Slice the onions thin. I mean thin enough to read a love letter through. If your knife skills are shaky, just cry into the bowl—it adds salt.
Melt the butter and oil together in a big pot. Big pot. Because onions shrink like your enthusiasm on a Monday morning, but they start huge. Toss in the onions and a pinch of salt.
Now you cook them for about 40 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes. They’ll turn deep brown, sweet, and as soft as a politician’s promise. Do not rush this. Speed is the enemy of flavor, like putting ketchup on a steak.
The Sherry Surprise
Here’s the fun part. Once your onions look like melted caramel, pour in that 1 cup of dry sherry. Stand back—it will sizzle and smell like instant class. Scrape up the brown bits at the bottom; that’s called “fond,” and it’s basically flavor crack.
Let the sherry cook down for 2 minutes until it’s almost gone. Then add your beef broth, a few sprigs of thyme, and some black pepper. No extra salt—the broth and cheese are salty enough to make a mermaid thirsty.
Simmer this for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, grab some crusty bread. French baguette is ideal, but honestly, stale sourdough works. Slice it into 1-inch thick rounds—think of them as edible life rafts.
