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Stock, Clarifying
When from some accident the stock is not as clear and bright as it should be, proceed as follows. For a quart of stock whisk the white of an egg with a quarter of a pint of water. Stir this briskly into the stock when it is just warm, let it boil, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. Draw it back, and keep it boiling gently for half an hour, continuing to skim it when possible. Let it stand for a quarter of an hour to settle, and strain it through a jelly-bag. If three or four ounces of lean meat are minced and pounded to pulp, and mixed with the white of egg before it is put in, the stock will be enriched as well as cleared.
This is the classic egg-white raft, still the standard method for turning cloudy stock into clear consommé. The instructions are sound, but a few points of Victorian phrasing and practice need translating.
- The hinge: never let it boil hardThe egg white must go in when the stock is cool or barely warm, so it disperses before it sets. Bring it up slowly and hold it at a bare shiver — a rolling boil shreds the coagulated raft and drives the debris back through the liquid, undoing the whole operation. Cassell's "let it boil" means the first rise only, after which the pan is drawn back.
- Stop stirring once it setsWhisk briskly as you stir the white into the just-warm stock, then leave it alone. As the white coagulates it forms a floating pad that traps particles; poking at it breaks the filter. Cassell's tells you to keep skimming; a gentler modern alternative is to open a small vent in the raft with a ladle and let the stock circulate through it.
- A quarter of a pintIn imperial measure that is 5 fl oz, a little under two-thirds of a US cup. One egg white per quart is right; two makes a firmer raft if the stock is badly clouded.
- Degrease firstEgg white clears suspended solids, not fat. Chill the stock and lift off the set fat before you begin, or the finished consommé will show slicks on the surface no matter how well the raft works.
- Jelly-bagA close-woven conical cloth bag on a stand. A sieve lined with two or three layers of damp muslin or cheesecloth does the same job. Wet the cloth first so it does not absorb stock, and ladle the liquid through rather than pouring, which dumps the sediment in at the end.
- The minced lean meatThree or four ounces of lean meat pounded to a pulp is the classic addition — it adds flavour and body as its proteins coagulate along with the white. Cassell's does not name a cut; lean beef is the usual choice. A food processor does the pounding. Mix it cold into the raw white before it meets the stock.
- Season afterwardsClarifying strips out some savour along with the cloud, and a little volume is lost to evaporation and to the raft. Taste and salt the finished liquid, not the stock going in.
- YieldA quart in gives somewhat less than a quart of bright consommé — enough for a few small cups as a first course, or a base for aspic, where clarity is the whole point.
Clearing broth with egg white is very old practice; it rests on the fact that egg albumen coagulates at around 60-65C and, as it sets, traps the fine protein and fat particles that make a stock cloudy. By the nineteenth century the technique had been formalised in French professional kitchens, where clarified broth enriched with lean minced beef was the foundation of an entire family of garnished clear soups. The entry treats clarifying as a repair, something to reach for "when from some accident" the stock has not come out bright. The final sentence — that the added meat enriches as well as clears — quietly turns a rescue operation into the recipe for consommé.