Beef Consommé

This video demonstrates the basic French method for clarifying a stock. Typically, beef, chicken, fish, other fowl and game qualify as stocks that can be clarified. Unlike the use of the term “clarified butter” which denotes the removal of water and casing solids from the butter fat, clarifying stock denotes the removal of fine particles of food and/or fat within the stock that causes it to be cloudy. The uses of consommé are usually rooted in the aesthetic visual uses. Once it’s clarified it is considered to be nicer looking and is then used in a variety of different preparations that partially rely on the clearness of the consommé as part of its presentable value. Other than those purposes just mentioned, the consommé is also traditionally reduced to a fairly concentrated flavor and used as a cold jelly (gelatinous aspic) for soups or for decorating showpiece preparations or to simply add the flavor of the stock in the form of a coated jelly to any number of different individual food preparations. Good examples of that would be a lunch portion of cold salmon fillet coated with aspic and garnished with aspic coated egg or caviar(s). Traditionally small or large whole poached fish are often coated with consommé and in many cases additional gelatin is added to the consommé to strengthen the texture of the aspic itself, often times to preserve the foods longer in the gelatin while also adding flavor. The reduced consommé is also poured into or used as a topping for a variety of different meat pates.