How to make traditional consommé. Consomme: what is it, recipes for making asparagus consommé

Soup consommé is an advanced broth with a wide variety of flavors and styles. Few people make consommé soups today, as the preparation of this dish requires a lot of patience and easily succumbs to the modern temptations to open a tin or package of convenience foods.


But with the revival of interest in cooking, consommé has returned to fashion. Luckily, ice filtration makes quick work of this old-fashioned delicacy, and you'll find that the canned product tastes a world away from the real thing you can now prepare at home.

Ingredients

Portions: This is a traditional consommé made from scratch for four people.

  • 1 liter of clear broth. Typically fatty chicken or beef is used
  • 1 large carrot, onion and a pack of celery, all chopped
  • 2 peppercorns and 1 cloves
  • 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed, chopped
  • Side dishes as desired: Cut vegetables such as carrots, onions, mushrooms, zucchini and turnips into neat strips (approximately 50 g per serving), parsley or other herb leaves, especially small greens; cut the bread into neat pieces and fry, etc.

Steps

Stage 1: Making the broth

Make seafood, chicken, or beef bouillon according to your recipe, or look for another recipe. When making beef stock, ask your butcher to set aside the bones with a few cartilages and buy an additional 500g or so of shank meat (per litre) to make the stock. You can buy both types of meat at a low price from a butcher. Roast the drumstick meat as directed in the recipe, including the bones, as this will add richness and flavour. The longer you cook the broth, the more moisture will evaporate, leaving a richer soup. The downside to adding flavor to soup is that the flavor is often lost in the steam, while spices and herbs leave a bitter or unpleasant taste. Rich broths, cooked over a long period of time, were traditionally served with richly flavored accompaniments to re-enhance the flavor, but this was a rather tedious operation and did not always have excellent results. Lighter broths that cook for less time usually have a more refined flavor. They were also more acceptable in an enhanced or subtle tasting context. In the past, as today, the broth was cooked for a shorter amount of time, but with more roasted leg meat added to produce a more concentrated flavor. The greens you use for the garnish bouquet should contain parsley, bay leaves, and thyme (if you haven't already prepared it). Add additional vegetables (not optional side dishes), spices, and tomato to the hot broth and let steep (as when making tea) for 1 hour. Keep the broth hot, but don't let it boil. Slow cooking at low temperatures is a great way to save time and effort. It is important that the consommé does not boil, keep it below boiling point, preferably around 80 ͦC/176 ͦF. Pressure cookers are not ideal for preparing traditional consommé as they boil quickly and turn the vegetables into a smooth mush. However, you can save a lot of time and go with the ice filtration method below and get a decent product. A temperature sprayer is a very useful tool when cooking on a conventional oven. Other options that can replace the sprayer or copy its actions include:1. Placing the pan on the wok support ring, 2. Using a steam bath (steam bath) or steam bath and allowing the ingredients to submerge. This is a rather old-fashioned method, but this is where the name "strong broth" comes from.

    Stir the broth as little as possible when cooking on the stove top or when cooking slowly. Stirring helps infuse the flavor, but can make it cloudy. If you could avoid stirring entirely, it would make the next steps easier as it allows more of the sediment to settle and not mix with the broth.

    But if you want to stir, use the whisk only in liquid, without breaking or disturbing the broth ingredients. Don't boil it to ensure it stays as clear as possible.

Stage 2: Cleaning the broth

Allow the broth to cool OR proceed to the alternative ice clearing method below. Placing stock in the refrigerator is also a good way to cool it, but make sure it doesn't interact with other foods in the refrigerator that also need refrigeration, and meat stock should be kept away from them. Allow the broth to both cool and settle until the surface becomes clear. If you haven't disturbed the sediment in the pan by stirring, this won't take much time. When it is at room temperature or cold, carefully pour the clear liquid into a pitcher or clean pan without disturbing the sediment. Freeze until all the fat has turned into solid clumps. Don't rush into the filtering stage; it will be easier if you do this in batches, allowing the traditional broth to settle further. Remove as much fat as possible. If possible, remove all the fat in one slab if you're lucky, as this will make the task easier than having to waste time scooping it out with a spoon. It is advisable to remove as much fat as possible so that you get a clean taste when you taste the soup. The broth may also turn into a weak jelly (due to gelatinous proteins in the meat and bones). This can all be prepared a day in advance, and the broth can cook gently in the background while you prepare other food. Using slow cooking will provide a greater convenience factor. If done correctly, you will get a clear, rich color. If not, it will still taste fantastic, but you can still use the ice filter method.

