German Style French Onion Soup

Makes I large pot of Soup, about 3 qts

Ingredients:

3 lbs beef :
1.5 lbs short ribs
1 ib beef shank
1 lb beef stew meat (any kind of meat that you would use for stew)

6 large onions, about 6 lbs ( Varied types Spanish, Sweet and White)
Beef suet or lard for frying.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
*Note: the beef shank and ribs will render out some suet. The vegetable oil is good to balance the beef suet other wise the onions and soup can have a "greasy" taste.

1 gallon water
1 tablespoon salt
1-2 cups red, white or Sherry wine

Directions:

1. I collected some cuts of meat when I saw them on sale. You can use any kind of beef, but the best is meat from the shank and short rib. I found some stew meat also. I have used sirloin and was disappointed. It was dry and pretty tasteless.

2. Heat the oill in a Dutch oven and brown the meat. When browned on all sides reserve meat to a dish. Reserve the oil and rendered beef fat in the pot.

3. A variety of onions makes a better soup. I used Brown or Spanish onion, Sweet Malaysian Onion and White Onion. Peel, halve, and slice the onions into strips.Simmer the onion with the season salt in the Dutch oven with the drippings of the beef.

4. Add the meat back into the pot. Add the water or use beef or Chicken stock to the pot. Add the wine if you like 1 to 2 cups.

5.Simmer for 1 to 2 hours till the meat is fork tender.

6.To serve the soup first cut the meat off the shank, cut into pieces.
Place a rib in the bowl and some of the other meat and then ladle the soup and lots of onions over the top.

Note: The soup is infinitely better the second day.