stir until the liquid boils off. This water will cool everything off and allow the onions to caramelize without burning.

Once your onions are dark brown, tie the thyme, bay leaf, and parsley together with a long piece of string or butcher's twine. This is so the herbs can float in the simmering soup and you are able to retrieve them later. 

Add 1 cup of white wine, 32 ounces of beef broth, and the tied-up herbs. Tie the other end of the string with the herbs to the handle of the pot so you can pull them out easily. 

Simmer the soup for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes, carefully taste the soup and see if it needs more salt. Add ground black pepper and salt if needed. Pour in a splash of sherry, stir the soup, simmer for another minute and then turn off the heat. Remove and discard the twine and the herbs.

Turn your oven broiler on high. 

Ladle soup into your bowls, but leave an inch or an inch and a half at the top for bread and cheese.

Cut your slices of bread and arrange them so they fully cover the soup in a bowl. Top the bread with shredded gruyere cheese. 

Broil on high for 4 to 5 minutes or until cheese is fully melted and starting to brown. Pay very close attention because the cheese and bread can burn very quickly if not monitored. Top the melty cheese with finely chopped parsley as a garnish.

Allow the soup to cool for a few minutes because the top will be tongue blisteringly hot after the trip through the broiler. 

Serve the soup and enjoy.