Stage 3: Ice filtration

    Pour your broth into a freezer storage container or ice cube freezer with a good lid. Try to keep broth particles in the pan, but it's not a problem if they get into the pan - they will still freeze into a solid state.

    The purpose of the lid is so you can be sure the flavors will freeze with the broth and know that it won't absorb the flavors of other foods that are nearby (like ice cream).

    Place in a perforated tray, flat colander, sieve cylinder or other draining container that has a flat base lined with cheesecloth or a clean, finely woven tea towel/kitchen towel. Ideally, the container in which you freeze the broth should fit into a sieve or perforated flat tray. Then place this tray in another dish with drainage at the bottom.

    The container under the sieve or tray should be wide and deep enough to catch all the liquid without leaking.

Remove your broth ice block from the container it came in and place it on a flat tray with drainage or a sieve. Cover with cling film and set aside - preferably in the refrigerator overnight if you have time. Allow the block to melt and the broth will clear, leaving the ice and small particles that would make it cloudy in the cloth. For a richer broth, use a higher portion of white ice (the larger ice crystals that take the longest to melt) rather than letting them thin out the broth. White ice has a slight aroma. This method is quite modern, but makes the liquid perfectly clear. You may have experienced this scientific trick if you've ever eaten a frozen jelly/popsicle on a stick and when it started to melt, you sucked out the sweet syrup, leaving behind tasteless ice. You can also repeat this process to get more and more concentrated syrup. You can freeze them in cubes for long-term storage to add to a cup of hot water for a quick and tasty snack or for someone who is sick and cannot eat solid foods. You can also bind the broth with gelatin by dissolving it in a large bowl of hot water.

: Stage 4: Serving consommé

  • Looking at the preparation of the broth, the soup recipe is quite simple, it just takes a little time to prepare, so it's best to prepare it in advance, in the background. Your anxiety may make making soup seem more difficult than it actually is.
  • Trivia: To make the soup as clear as possible, some traditional recipes go further by using a thickly beaten egg white and adding it to the broth to filter out more particles. The whites are beaten into cold broth, which is then heated. As the protein cooks, it "grabs" additional particles and brings them to the surface, where it is skimmed away and discarded. If you want to do this, use 3 egg whites per liter and let the eggs cook for at least 10 minutes (again, without boiling), then skim and strain the broth. The benefit is a cleaner broth, but imagine the loss of the flavor the eggs will absorb and the eggy flavor they will leave behind.

Warnings

  • Don't boil the broth! Under no circumstances! The easiest way is to use a temperature sprayer or the smallest burner/burner on low heat.

Sometimes cookbooks and other sources contain mention of a dish such as consommé. What it is? In classical cooking, consommé is a type of clear soup made from a rich, flavored broth that has been subsequently clarified. Egg whites are used to remove fat and sediment.

Beef consommé

What is it and how is it made? It's actually quite simple. Consommé is made by mixing organ meats with a combination of carrots, celery and onions, adding tomatoes and egg whites. The key to creating a high quality product is a generous boil.

The process of boiling over high heat combined with frequent stirring results in a cloudy layer on the surface, which then dissipates due to the presence of acid in the tomatoes. Eventually, solid particles begin to solidify on the surface of the broth, forming a so-called “raft”, the basis of which is the egg whites. As soon as this film begins to appear, the heating intensity must be reduced. Next, the consommé (classic recipe) is cooked over low heat until it acquires the desired taste. This process usually takes from 45 minutes to 1-1.5 hours.

Appearance and consistency

The resulting mixture is a clear liquid that is deep amber (for beef or veal consommé) or pale yellow (for poultry).

