A consommé is a refined clear soup with a wide range of tastes and styles. Few people do this now, as the dish requires a lot of patience, easily beaten by the modern convenience of having to just open a can or an envelope.
But with the renewed interest in the art of cooking starting from the ingredients, the consommé is back in vogue. Thankfully, ice filtration makes this old-fashioned delicacy a short job and you'll find that the taste of the canned product doesn't even compare to the real thing you can make at home easily.
Ingrediants
' Portions: this is a basic consommé for four starting from the ingredients.
- 1 liter of clear broth. Usually chicken or beef are the most used
- 1 extra carrot, onion and a stalk of celery, cut into small pieces
- 2 peppercorns, 1 clove
- 2 tomatoes, peeled and seeded, sliced
- Optional side dishes: vegetables such as carrots, onions, courgettes, mushrooms, turnips or swede cabbage cut into well-defined strips (about 50 g each), parsley and other herbs, especially micro-herbs; bread cut into defined shapes and toasted, etc.
Steps
Step 1. This article focuses on ways to make consommé production faster
For example, the steps involve using a slow cooker or pressure cooker and ice filtration to make this timeless dish much less of a challenge.
Step 2. Many cooks strive to make the soup as clear as possible
There are various complicated methods to achieve this, which you may want to try at some point. Making it completely clear makes it a classic, tasty and very impactful appetizer, and it's worth doing for the experience.
Part 1 of 4: Prepare the Broth
Step 1. Decide if you want to make the broth yourself or use a pre-made one
This recipe can easily be made in 1 or 2 days for the homemade one. In the next step there is a link to a recipe for making broth from the ingredients.
If you are using ready-made, liquid broth from a tetra-pak package or can, skip the next step and go to step 8, after you have reheated your broth. In any case, it doesn't always turn out as clear and tasty as a hand-made consommé, unless you find a brand that is marked as a quality for making the consommé. A person used to cooking will always discover a packaged broth, so be careful where you use it
Step 2. Make a seafood, chicken, or beef broth following your recipe, or read this
If you make a beef broth, ask your butcher to set aside the bones with some cartilage and buy about 500g of extra shank meat (per liter) to use in the broth - both can be bought for a little while at the butcher. Roast the shank meat with the bones according to the recipe because it will add something to the richness and flavor.
The longer you cook a broth, the more moisture evaporates as steam, leaving a richer soup. The trade-off is that the soup's aroma is its taste and is often lost in the steam, while the herbs and spices leave a bitter or bad taste. Rich broths traditionally cooked for a long time were served with strong flavored side dishes to liven up the taste, but it was a tedious operation with less than perfect results. Lighter broths cooked less long tended to have a more delicate taste and were still accepted in a fine or delicate tasting contest. In the past, like today, the solution was to cook for less time, but to add more roast shank to give the maximum concentration of flavor.
The herbs you use to make the bouquet garni from the broth recipe should contain parsley, bay leaves and thyme (if they didn't already).
Step 3. Add the extra vegetables (not the optional ones), spices and tomato to the hot broth and let them steep for an hour (like when you make tea)
Keep the broth hot but below the boiling point. A slow cooker set on LOW is a great way to save time and work. It is essential to avoid boiling the broth for a consommé, keep it just below the threshold, preferably around 80 ° C. Pressure cookers are not ideal for making a traditional consommé, as they boil quickly and chop the vegetables into pieces. cloudy mush. Either way, you can save a lot of time by using them and by skipping straight to the ice filtration described below, you'll still make a decent product. A heat diffuser is very useful when cooking on a regular stove. Other options that can replicate a heat diffuser or be used in its place include: 1. Place the broth pot on a wok stand; 2. Leave the ingredients in a water bath or in a water bath to let them steep. It's a bit old-fashioned, as is where the term beef tea comes from.
Step 4. Stir the broth as little as possible when cooking it on the stove or slow cooker
Stirring promotes flavor development, but can make it cloudy. If you can avoid mixing it altogether, the next step will be easier, as it allows for more sediment to form and fewer particles in the broth. If you wish to mix, use a balloon whisk gently in the liquid without disturbing or breaking the broth ingredients. Avoid boiling it to make sure the broth remains as clear as possible.
