Canning French Onion Soup (pressure-canner or meal prep recipe) - ALEWYFE (2024)

• Do I have to Pressure-Can this French Onion Soup?
• French Onion Soup Ingredients
• Kitchen Equipment Needed
• How to Make French Onion Soup
• Pantry Storage Tips

The most important ingredient in any French onion soup recipe is TIME (but also, thyme), so it’s great to be able to make a big batch on a lazy weekend. Then, you have it ready in your pantry (or freezer) whenever you get a craving for a rich, steaming bowl of French onion soup, topped with croutons and bubbly melted cheese.

I’ve adapted the French onion soup canning recipe fromThe All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving (2016) to be closer to the recipe we served at the little French bistro where I worked during culinary school, while not making any changes that would make the recipe unsafe for canning. This is a simple soup, so you want to make sure you use good quality ingredients for the best results.

When we made big batches of French onion soup at the bistro, we would first heat some olive oil in a big rondeau pan. Then, we’d sweat the onions with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and herbs until the onions were translucent. Once the onions wilted, we added butter and slowly caramelized the onions with splashes of white wine to deglaze the pan. When the onions were finally syrupy sweet and deeply colored (this takes longer than you think it will, so don’t rush them), we’d add homemade roasted chicken stock and simmer. Then, we’d chill the soup rapidly before putting it in the walk-in cooler.

We’d warm up just enough for each dinner service, and add a splash of Madiera to the soup right before topping it with crusty baguette croutons and a pile of cheese, then popping it under the salamander (broiler) until it was perfectly melted and just starting to brown. So simple, but so delicious!

For the safe canning version of this soup, we leave out the butter, just like in the Ball version. You can add a tablespoon (or three) before serving after you open the jars when you reheat the soup. I’ve added bay leaves, a bit of garlic, and changed the wine additions slightly, which should all be safe changes to this pressure-canning recipe.

Do I have to Pressure-Can this French Onion Soup?

If you want it to be shelf-stable, yes, you must use a pressure canner (for more about this, jump to the equipment section) to jar this soup.

But you can absolutely make this recipe without canning it, as it’s fully cooked and doesn’t need to be pressure canned to be ready to serve. It makes a large batch, which is perfect for parties or holiday gatherings. Or, you can freeze it in convenient serving sizes for yourself or your family.

If you’re not canning your soup, feel free to add a couple tablespoons of butter to your caramelizing onions, and to improvise with other ingredients if you like. If you are canning it, it’s best to stick to the recipe as written (unless you are very familiar with safe canning recipe modifications).

French Onion Soup Ingredients

Stock or Bone Broth:

A well-made stock is the foundation of a good French onion soup. While you can use commercial stock, you’ll get the best flavor and body with a collagen-rich homemade bone broth. I used venison stock in this batch, but beef or veal bone broth is traditional.

A roasted chicken stock also makes an excellent French onion soup, and is what we used at the restaurant, since we broke down whole organic local chickens for our chicken dish. We’d roast the backs and wing tips along with mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery, and whole garlic cloves) and fresh herbs, and leave it to simmer overnight to make an amazing stock.

You can boost the flavor and body of a lighter stock with a tablespoon of good quality beef bouillon base and a spoonful or two of unflavored powdered gelatin, or add chicken feet or a pork trotter to the stockpot if you’re making your own stock (sounds gross, maybe, but tastes AMAZING).

You could make this a vegetarian or vegan soup with mushroom or vegetable stock, but the flavor and body of the soup won’t be as rich or traditional. It will still be very delicious though!

Onions:

I used a blend of jumbo yellow and sweet onions. You could use all yellow or white onions as well.

Wine:

The Ball canning recipe uses 3 cups of white wine (divided) for a four quart batch of soup. I used about 3 cups of a dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, an unoaked Chardonnay, or Semillon are nice). Use a good quality wine that you would drink, NOT “cooking wine”, which is salted and low-quality and frankly, tastes pretty terrible. A good quality boxed wine is fine to cook with, especially if you’re on a budget.

To make this more authentic (and delicious) we’re replacing some of the wine with a late addition of madiera or sherry. I was actually out of both and used some of our homemade hawthorn dessert wine, which has sherry-like notes, and was also very good! Again, don’t use “cooking sherry” which is poor quality and has lots of added salt. Use something you would enjoy drinking, or just use the white wine. Remember that this is a simple soup, so you will taste all of the ingredients!

Kitchen Equipment Needed

Pressure Canner:

You absolutely must use a pressure canner to safely can your French onion soup. Do not try to water-bath can low-acid foods! You also can’t safely can this in an Instant Pot or small pressure cooker. They do not reliably build up enough pressure to safely can foods, especially low-acid foods like meat and veggies that require consistent pressure and long processing times. Botulism isn’t worth the risk… always pressure can low-acid foods like meats, broths, and vegetables.

I love myAll-American pressure canner, but any pressure canner that is large enough to hold at least four quart jars and that has a pressure weight and/or a tested pressure gauge will work.

Stockpot:

You’ll want a large heavy bottomed stockpot or rondeau with a lid for caramelizing your onions and making the soup. If you don’t have a stockpot with a heavy bottom, caramelize your onions in a large cast iron skillet or other heavy saute pan, then transfer to a larger pot when you deglaze the onions with the wine and before adding the stock. The simmering soup is less likely to scorch on the bottom than the onions while they’re caramelizing, so you can get away with a lighter-duty soup pot.

Sharp chef’s knife & cutting board:

Your onions will caramelize more evenly if they’re cut relatively uniformly. I don’t like using a mandolin, as I find the slices are too thin and dissolve into the soup if you deeply caramelize them enough to develop a good flavor.

