Kettner's Book of the Table

Every food on the Victorian table gets its history, its etymology and a strong opinion — the wittiest cookery book of 1877, written in secret by a Times leader-writer and named for London's most fashionable restaurant.

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Consommé

This is a fine word, and worthy to rank with the "mobled queen" in Hamlet. "That's good," says Polonius; "mobled queen is good." So is consommé. To the innocent English mind it suggests something consummate. It really means broth, which by boiling has been consumed away till it has become very strong. The best English rendering of it is Double Broth. It will be found further on, in the article on Soup, that though there might be many kinds of consommé, there are in fact but two-namely, Consommé and Blonde de Veau. What is called Consommé de Volaille is not distinctive enough to justify the new name.

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