Consommé
Encyclopedia
In cooking
, a consommé is a type of clear soup
made from richly flavored stock
or bouillon
that has been clarified usually through a fining process involving egg protein. It usually requires an advanced knowledge of cooking and past experience to create a high quality consommé. Consommé has maintained its place as one of the most highly regarded and appreciated soups in the world.
, tomatoes, and egg whites into either bouillon
or stock
. The key to making a high quality consommé is simmering; the act of simmering, combined with frequent stirring, brings impurities to the surface of the liquid, which are further drawn out due to the presence of acid from the tomatoes. Eventually, the solids begin to congeal at the surface of the liquid, forming a 'raft', which is caused by the protein
in the egg. Once the 'raft' begins to form, the heat is reduced, and the consommé is simmered at a lower heat until it reaches the desired flavor, which usually takes anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour. The resulting concoction is a clear liquid that has either a rich amber colour (for beef or veal consommé) or a very pale yellow colour (for poultry consommé). It is then carefully drawn from the pot and passed again through a filter to ensure its purity, and is then put through a lengthy process where all of the visible fat is skimmed from the surface. To ensure total purification, the consommé can be refrigerated, which draws out remaining fat, which can easily be skimmed off with cheesecloth. Alternatively, the consommé can be placed in a wide, shallow container such as a sauté pan or large bowl and wide strips of parchment paper
can be dragged along the surface; the tiny amounts of remaining fat adhere to the parchment, leaving the consommé perfectly de-greased. When preparing meat for a consommé, as much fat as possible should be trimmed off to simplify the purification process. Cartilage and tendons should be left on the meat because of the gelatin
they contain, which enhances the mouthfeel
of the soup. If beef or veal is used, shin meat is ideal because it is very low in fat and very high in gristle, and although it is undesirable for most other purposes, it is near essential for the flavour of the consommé. The meat is best if it is ground very fine, as if for a mousseline
.
Consommés are usually served piping hot because they tend to cool down more quickly than other soups and form a gel
. They are most often served with garnishes, which vary in complexity from a simple splash of sherry
or egg yolk, to cut vegetables, to shaped savory custards called 'royales'. Consommés are ideal for whetting the appetite, especially in the traditional seven-course meal format, as they are very rich and tasty in flavor, but are neither filling nor heavy-feeling after consumption.
Consommés are expensive, as a large amount of meat only yields a small amount of consommé; in some recipes, as much as 500 g (a little over a pound) of meat can go into a single 250 mL (8.2 fl oz) serving. They are also quite difficult to make, and success with the complex clarification process often eludes the novice or impatient cook.
it (cooked it down) to half of its volume. Still others say make it with a stock or broth that uses a consommé as its liquid component instead of water. It is often found in other cold-cuisine items, especially those that use aspic
, or natural gelatin.
Another common variation is cold jellied consommé, which, as the name implies, is served cold, and has more gelatin in it.
popularized an alternative method for clarifying broths, originating among chefs of the molecular gastronomy
movement: gelatin
filtration. Gelatin-filtration is a novel method of clarification, relying on some of the properties of a super-saturated solution of gelatin, created by freezing
, to remove macroscopic particles that cause cloudiness from a water-based stock
. This method is distinct from traditional consommé both in technique and in final product, as gelatin filtration results in a gelatin-free broth, while traditional consommé gives a final product rich in gelatin, with a correspondingly rich mouthfeel
.
Freezing a water-based solution converts all bulk water into ice crystals, but water associated with solutes—in the case of a soup stock, gelatin, fat, and flavor compounds—remains unfrozen to much lower temperatures; in practice, the freezing temperature of this associated water is well below the reach of conventional freezers. Thus, gelatin filtration works by freezing a gelatin-containing, water-based solution and then allowing it to thaw in a mesh strainer at just above the freezing temperature of water. The gelatin and other solutes concentrate in the unfrozen, associated water, and the gelatin forms a stable network through cross-linking, just as it would in a standard gel. This stable network acts as a filter, trapping large particles of fat or protein, while allowing water and smaller, flavor-active compounds to pass. As the bulk water melts, it passes first through the gelatin network and then through the mesh strainer, into a receiving vessel. The gelatin network retains large particles, but flavor molecules are generally not retained. Because the temperature is kept just above the freezing point, the bulk water melts slowly and, as it is strained into a separate vessel, it is never in contact with the gelatin for long enough to begin dissolving the gelatin network. After all of the bulk water melts, the gelatin network remains in the strainer with the trapped macroscopic particles, and the clarified stock (the bulk water and flavor compounds) is collected in the receiving vessel.
