you have to reduce it for ages, it is very annoying, but it comes out very rich and beefy indeed.
slowly sweating tonnes of onions in some butter and olive oil for what seems like ages and ages is a pain to, but its very basic. a little bit of garlic, beef stock, i never salted it because i dont have a salty tooth and the stock is very salty as it is, but lots of black pepper. think you can even use a splash of red wine too and a bit ot thyme.
dont forget the giant croutons with cheese, lol.
it is actually very easy and very econmical to make
it becomes very salty and deep rich beefy but also sweet from the onions. oh i forgot, after slowly sauting them for ages like half an hour u add some flour to a dry roux and then u gradually add the stock and wine.
simmer for hmm, maybe 45 mins and u got french onion soup classico. bon appetite!...
its so cheap, a couple of very very large spanish onions, the strongest and biggest you can find, or use up loads of ones lying round the house if not, stock cube believe it or not is absolutley fine, id make it a bit more watery than normal because of the saltiness and it still reduces and concentrates for ages during cooking anyway. the wine is not essential, dried thyme is more than adequate. it is cheap as chips, and excels any tin or packet you may come across