Part 2 of 4: Refine the broth
Step 1. Let the broth cool or skip to the alternative ice filtration method below
Putting broth in the fridge is fine too, but make sure it doesn't affect other things in the fridge that need to be kept cold like sweets, a meat broth should always be kept away from it. Let the broth cool and the ingredients settle until the surface is clear. If you haven't disturbed the sediments in the pot by stirring, then you don't have to wait long now. When it is at room temperature or cool, gently move the clear liquid with a ladle into a clean jug or pot without disturbing the sediments. Cool it until all the fat has settled into solid lumps. Don't rush the decanting process; maybe it will be easier for you to do it a little at a time, in order to leave the original pot of the broth to settle even more. Remove as much fat as possible. If you can get all the fat out in one big lump, you're in luck because it's easier than wasting time picking it up a little at a time with a spoon. It is desirable to remove as much fat as possible, so that the taste in the mouth is then clean when the soup is consumed. The broth may also become a flabby jelly (due to the gelatinous proteins in the flesh and bones). All of this can be done in advance the day before and the broth can cook quietly in the background as you prepare other meals. Using a slow cooker is very convenient. When done correctly, it will be a light, rich color. Otherwise, it will still taste great as it is, but you can still use the ice filtration method.
Part 3 of 4: Ice Filtration
Step 1. Place the broth in a large, low, closed freezer container or ice cube trays with a good lid
Try to leave the broth residues in the pot; however, it is not a problem if they go into the container. Freeze them until they solidify. The purpose of the lid is to keep the flavor inside the frozen broth, and also to ensure that it does not taste or taste other nearby foods (such as ice cream).
Step 2. Place a clean, fine cheesecloth or tea towel in a liquid drain utensil such as a perforated tray, flat-bottom colander, or sieve
It would be ideal if the container in which you frozen the broth was the right size to sit perfectly flat in the sieve or perforated tray. Place this perforated tray on top of another container. The container under the sieve or tray should be wide and deep enough to collect fluid without leaking.
Step 3. Remove the frozen broth cubes from their original container and place them in the drainage tray with the cheesecloth or sieve
Cover it with plastic wrap and set it aside, preferably in the fridge overnight if you have time. Let the blocks melt and the broth will seep through the cheesecloth, leaving the ice and particles that would make it cloudy in the fabric. For a richer broth, leave more of the white ice (the raw ice crystals that take the longest to melt) rather than allowing it to dilute the broth. White ice has little flavor. This method is quite modern but results in an excellent clear fluid. You may have already tried this scientific trick if you've ever eaten a popsicle and when it starts to soften, sucked off the sweet syrup, leaving the ice tasteless. You can also repeat the process to have an increasingly concentrated syrup. You can freeze the cubes as a long-term supply to add to a cup of boiling water for a quick and tasty snack to recover, or for a sick person who cannot eat solid foods. You can also have it melt in the guest bowl with hot water and gelatin.
Step 4. Heat the broth gently to serve
This method saves a lot of time and labor - just leave it aside to melt, traditional purists believe that a more flavorful traditional consommé is a better product.
Part 4 of 4: Serve the Consommé
Step 1. Heat the broth very slowly to serve (without boiling it) and taste it for the seasoning
It is rare but some salt may be needed, however adding pepper would make it cloudy, which is why the two extra peppercorns were added first. Before serving, arrange the side dishes. Cut the vegetables as best as possible, or use a machine to do this, then boil them, or gently sauté until soft. Pre-packaged broths tend to be already spiced before they are sold and need few additions, even if some herbs and lemon are bad for them. There is a wide range of containers in which to serve the consommé, such as shot glasses for an aperitif with Kirsch or champagne, or brandy cups for a more formal elegance, or a bowl of pure white to allow the light is reflected inside for a traditional touch. The dishes should be reheated before using them and add the other side dishes at the last minute before enjoying the fruits of your labor. You can also serve it cold ice cream like jelly with warmer temperatures, using jelly or agar agar. The side dishes should be steeped in ice water until crisp, and / or some freshly cut salad herbs (such as chervil, mint, chives, or other soft leaves) or a wedge of lemon.
Step 2. Finished
Advice
- If looking after it while making broth makes soup a fairly simple recipe, it only takes a long time to make, that's why it's best to cook it slowly in the background. The more anxious you are about the dish, the more difficult it will seem to do.
- Trivia: To keep the soup as clear as possible, some traditional recipes go further and use beaten egg whites added to the broth to filter out the particles even more. The egg whites are beaten in the cold broth which is then heated. As the white cooks, it captures particles and rises to the surface to be removed and discarded. If you want to do this, use 3 egg whites per liter and let the eggs sit in hot water for 10 minutes (without boiling), then skim and filter the broth. The benefit is a clearer soup, but imagine the loss of taste carried away by the egg whites and the taste of eggs they will leave behind.
