War Shortages Onion Dish!

Zurie's Note:

This "recipe" dates back to the years right after the Second World War, when so many things were unobtainable and the ordinary cook simple had to make do. I do not know how to put this into the Zaar format, as the recipe gives no weights, measures or anything else ... It's the kind of dish you make for pure comfort these days, but it's so simple that you can just wing it. It reminds -- although it's more frugal -- of French Tart's Scarborough Fayre bread pudding. Hope I get this past the formatting, as I want to try and save some of these old recipes ...

• Total Time: 1 hrs 40 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 -2 loaf brown bread , sliced thinly
• butter
• 3 -4 large onions , thinly sliced, sweet onion
• 18 slices processed cheese (guessing here ( use Velveeta or similar)
• 3 -4 cups chicken stock (or beef, and I'm guessing the quantity)
• salt and pepper
• ½ cup grated cheese

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 deg F/160 deg Celsius.
2. Butter a deep square or rectangular oven dish.
3. Butter the bread slices thinly; do not cut off crusts.
4. Cover base of dish with a layer of buttered bread slices, then add a layer of onion rings. Season with salt (sparingly) and white pepper.
5. Cover that with a layer of processed cheese slices.
6. Cover with another layer of buttered bread, a layer of onion, and then again a layer of cheese slices.
7. Do a third layer, and then finish with a last top layer of buttered bread.
8. Carefully stick holes all over, right through this stack, with a large fork.
9. Pour in enough stock so that the bread almost seems to float. You'll have to wait for the stock to be absorbed before you add more.
10. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 1 hr 30 minutes
11. Take off the foil, sprinkle with grated cheese and brown quickly under a hot grill.
12. Can be used as a side dish with meat and veggies or a slice of comfort food with soup. Nice with a salad.