🇫🇷 France · classical cuisine
Consommé
The classical clear soup: a rich meat, poultry or fish stock clarified with lean minced meat, egg white and vegetables, which rise as a raft and take the impurities with them, giving a crystal-clear, strongly flavoured broth served with a small garnish.
Origin and history
Consommé is the classical clear soup of French cuisine, a rich stock clarified with lean meat and egg white. Great British Chefs says consommés go back to the Middle Ages and were prized as luxurious, since they take a lot of meat for a small yield. Escoffier's Guide to Modern Cookery describes the clarifying simmer and lists many garnishes for named consommés.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 2 h
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 1.5 litres6 1/4 cups cold, fat-free beef or chicken stock, well flavoured and unsalted
- 250 g9 oz very lean minced beef (or chicken breast for chicken consommé)
- 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
- 1 small carrot, finely chopped
- 1 leek or onion, finely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 1 ripe tomato, chopped; optional, adds colour
- 4 black peppercorns, crushed, with 1 small bay leaf
- salt, to taste
- garnish, fine julienne of carrot, leek and celery blanched, or cooked tapioca or small quenelles
Method
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1. Mix the minced meat, vegetables, tomato, peppercorns, bay leaf and egg whites in a tall, narrow pot until thoroughly combined.
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2. Pour the cold stock over, stirring well.
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3. Set over medium heat and stir constantly with a spoon until it just starts to warm and the egg begins to cloud; stop stirring before it boils.
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4. As the raft rises and firms at the surface, pierce one small hole in it with a spoon, so the liquid can bubble through.
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5. Keep the liquid at a bare simmer (about 90 °C / 195 °F), never a boil, for 1 hour. Do not stir.
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6. Ladle the liquid carefully through the hole, then strain through a sieve lined with a damp muslin cloth.
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7. Skim any last fat with a paper towel, season with salt, and reheat gently.
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8. Serve hot in small cups with the garnish.
Notes
- A consommé is clarified stock, not just any broth; the raft of protein and egg white traps the cloudy particles.
- Escoffier clarified with lean beef (about 1 1/2 lb for 4 quarts), a roast fowl carcase and egg white, simmered for about an hour, and deliberately used no vegetables in the clarification. Modern cooks such as Great British Chefs use much more meat and egg white per litre (300 g chicken and 6 whites), so the quantities here sit between the two.
- The garnish names the style: julienne (a fine cut of stewed vegetables), royale (poached egg custard cut in shapes) and célestine (chicken consommé with tapioca and strips of pancake).
- Consommé made from a gelatine-rich stock sets lightly when cold and can be served jellied.
- The stock must be fat-free and cold at the start; any grease will cloud the result.
Adapted from Auguste Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery and Great British Chefs, How to make consommé.
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