isw wrote:

(Victor Sack) wrote:

Fourth, beef broth or stock, though not
unknown, is rarely used in the French versions, water or chicken stock
being much more typical, the former particularly in the lyonnaise
version, the latter in the Parisian one.

Well, Julia Child (and how much more authentically French can you be?)
certainly use brown beef stock.

On some (rare) occasions, such as the present one, it is easy to be much
more authentically French than Julia Child. "French onion soup" is a
particularly apt example. Beef stock or broth is rarely used in any
authentically French recipes for the soup (and when it does get used, it
is often in combination with another broth or water) and onions are
rarely caramelised, either. Really, we (generic "we") have already gone
through this more than once - look it up if you want - but I'll be happy
to repost all the evidence again, if need be, as it is at my fingertips.

Have you ever been in France, at least more than a couple of times?
Have you ever had onion soup there, at more than a couple of places?
Can you name one - just one - place that serves onion soup made with
beef stock and caramelised onions? Maybe you can, but can you honestly
say it is typical?

Using beef stock and caramelised onions in "French onion soup" just
happens to be mostly an American thing. Mind you, there is nothing at
all wrong with it - it may even be a improvement on the "original,"
depending on one's individual preference - but it is not the "original."

Victor