Because gelatin-filtered consommés do not require a painstaking creation of an egg-white raft as in traditional consommés, they are both less wasteful and considerably easier for the casual cook. The technique is also applicable to a wider range of "stocks": since no heating is required, heat-sensitive materials, such as fruit juices, can be clarified by first adding a small amount of gelatin, then applying gelatin filtration. A number of non-traditional consommés, not based on stock, have been created using this method, including a "pretzel consommé", a "brown butter consommé", and a "spiced pumpkin consommé".
Loss of gelatin essential to gelatin filtration results in a consommé with significantly less-rich mouthfeel than a traditional consommé, and also affects the properties of the consommé upon chilling. A chilled, traditional consommé gels when chilled, while a gelatin-filtered consommé does not.
, taking many forms from simple soups, to soups made from the meat of a wide variety of less-common animals.
A special type of consommé that was boiled solely with tendon
s and cartilage
without the addition of salt was sweetened, flavoured with fruits and served as dessert. These sweetened consommé creations are essentially the forerunners of present-day gelatin
desserts.
Cooking
Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...
, a consommé is a type of clear soup
Soup
Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...
made from richly flavored stock
Stock (food)
Stock is a flavoured water preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces.- Preparation :Stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following...
or bouillon
Bouillon (broth)
Bouillon, in French cuisine, is simply a broth. This name comes from the verb bouillir, meaning to boil. It is usually made by the simmering of mirepoix and aromatic herbs with either beef, veal, or poultry bones and/or with shrimp, or vegetables in boiling water.This is not to be confused with...
that has been clarified usually through a fining process involving egg protein. It usually requires an advanced knowledge of cooking and past experience to create a high quality consommé. Consommé has maintained its place as one of the most highly regarded and appreciated soups in the world.
Cooking and serving consommés
A consommé is made by adding a mixture of ground meats, together with mirepoixMirepoix (cuisine)
A mirepoix is a combination of celery , onions, and carrots. Mirepoix, either raw, roasted or sautéed with butter, is the flavor base for a wide number of dishes, such as stocks, soups, stews and sauces...
, tomatoes, and egg whites into either bouillon
Bouillon (broth)
Bouillon, in French cuisine, is simply a broth. This name comes from the verb bouillir, meaning to boil. It is usually made by the simmering of mirepoix and aromatic herbs with either beef, veal, or poultry bones and/or with shrimp, or vegetables in boiling water.This is not to be confused with...
or stock
Stock (food)
Stock is a flavoured water preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces.- Preparation :Stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following...
. The key to making a high quality consommé is simmering; the act of simmering, combined with frequent stirring, brings impurities to the surface of the liquid, which are further drawn out due to the presence of acid from the tomatoes. Eventually, the solids begin to congeal at the surface of the liquid, forming a 'raft', which is caused by the protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
in the egg. Once the 'raft' begins to form, the heat is reduced, and the consommé is simmered at a lower heat until it reaches the desired flavor, which usually takes anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour. The resulting concoction is a clear liquid that has either a rich amber colour (for beef or veal consommé) or a very pale yellow colour (for poultry consommé). It is then carefully drawn from the pot and passed again through a filter to ensure its purity, and is then put through a lengthy process where all of the visible fat is skimmed from the surface. To ensure total purification, the consommé can be refrigerated, which draws out remaining fat, which can easily be skimmed off with cheesecloth. Alternatively, the consommé can be placed in a wide, shallow container such as a sauté pan or large bowl and wide strips of parchment paper
Parchment paper (baking)
Parchment paper and bakery release paper are cellulose-based papers that are used in baking as a disposable non-stick surface. Both are also called bakery paper.-Parchment paper:...
can be dragged along the surface; the tiny amounts of remaining fat adhere to the parchment, leaving the consommé perfectly de-greased. When preparing meat for a consommé, as much fat as possible should be trimmed off to simplify the purification process. Cartilage and tendons should be left on the meat because of the gelatin
Gelatin
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...
they contain, which enhances the mouthfeel
Mouthfeel
Mouthfeel is a product's physical and chemical interaction in the mouth, an aspect of food rheology. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite,...
of the soup. If beef or veal is used, shin meat is ideal because it is very low in fat and very high in gristle, and although it is undesirable for most other purposes, it is near essential for the flavour of the consommé. The meat is best if it is ground very fine, as if for a mousseline
Mousseline
A mousseline is a dish based on meat, fish, shellfish or foie gras to which whipped cream or, less frequently, beaten egg whites are added to lighten the texture by incorporating air bubbles. "Mousseline" is a derivative of "mousse"....
.
Consommés are usually served piping hot because they tend to cool down more quickly than other soups and form a gel
Gel
A gel is a solid, jelly-like material that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state...
. They are most often served with garnishes, which vary in complexity from a simple splash of sherry
Sherry
Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....
or egg yolk, to cut vegetables, to shaped savory custards called 'royales'. Consommés are ideal for whetting the appetite, especially in the traditional seven-course meal format, as they are very rich and tasty in flavor, but are neither filling nor heavy-feeling after consumption.
