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Stock for Consomme
Take a shin of beef and a knuckle of veal, wipe carefully with a damp cloth; crack; then remove the meat from the bone, and cut into small pieces. Put a sliced onion and 2 table-spoonfuls sugar into the soup-kettle to brown and burn, then put in the meat. When well seared, add bones and 6 quarts cold water; cover, bring slowly to boiling point, and skim. Keep it simmering--not boiling--three hours; then add an onion in which are stuck 12 cloves, a bay leaf, a sliced carrot, a few celery tops or 1/2 teaspoonful celery seed, and a saltspoonful of pepper. Simmer for another hour; strain, and set aside to cool. When cold remove every particle of fat, and, if well made, you will have a transparent, brown, thick jelly, all ready for use. The meat may be used in pressed meats or curries.
A classic brown stock, built on the old practice of caramelising sugar with onion to give colour and a faint bitterness. The instructions are sound; only the vessels, quantities and keeping directions need translating.
- The hinge: never let it boilThe hinge: bring it to the boil once, then never again -- the recipe takes it slowly up to boiling point to raise the scum for skimming, and thereafter insists on simmering, not boiling. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and albumen into the liquid and the stock turns cloudy, which defeats the purpose since this is destined for consomme. Hold it at a bare tremble, with the surface just breaking, for the full four hours.
- Shin and knuckleShin of beef is the leg shank, still sold as beef shank or soup bones; knuckle of veal is the joint end of the leg. The recipe gives no weights, but between them they are the source of the gelatin that sets the finished stock. Ask the butcher to saw the bones rather than trying to "crack" them yourself.
- Burnt sugarTwo tablespoons of sugar taken to a dark caramel with the onion is the period method for browning stock. Take it just past deep amber; if it goes black and acrid the whole potful tastes of it, and the meat going in next will stop the cooking.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon. Note that no salt is called for at all, only pepper; season the finished soup, not the stock.
- Six quarts of cold waterYou need a 10-12 quart pot to hold this comfortably. Cold water at the start matters: it draws soluble protein out slowly so it coagulates into a skimmable raft rather than clouding the liquid.
- Vegetables added lateCarrot, celery and the clove-stuck onion go in for the last hour only. Aromatics held over four hours turn muddy and vegetal, and celery seed in particular becomes bitter.
- Yield and keepingReckon on well under the 6 quarts of water you started with once four hours' simmering and straining are done. Chill it uncovered until cold, lift off the fat cap, then refrigerate up to four days or freeze in pint portions. The recipe stops at the cold jelly and calls it ready for use, saying nothing about how long to hold it.
- Clarifying for consomm\shy;This is stock, not finished consomm\shy;. To clear it you still need a raft of lightly beaten egg white and lean minced beef whisked into the cold stock and brought up very slowly, then strained through a cloth without pressing.