It is then carefully poured out of the pan and passed through a filter. To ensure maximum clarity, the consommé undergoes a lengthy cleaning process, after which all visible fat is removed from the surface.

Some housewives specifically put the dish in the refrigerator - at low temperatures, the remaining fat is released from the broth, which can be easily removed with gauze. Alternatively, the consommé can be placed in a wide, shallow container (such as a saute pan or large bowl) and wide strips of parchment paper placed along the surface. Small particles of remaining fat adhere to the parchment, leaving the consommé completely defatted.

Classic consommé is made from beef, with cartilage and tendons remaining on the meat due to the gelatin they contain, which enhances the richness of the soup's flavor. If beef or veal is used, drumstick meat is ideal because it contains very little fat but a lot of cartilage. Although this part of the carcass is considered undesirable for most other soups, it is almost essential for consommé. The classic recipe also involves chopping meat during cooking.

Peculiarities

Consommé is usually served hot because it tends to cool faster than other soups, forming a jelly. The dish is most often served with dressing, which can be different. Many foods can be used as an accompaniment to the soup, ranging from a small amount of sherry or egg yolk to vegetables with a savory custard called royales. Sometimes consommé is served with profiteroles.

An impressively sized piece of meat allows you to prepare only a small amount of consommé. In some recipes, up to 500 grams of meat can be used to produce just one 250 ml serving of the dish. Because it is so expensive to prepare, consommé has a reputation as a gourmet dish invented for the higher classes of society. Historically, it was not consumed by middle-class people, because they could not afford such consumption of meat.

Varieties

Double consommé is a dish with increased concentration. There are at least three methods for producing this variant:

  • doubling the amount of meat used in the recipe;
  • preparing a regular consommé and reducing it to half its volume by simmering;
  • replacing the water in the recipe with an equal amount of already prepared consommé.

Another common option is chilled or gelatinous consommé. What it is? This dish is served cold. Additional gelatin may be added during the last part of the clarification process to ensure that the dish sets properly.

Consommé: what is it and how to prepare it?

The definition of this dish is given above, and now it is important to find out how to prepare it correctly. For a classic meat recipe you will need the following components:

  • 1 liter of water;
  • 2 egg whites, beaten until foamy;
  • 1/2 kilogram of meat (beef or veal);
  • 170 grams of a mixture of carrots, celery, onions, chopped or cut into thin strips;
  • herbs and spices for taste.

Cooking process

Beat the egg whites until they begin to foam (about 30 seconds). Mix them with chopped meat, vegetables, herbs and spices. Place the mixture in the bottom of the pan and fill with cold water.

Heat over high heat, stirring constantly, until the water reaches a temperature of 49 °, after which the “raft” begins to float. Place a ladle underneath to make a hole in the surface film. Gently bring the consommé to a boil. It is important that the “raft” of proteins does not fall apart.

Once the stock comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and continue to simmer for 60 minutes, while drawing the liquid out through the holes in the ladle. This will help filter the consommé, keeping the top of the “raft” from drying out.

Once the broth becomes clear, remove it from the heat. Carefully lower the “raft” to the bottom of the ladle and remove from the pan. Carefully strain the broth through a thick sieve. For greater clarity, refrigerate the consommé overnight after it has cooled. This will cause the remaining fat to rise to the top and harden. The next day, remove this hard layer. You will get a cold consommé.

What it is? This is the basis for your gourmet dish. You can serve it chilled or hot, with a variety of side dishes including brunois and blanched vegetables, dumplings, sausage, meat balls and so on. The main thing is to remember to season the broth with salt.

In fine restaurants, it is customary to collect side dishes in separate plates, and serve the broth in a plain container so that its transparency is visible.

Poultry option

As noted, consommé is a soup or broth that has been clarified with egg whites to a crystal clear liquid. The base of the dish is a highly flavored, rich broth. Although the most common preparation is made with beef, there are versions made with lamb, duck or chicken. How to prepare this option?

Ingredients:

Chicken bouillon

  • 1 chicken breast, skinless, diced;
  • 1 shallot, chopped;
  • 6 egg whites;
  • salt.