Because you’re going to be cutting a lot of onions, it’s best if you have a sharp chef’s knife and a large cutting board with plenty of room to work. Chef’s tip- Put a damp, clean kitchen towel between your cutting board and the counter and it won’t slip while you work!

How to Make French Onion Soup

1: Peel & prep ingredients

• Peel and slice the onions in thin 1/4″ even slices. I like to cut the onions in half through the root end, then slice perpendicular to the root to get perfect spoon-sized slices (see step one photo above).
• Measure the herbs and assemble other ingredients.

2: Sweat the onions

• In a large heavy-bottomed stock pot, dutch oven, or heavy saute pan, heat the olive oil on medium-low heat until it just begins to shimmer.
• Add the sliced onions and stir. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and stir again.
• Cover the pot and let the onions steam and soften, stirring occasionally, and adding a splash of water or wine if they begin to scorch.
• Let the onions sweat and soften covered for at least an hour, adding the dried thyme and bay leaf about half-way through.

3: Caramelize the onions

• Uncover the pot and increase the heat to medium-high.
• Stirring often, caramelize the onions. As they begin to brown, the sugars and flavor in the onions will develop.

4: Deglaze and add wine.

• As the onions brown, add most of the white wine gradually to deglaze the pan, a few tablespoons to a half cup at a time. Don’t add it all at once until the onions are richly colored, or the onions will simmer instead of caramelizing.
• Continue to simmer, stir, and reduce the mixture for 10-20 minutes. If you caramelized your onions in a saute pan instead of a large pot, transfer them to a stockpot or dutch oven before the next step.

5: Add stock and reduce

• Add the beef stock, stir, cover the pot, and bring back up to a boil. Uncover the pot before it boils over.
• Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes, or until the flavor is well-developed.

6: Add sherry and serve or store

• Add the sherry or Madeira (or a last splash of reserved white wine), and bring just back up to a simmer.
• The soup is now ready to serve, freeze, or pressure-can.

7: Jar the soup

• Ladle the hot soup into clean canning jars. Use a slotted spoon to divide the onions evenly among the jars, then top up with the soup broth. Fish out the bay leaves before canning.
• Leave 1″ of headspace at the top of the jars (top up with additional hot beef broth or bouillon if needed to fill the jars.
• Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean cloth dampened with hot water or vinegar.
• Top each jar with a new canning jar lid, and tighten the bands.

8: Pressure can the soup

• Check the weighted vent of your canner to make sure it is clean and free to vent, then place the lid on your canner and latch it. Begin heating the canner over medium heat, with the weight off or the vent open (depending on your canner model) until it is steadily venting steam.
• Once it begins to vent, set a timer for 10 minutes and let it continue to vent steam. Then, place the weight on your canner and/or close the vent valve.
• Watch the dial gauge and/or listen for the appropriate jiggle on your canner to let you know it has reached your processing pressure- generally 10 lbs of pressure on a weighted gauge or 11 lbs on a dial, unless you are at an altitude above 1000 feet. Don’t start the processing timer until the canner has reached the proper pressure.
• Process pint (500 ml) jars for 60 minutes or quart (1 L) jars for 75 minutes (adjusting pressure for altitude if needed).
• If the canner drops below the recommended processing pressure at any time, you must restart the timer from zero, so keep an eye on that gauge or listen for the weight and adjust heat if necessary as you can. It’s best to make slow, gradual adjustments as sudden swings in pressure can cause siphoning in the jars.
• When the processing time is up, turn the heat off under the canner. Let cool until the gauge reads zero (or a weighted canner doesn’t vent steam when you bump the weight). Do not remove the weight or open the vent until the canner has naturally depressurized.
• Carefully remove the weight or open the vent, away from you in case there is still steam to vent. Open the canner away from you, and remove the jars with jar tongs.
• Place the jars on a towel or cooling rack (not a cold counter top) and let cool undisturbed for at least 8 and up to 24 hours.

Pantry Storage Tips

Once the jars have fully cooled, remove the rings, check for good seals, and wash the jars with warm, soapy water.

Refrigerate any jars that did not seal and use promptly. You could reprocess them with new lids, but since the processing time is so long, the reprocessed jars will lose quality, so if you only have a jar or two that didn’t seal, I recommend just refrigerating or freezing them and using those jars first.

Label the jars and store in a cool, dark place. For best quality, enjoy home-canned goods within 12-18 months, although they will be safe to eat while the seals are intact. Discard any jars that lose seals in storage, smell off, are bubbling, or hiss when opened.

Serving Instructions & Recipe Ideas

For the traditional way to serve French onion soup, you’ll need slices of toasted baguette or crusty sourdough bread, along with grated Gruyere, Swiss, or Emmental cheese (or a blend of cheeses). For a richer soup, add a tablespoon or three of good quality butter when reheating your soup. Heat the soup, then serve in heavy crockery bowls topped with a slice of toasted bread and a generous topping of grated cheese. Melt the cheese in the broiler or a hot oven.

Your homemade French onion soup is also delicious in casseroles and stews. It also makes a delicious braising liquid for crock pot or dutch oven roasts. Or, make a rich pot pie or cottage pie filling with a jar of canned meat, and either a roux or cornstarch thickened gravy.

For a festive fall dish, hollow out some small sweet pie pumpkins or acorn squash, and fill them with a mixture of toasted bread cubes or stuffing mix and a jar of French onion soup. Bake until just fork tender, then top with cheese and return to the oven to melt before serving.

Related Links:

• How to Can a Whole Turkey (or three)

• Garlic and Herb Potatoes (Easy Raw-Pack Canning Recipe)

• Butternut Squash, Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Quiche