Consomme’

Q: Chef Gui, what exactly is a “consomme’”, and what is the difference with a stock or a broth? Also, I’ve heard of “clarification”. Could you elaborate on that?
Maria from Austin, TX

A: When all aromatics have done their job, have infused their flavors to the liquid they simmered in, and have consequently been strained, the magic elixir of the glorious world of Cooking remains: a stock.
Meat, bones and all, seafood, often with shells, or vegetables, sometimes with herbs, slowly transmit their gustative elements to the water. All other elements are then discarded, and the cook can use the precious liquid, now or later, to poach or braise, reinforce a soup or make a sauce.

Broths (or bouillon as the French call them) are clear stocks and seem more elegant than dark stocks, whose more rustic, rugged appearance evocates power of taste without compromise. Broths are often served clear, but cloudy, unclarified. This is not a bad thing by any means. In cooking, each and all preparations find their use regardless.

But when foodstuff cook together in a liquid like water, impurities from the meat, fish, vegetables, or whatever else is cooking, also get transmitted to the liquid, along with the flavors.

While broth demonstrates elegance, consommé, its clarified version, in comparison, is a fine dandy; an impeccable, well-mannered gentleman in a tuxedo. A consommé is a crystal clear broth, sometimes used for savory jellies, often served as is, for nothing else than the unbelievable, combined flavors of the elements prepared. The late Escoffier sometimes referred to it as Beef-Tea. Chefs say that you could drop a dime in 2 gallons of consommé and still watch it hit the bottom.

To achieve such an impeccable clarity, there is an implacable solution; an obscure technique, lengthy and a little arduous, yet quite exquisite and uniquely rewarding: Clarification.

I can already hear savvy home chefs and smart readers advise on the wonders of coffee filters. Yes, they do work fairly well. They tend, however, to keep some gustative elements in and let some impurities out.
As almost always in haute cuisine, the best way is the longest way. Nothing is better than clarification by egg whites.

This classic clarification involves a well-timed, precise technique that lets egg whites, as they cook in the simmering liquid, coagulate and filter all the impurities, without removing the taste. As they slowly set, they work from the bottom up, and finish as a soft white “crust” on the top of the broth, trapping all sediment. Now, that’s really cool! Not that anyone should make that an everyday practice, time consuming as it is, but I would recommend trying this at least once in your cooking life.

As a reminder, the general rules to make a broth are as follow. Of course, the goal here is to extract flavor out of bones, meat or seafood, and vegetables. The key is to start with cold water, as opposed to hot or boiling water. We are playing with laws of physics known as concentration and diffusion, here; and this might be the most important cooking tip ever. When you need to extract flavor for something, start from cold water (diffusion), then heat it up. At the contrary, if you need to concentrate flavors inside, start with hot water (concentration). For instance, if we were to conduct a little experiment, with 2 pots of water (equal amount in each) on your stove, one filled with cold water, and the other with boiling water; if we were going to plunge 1 whole onion in each pot, and cook these 2 pots, say 30 minutes; then we would find, at the end of the cooking time, that one of the liquid (the one we started with cold water) has acquired a stronger taste of onion than the other (the boiling water).
This explains a lot. It explains why we start stocks or broths, Minestrone and other soups with cold water (diffusion), and why casseroles or other leftovers taste better the next day. It also explains why we sear steaks in burning hot oil (concentration) as opposed to start them on a cold pan then heat them up, or why we blanch asparagus, zucchini or haricot verts in boiling water.

Now, going back to our broth, the pot of water with aromatic and nutritional ingredients in it is slowly brought to a boil, and then barely simmered for hours, skimming it often, the cooking time depending on the type of broth. 1 hour is enough for seafood, 2 hours for chicken, and 6-8 hours for beef, lamb, veal of other larger animals. Broth is then strained and you are pretty much done. What you should get is a flavorful, amber-colored, more or less clear and somewhat cloudy liquid.

Here comes the clarification. In theory (see recipe below for practice), you’ll mix egg whites, diced vegetables (otherwise known as mirepoix) and ground meat.
The base is the cold broth. Egg whites clarify. Vegetables bring aroma. Ground meat enriches flavor.
The kind of meat of course depends on what type of broth you have. This mixture is then added to the cold broth (note the importance of “cold”), the proteins of the meat and eggs dilute in the liquid, and the broth is then heated over moderate heat. As the temperature rises and the broth eventually simmers, the egg whites plus meat mixture will start coagulating slowly. As it solidifies, the albumen from the egg whites and meat imprison impurities and quietly rises to the surface. The mixture then forms a crust at the top, and the broth underneath is crystal clear. A hole is carefully poked in the crust (also called a “raft”), without stirring at all, and the beautifully transparent consommé is finally ladled out of the pot. Magic.

Consommés are excellent as light summer soups, hot or chilled, and we all know how much we’ll need that very soon.

Great chefs quietly serve consommé. Daniel Boulud of New York serves Chilled Lobster Consommé or Tomato Consommé. And so does Thomas Keller of California. Emeril Lagasse makes a Consommé Colbert and Jean-Georges Vongerichten a Classic Consommé.

Consommés are also turned into savory jellies, or aspics. Whether they are jellified with gelatine powder or naturally, savory jellies look exactly like Jello, obviously with more subtle colors, ranging from light amber to ruby Port. Aspics are part of classical French cuisine, but have been used widely elsewhere, often elaborately decorated for use on buffets. Savory or sweet foods are set in aspic. For instance, a Bouillabaisse is a great dish to jellify and turn into aspic. Other recipes feature poached salmon or ham, and even sheep tongues or pigs feet for the most adventurous.
Regardless of the recipe, the goal is to start the jelly with a delicate, absolutely limpid consommé.

BEEF CONSOMME

Ingredients
5 large egg whites
½ lb tomatoes, quartered
½ lb celery, diced
½ lb carrots, diced
½ lb onions, diced
½ lb lean ground sirloin
1 tablespoon kosher salt
20 black peppercorns, cracked
6 cups beef broth
Garnish: celery leaves and diced, seeded and peeled tomatoes

Preparation
Whisk egg whites in a large bowl until foamy. Separately pulse tomatoes in a food processor until coarsely chopped, then add to egg whites. Add celery, carrots and onions. Whisk in beef, salt, and peppercorns.
Place cold beef broth in a 4-quart heavy saucepan, then whisk in beef mixture. Heat over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping bottom constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent egg white from sticking, until stock comes to a simmer (about 20 minutes). Reduce heat and gently simmer broth, without stirring, until all impurities rise to surface and form a crust, and broth underneath is clear, about 30 minutes.
Make a hole in the crust large enough to ladle broth out of the pot. Strain over a chinois to stop possible solids from the crust. Broth should be completely clear.
Before serving, bring consommé to a boil and season with salt. Ladle into bowls and top celery leaves and garnishes. Consommé can be made ahead and can be frozen.

What is this blog about? Read the first post here.