Preparation

Combine chicken breast and shallots in a food processor or chop by hand. Whisk the egg whites and stir them into the chicken-onion mixture and add a pinch of salt.

Place in a saucepan and fill with water. While heating gently, bring the broth to a boil, whisking regularly to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

The egg whites will begin to coagulate and float to the top, creating a “raft.” Make a small hole in it. This will allow you to see if all the egg white has risen from the mixture.

When the raft becomes so hard that you can no longer see the contents of the pan, remove it from the heat. Using a ladle, carefully remove the consommé through the opening in the raft and strain through a folded muslin cloth into a container, being careful. If you break the egg whites, the broth will become cloudy.

Chilling the chicken consommé in the refrigerator will help remove any fat that has collected on the surface. Now the dish is ready to use.

Today I invite you to prepare an amazingly delicious broth - consommé. The country of origin of this broth is France, and as you know, the French are great gourmets. Consommé is an easy dish to prepare, but quite exquisite and is served in almost all restaurants in France.

At its core, consommé is a twice-cooked, rich, beautifully colored broth. Consommé is prepared from chicken, beef, and even vegetables. The most important thing is that this broth should be transparent. I invite you to prepare chicken consommé broth with me.

We will prepare all the products according to the list.

Wash the chicken, dry it with a paper towel and cut it into portions. Place the meat in a dish lined with foil and roast the meat in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees C, for 20 minutes.

We want the meat to not burn, but just brown. With such meat the broth will turn out to be a beautiful color.

Cut the carrots into slices, leeks or regular onions into rings, cut the celery stalks into small cubes.

Place the fried meat along with the released liquid in a saucepan, add chopped vegetables.

Add bouquet garni. You don’t have to do it, but simply add fresh rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf.

Add 2.5 liters of water. Salt and pepper the broth to taste. Place the saucepan on the fire and let the broth boil. At the initial stage, after boiling, foam will form; it should be carefully collected. As soon as the foam stops forming, cover the saucepan with a lid and cook the broth for about 2 hours over low heat.

We pass the finished broth through a colander to get rid of pieces of meat and vegetables. As you can see, the broth turned out completely opaque.

Now comes the second stage of preparing consommé - clarification of the broth. For this we need an egg white with a shell.

Place the egg whites and shells into the strained broth. Put the broth on the fire and cook it for 30 minutes.

After a while, you will see a dirty foam form on the surface of the broth - this is the egg white, when coagulating, collecting all the flakes from the broth and making it transparent.

Carefully push the foam aside and use a ladle to select the resulting broth. It will look like this. But that's not all. The resulting broth should be strained several times through several layers of gauze.

We serve the finished consommé broth with fresh bread; the French like to serve consommé with profiteroles. You can add pieces of meat, vegetables, and fish to the consommé.

Consommé is a dish for gourmets, I invite you to become one for a while and try the amazingly tasty, aromatic, rich and clear consommé broth. Bon appetit!

What do you think of when you hear the word “consommé”? Something French, unusual and very tasty, and, given the melodic name, also sweet, probably pops up in your head. But no, surprisingly, consommé is a soup, or rather a broth, cooked in a special way. Its name literally translates as “cook for a long time.” In ancient France, as well as Russia, this aromatic soup was very popular, especially in restaurants. It was served, so to speak, to warm up, in order to whet the appetite for the next dishes. But over time, the popularity of consommé waned, since, despite its supposed lightness and transparency, this broth contained a large amount of fat, and with it cholesterol. But still, every cook, amateur or professional, should know the classic old recipe for consommé.

The right consommé

The classic is eternal - it is the basis of all subsequent versions of the dish. In the case of consommé, lean veal or chicken was used for the classic preparation. Later, the recipe underwent changes and new, ornate options appeared: consommé of fish, vegetables and even fruits. There is also a recipe for double consommé, in which the standard set of ingredients is doubled, only the same amount of water is taken as in the regular recipe. We will remember how we prepared it in hoary times.

