Beef Consomme

Ingredients

• some very small fragments of raw beef, free from fat
• the white of an egg
• a pint of water
• a quarter pound of white sugar

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the beef for three hours, then strain to obtain clear broth.

2. 2

   To clarify, add small pieces of raw beef or beat the egg white and shell together, mix with the broth, heat until boiling, let it settle, and strain.

3. 3

   For coloring, melt sugar in a pan, simmer until brown, add water, boil, skim, cool, and store for use in soup.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Culinary jottings (1885) by A. R. Kenney-Herbert, page 19. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

beef consomme or strong broth quite clear and pale. Removing the fat whilst the simmering is going on is obviously a very important stage which cannot be too patiently manipulated. The fat so obtained is invaluable for frying purposes. It should be melted after it has settled, and strained through a piece of muslin. It may so happen that, owing to insufficient skimming in the early stage of the proceedings, you find to your sori'ow that the consomme is not as clear as you could wish. You must therefore clarify it. There are two good ways of doing this. The simpler, and I believe, the more effica- cious of the two is to put into the cool broth some very small fragments of raw beef, free from fat, put it on the fire again till it boils, let it settle, and then strain. Per- haps, however, you may not have saved a bit of meat for this contingency, so you must attain your object with the 34 CULINARY JOTTINGS FOR MADRAS. white of an egg^ thus : — Break an egg, and throw the white and the shell together into a slop basin, — be care- ful not to let an atom of the yolk go in, — beat the white and shell np to a stiff froth, and mix it, flake by flake, very completely with the cool sonp. Put the soup into a saucepan, and set it on the fire, stirring well till it boils. Take it off immediately, cover it close, let it stand for a quarter of an hour, and then strain it off through the tamis, or hair sieve. Let me here point out the cause of another misadven- ture in the satisfactory appearance of a clear soup, — one that often occurs in consomme with maccaroni, verm.icelli, and pearl-barley. You have got your stock as bright and clear as sherry, but after adding the ingredients just men- tioned " a change comes over the spirit of your dream," — the soup turns cloudy. The reason is this : preserved fari- naceous food of the maccaroni class often contains dirt, — dirt that you do not perceive, and which can only be removed by parboiling. Accordingly, whenever you in- tend to add it to consomme, you should hoil it independently in plain water in order that the outside dirty part may be washed off by becoming dissolved. Plain washing in water is not enough ; besides, loashing maccaroni is the act of an ignoramus. There is another feature in a clear soup which I have reserved for special attention, and that is the colouring. Now, an idea prevails amongst numbers of English people that a soup to be good and strong must be dark-coloured. Old-fashioned people speak of your modern consomme as a weak, washy composition only fit for foreigners. But if you take the very self-same liquor and brown it with a lot of burnt onion, and thicken it with flour and butter, they are perfectly satisfied. Did you ever make jug- ged beef tea for a sick friend, the strongest possible essence of raw lean beef ? Was not the liquor so obtained ON STOCK, AND CLEAR SOUPS. 35 as clear as sherry, pale-coloured, with a quantity of granulated particles of the beef floating in it ? Well, when strained that would have been consomme without the flavouring produced from vegetables and the bouquet of sweet herbs, and surely s^'DJ^gf enough for the veriest John Bull that ever talked nonsense about cookery. Now, if you desire to impart a golden brown tint to your clear soup, or a darker tint, (which the gods forfend) never use hurnt onion upon any account. Tou must achieve your object by a browning (caramel) made thus : — put a quarter pound of white sugar into a copper or enamelled pan ; set it over the fire, and stir it till it is melted ; then after simmering for a quarter of an hour, and it has reach- ed the brown tint you want, add a pint of water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.