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Cold Consomme in Cups
Place in a saucepan two pounds finely chopped shin of beef, one medium-sized sliced carrot, one ditto turnip, one ditto onion, one ditto branch celery, one bean garlic, one branch chervil, one branch parsley, one branch tarragon, two sliced leeks, one tablespoon salt, one clove, one bay leaf, one sprig thyme and two raw eggs. Sharply stir with spatula five minutes, then gradually pour in three quarts and a half boiling water, sharply mixing while adding it. Set pan on the fire and let slowly come to a boil, occasionally mixing meanwhile, then pour in gill cold water. Shift pan to corner of range and let simmer two hours. Strain through a damp, doubled cheesecloth into a stone jar. Let cool off, place jar in a basin with ice around, let thoroughly set, fill up six cups and serve.
A classic cold clarified beef broth, built by the old method in which the egg goes in with the raw meat rather than being added later as a separate raft. A few of the terms and proportions need translating.
- "One ditto"The recipe is using shorthand: one medium sliced turnip, one medium sliced onion, one medium branch of celery. Read each "ditto" as a repeat of "medium-sized."
- A bean of garlicOne clove, not a head. "Bean" is Filippini's term for a single clove of garlic.
- A gillHalf a cup. Its purpose here is to shock the pot and check the boil so the coagulating egg and meat proteins rise and set as a clarifying raft rather than being churned back into the liquid.
- The hinge: never let it boil after clarifying beginsOnce the pan comes up and the raft forms, hold it at a bare shiver — an occasional bubble breaking. A rolling boil shreds the raft and the consommé turns cloudy, and no amount of straining afterwards will clear it. "Corner of range" means the coolest part of a wood stove; on a gas hob use the lowest setting or a heat diffuser.
- Do not stir after it comes to the boilThe instruction to mix applies to the cold assembly and the early heating only. Once the raft has set, leave it alone and ladle the finished broth out through a gap rather than pouring the pot through the cloth.
- Two hours is briefTwo hours will give a clear, delicate broth but a fairly light one. Three to four hours draws more gelatin from the shin, which matters here because the set depends entirely on collagen — there is no added gelatin. If it does not jell after chilling, it needs longer extraction, not more chilling.
- SaltA full tablespoon into three and a half quarts is modest going in, but the liquid reduces over the simmer and cold food tastes less salty than hot. Season at the end, after chilling and tasting.
- CoolingThe stone jar in a basin of ice is a working method, but get the broth below refrigerator temperature promptly rather than leaving it standing at room temperature. A shallow container in an ice bath, then the refrigerator overnight.
- YieldSix cups, served in bouillon cups or small bowls, lightly set and broken up with a fork. Cups of this kind were often sent out with a spoonful of whipped cream, chopped herbs, or a wedge of lemon, though the recipe specifies no garnish.
Cold jellied consommé served en tasse was a fixture of the summer table in the grand-hotel and club cooking of the turn of the century, when the shin — tough, sinewy and full of collagen — was prized precisely because it sets a broth without any added gelatin. Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, wrote for a readership that expected French technique described in shorthand, which is why so much here is compressed into "one ditto" and "corner of range." The clarification method he gives, mixing raw egg into the cold chopped meat and vegetables before any liquid is added, is generally taken to be the older French practice; the later habit of whisking egg whites into an already-made stock does the same job with less beef. Chilled cups of this kind kept their place on American luncheon menus for the next half century, often out of a tin.