Consommés are expensive, as a large amount of meat only yields a small amount of consommé; in some recipes, as much as 500 g (a little over a pound) of meat can go into a single 250 mL (8.2 fl oz) serving. They are also quite difficult to make, and success with the complex clarification process often eludes the novice or impatient cook.
Varieties
Double consommé is a consommé made to double strength. There is considerable disagreement among chefs as to how to make it. Some say to double the quantity of meat, others say make it normal strength, then reduceReduction (cooking)
In cooking, reduction is the process of thickening and intensifying the flavor of a liquid mixture such as a soup, sauce, wine, or juice by boiling....
it (cooked it down) to half of its volume. Still others say make it with a stock or broth that uses a consommé as its liquid component instead of water. It is often found in other cold-cuisine items, especially those that use aspic
Aspic
Aspic is a dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatin made from a meat stock or consommé. Non-savory dishes, often made with commercial gelatin mixes without stock or consommé, are usually called gelatin salads....
, or natural gelatin.
Another common variation is cold jellied consommé, which, as the name implies, is served cold, and has more gelatin in it.
Gelatin-filtered "consommé"
In a 2007 New York Times article, Harold McGeeHarold McGee
Harold McGee is an American author who writes about the chemistry, technique and history of food and cooking and has written two seminal books on kitchen science. His first book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen was initially published in 1984. A greatly revised second...
popularized an alternative method for clarifying broths, originating among chefs of the molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in...
movement: gelatin
Gelatin
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...
filtration. Gelatin-filtration is a novel method of clarification, relying on some of the properties of a super-saturated solution of gelatin, created by freezing
Freezing
Freezing or solidification is a phase change in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. The reverse process is melting....
, to remove macroscopic particles that cause cloudiness from a water-based stock
Stock (food)
Stock is a flavoured water preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces.- Preparation :Stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, including some or all of the following...
. This method is distinct from traditional consommé both in technique and in final product, as gelatin filtration results in a gelatin-free broth, while traditional consommé gives a final product rich in gelatin, with a correspondingly rich mouthfeel
Mouthfeel
Mouthfeel is a product's physical and chemical interaction in the mouth, an aspect of food rheology. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite,...
.
Freezing a water-based solution converts all bulk water into ice crystals, but water associated with solutes—in the case of a soup stock, gelatin, fat, and flavor compounds—remains unfrozen to much lower temperatures; in practice, the freezing temperature of this associated water is well below the reach of conventional freezers. Thus, gelatin filtration works by freezing a gelatin-containing, water-based solution and then allowing it to thaw in a mesh strainer at just above the freezing temperature of water. The gelatin and other solutes concentrate in the unfrozen, associated water, and the gelatin forms a stable network through cross-linking, just as it would in a standard gel. This stable network acts as a filter, trapping large particles of fat or protein, while allowing water and smaller, flavor-active compounds to pass. As the bulk water melts, it passes first through the gelatin network and then through the mesh strainer, into a receiving vessel. The gelatin network retains large particles, but flavor molecules are generally not retained. Because the temperature is kept just above the freezing point, the bulk water melts slowly and, as it is strained into a separate vessel, it is never in contact with the gelatin for long enough to begin dissolving the gelatin network. After all of the bulk water melts, the gelatin network remains in the strainer with the trapped macroscopic particles, and the clarified stock (the bulk water and flavor compounds) is collected in the receiving vessel.
Because gelatin-filtered consommés do not require a painstaking creation of an egg-white raft as in traditional consommés, they are both less wasteful and considerably easier for the casual cook. The technique is also applicable to a wider range of "stocks": since no heating is required, heat-sensitive materials, such as fruit juices, can be clarified by first adding a small amount of gelatin, then applying gelatin filtration. A number of non-traditional consommés, not based on stock, have been created using this method, including a "pretzel consommé", a "brown butter consommé", and a "spiced pumpkin consommé".
Loss of gelatin essential to gelatin filtration results in a consommé with significantly less-rich mouthfeel than a traditional consommé, and also affects the properties of the consommé upon chilling. A chilled, traditional consommé gels when chilled, while a gelatin-filtered consommé does not.
History
Clarified broths called consommés have been in use since the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, taking many forms from simple soups, to soups made from the meat of a wide variety of less-common animals.
A special type of consommé that was boiled solely with tendon
Tendon
A tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and is capable of withstanding tension. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae as they are all made of collagen except that ligaments join one bone to another bone, and fasciae connect muscles to other...
s and cartilage
Cartilage
Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
without the addition of salt was sweetened, flavoured with fruits and served as dessert. These sweetened consommé creations are essentially the forerunners of present-day gelatin
Gelatin
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...
desserts.