Time required: 3–3.5 hours

Feeders needed: 4–6 people

Here is a list of required products for the broth:

  • Water – 2–2.5 liters;
  • Beef bone;
  • Celery stalks – 2 pcs. ;
  • Carrots – 1 medium pc. ;
  • 2 large onions;
  • Parsley root;
  • Green set of dill and parsley;
  • Vegetable fat for frying vegetables;
  • Salt.

To clarify the broth, we need to prepare a draw from the following ingredients:

Let's start cooking:

If you want the broth to be more dietary, you can use chicken fillet instead of beef, but you still can’t do without the bone. By the way, homemade chicken soup has properties that help the body overcome a cold and restore its previous strength after a serious illness.

Today we will get acquainted with exquisite French cuisine and look at consommé recipes. What does this word mean? If you translate it literally, you get “cook for a long time.” Simply put, this is a fairly strong, salty broth that is cooked using a special technology.


Consommé: recipe with photo

Consomme takes quite a long time to prepare, but the result is worth the time spent. First of all, the bones are boiled, then meat, poultry, vegetables, mushrooms or seafood are cooked in the same broth. In general, there are quite a lot of options. We will prepare chicken and mushroom consommé. Having mastered the technique of cooking it, you will be able to cook other versions of this dish by analogy.

Attention! Determine the amount of spices based on your own taste preferences.

Compound:

  • chicken carcass;
  • 5.5 liters of purified water;
  • salt;
  • 3-4 laurel leaves;
  • 3-4 peas of allspice;
  • thyme;
  • rosemary;
  • greenery;
  • caraway;
  • chervil;
  • freshly ground black pepper;
  • bulb onions;
  • 2 pcs. leeks;
  • 4 celery stalks;
  • 3 carrots;
  • 4-5 fresh mushrooms;
  • 4 tomatoes;
  • 300 g minced chicken;
  • 5 eggs;
  • seasoning "Sasha";
  • olive oil;
  • coconut milk;
  • lemon.

Preparation:

  1. Wash the chicken and cut into portions.
  2. Place the chicken in a deep pan, add water, lightly add salt and cook for four hours on the lowest burner level.
  3. Wrap the seasonings in gauze: bay leaves, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, chervil, sprigs of herbs and caraway seeds.
  4. Dip the gauze into the broth, boil it for an hour, and then add freshly ground pepper and salt.
  5. Then the broth should be strained and given time to cool.
  6. Cover the broth with cling film and refrigerate overnight.
  7. Let's prepare the vegetables: chop the carrots, celery root, and leeks not too finely. Chop the mushrooms into slices. Set aside some of the mushrooms and leeks.
  8. Peel the onion and cut into large rings. Fry it in olive oil in a deep frying pan.
  9. Place the tomatoes in boiling water for literally 15-20 seconds.
  10. Then cool them under running water, remove the skin and cut the tomatoes into cubes.
  11. Separate the whites from the yolk mass and beat them thoroughly.
  12. Add 1 tbsp to the pan. chicken broth prepared the night before, add prepared vegetables, Sasha seasoning and minced chicken.
  13. Bring the mixture to a boil and set the burner to the minimum level. Cook for an hour.
  14. Then pour the liquid into a saucepan and place all the ingredients on a paper kitchen towel.
  15. Fry the remaining mushrooms in olive oil, add leeks to them. When the ingredients are ready, add a little coconut milk and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
  16. Add chicken broth and cook for ten minutes.
  17. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and mix it with coconut milk. Add the resulting mixture to the dish to taste.
  18. Serve the dish with cilantro and coconut flakes.

And of course, you should try to prepare consommé according to the classic English recipe. This incredible dish amazes with its excellent taste and rich aroma.

On a note! Asparagus consommé is ideal for vegetarians and lovers of meatless dishes.

Compound:

  • 3-4 potatoes;
  • celery root;
  • carrot;
  • ½ tbsp. cream;
  • 3 tbsp. l. soft butter;
  • 5 bunches of green onions;
  • salt;
  • freshly ground black pepper;
  • eggs;
  • 2 onions.

On a note! For one serving of soup you need 1 egg.

Preparation: