No. 193

Clarified Lent Vegetable Consomme

Consomme maigre de Legumes Clarifie

Mince about three pounds of carrots and three pounds of turnips, one pound of the white of celery, one pound of onions, half a pound of parsley roots, a quarter of a pound of parsnips and a pound and a half of leeks. Put half a pound of butter into a saucepan, warm it and fry the vegetables, then moisten with two quarts of water and reduce slowly until they fall into a glaze. Dilute it with ten quarts of water, season with salt, pepper, half an ounce of sugar and cloves, adding one pound of mushroom stalks, then boil slowly until they vegetables are well done without mashing, and strain through a sieve. Return it to the fire and clarify the broth with the whites of four eggs and half a bottle of white wine. After it is very clear, strain it through a silk sieve or a napkin.

← No. 192 Clarified Game Consomme Soups & Broths No. 194a Beef Stock or Broth →

For the Modern Kitchen

A meatless clear soup built on a vegetable glaze, then rafted clear with egg white and wine. It is straightforward work, but the quantities are restaurant scale and the clarification is the step that decides whether it succeeds.

Scale it downAs written this is about ten pounds of vegetables diluted with ten quarts of water (after the two quarts used for the glaze have cooked away), so the strained and clarified result will come in somewhat under ten quarts. Quartering everything gives roughly 2.5 quarts and fits an ordinary 6-quart pot; the proportions hold at any fraction.
"Fall into a glaze"The two quarts of water cooks away until the vegetable sugars and butter form a sticky brown film on the pan bottom. Much of the flavor comes from this stage, so keep the heat moderate and stir near the end. A glaze is deep amber; once it smells scorched the whole batch will taste bitter and no clarification will fix it.
Parsley root and parsnipParsley root (Hamburg parsley) is sold at farmers' markets and Eastern European groceries; if you cannot find it, use an equal weight of parsnip and add a small bunch of parsley stems. Both are there for sweetness and a faintly celery-like aroma, not for bulk.
Mushroom stalksA pound of stems in the full batch is the savory backbone of a soup with no meat in it. Ordinary cremini or white mushroom trimmings work; dried shiitake, about an ounce per quarter batch, does the same job more forcefully.
Salt lightly at firstThe broth is strained, then clarified, then may reduce further. Season it modestly at the boil and correct at the very end, after the raft has been removed.
The clarificationWhisk the egg whites with the wine and a little cold broth, stir into the cooled, strained liquid, then bring it up slowly without stirring once it begins to set. The raft must never reach a rolling boil, which breaks it apart and clouds what it has already cleared. Twenty to thirty minutes at a bare tremble is enough. Four whites suit the full ten quarts; use one white per two to three quarts.
"Silk sieve or a napkin"A double layer of damp cheesecloth or a clean linen tea towel set in a strainer. Ladle the consomme through rather than pouring, and do not press the solids.
Boiling the vegetables"Well done without mashing" gives no time; reckon on something like 45 minutes to an hour for the diluted broth, judging by the vegetables rather than the clock. Vegetables cooked to collapse release starch and pectin that cloud the soup and make later clarification much harder.
ServingA clear consomme is served in cups, roughly 6 ounces a person, so the reduced quarter batch serves twelve to fourteen. Garnish sparingly with a fine julienne of the same vegetables, cooked separately in salted water so the broth stays clear.

A Little History

This is No. 193 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the vast compendium of the kitchen he ran at Delmonico's in New York. Maigre means lean in the sense of fast-day cooking: no meat, no meat stock, food fit for Fridays and for Lent, when a fashionable restaurant still had to feed observant Catholic customers a soup course that did not embarrass the rest of the menu. French cooks are often said to have got depth from browning rather than from bones, which would explain why the vegetables here are fried in butter and reduced to a glaze before the water goes in, and why a pound of mushroom stalks is included for savor. Clarifying with egg white and wine, the same raft used for beef consomme, was the finishing flourish that put a meatless broth on equal footing with the others.