©Tom Hirschfeld all rights reserved

If you can fortify coffee by whizzing in butter and making it into an emulsion of sorts, or make fortified wine by upping the alcohol to give it a boost, aging it, and calling it port then why not fortify your bone broth?

Great chefs have known the deliciousness of consommé for centuries.  Now I am not going to repackage it, call it bullet broth or anything stupid.  Consommé is fortified stock that is clarified and enriched by adding lean ground meat, finely chopped vegetables and egg whites then the whole thing is slowly brought to a simmer.  A raft forms when the egg whites cook and it floats to the top clarifying the stock so it becomes crystal clear. It has a lot to do with the albumen in the eggs and ground meat but lets not get bogged down in the science of the thing.

It is refined food.  It adds richness and mouth feel while deepening the flavor beyond anything salt could do for your stock.  It is far more satisfying to sip a cup of consommé on a cold day, on any day for that matter, then it is swill down a jar of bone broth.

It isn’t complicated to make but it does take some attention to detail.  You can’t improve poorly made stock by making it into consommé but you can make well made stock into something really special.  If you were to choose to do so you can make it into a really highly refined soup worthy of holiday dinners by adding garnishes.  The garnish for consommé is often vegetables cut with precision into a small dice, blanched al denté, and added to the broth just before the soup is served.

Whether or not you make your bone broth into consommé isn’t the point but the fact that you are making your stock at home is and you deserve a hearty pat on the back for that alone.  If you are looking for something more refined, or an occasional treat, or you just want to upgrade your holiday menu then consommé is for you.

Chicken Consommé

8 ounces ground chicken breast

1/2 cup yellow onion, minced

1/4 cup celery, small dice

1/4 cup carrot, grated

5 ounces egg whites, about 4 large eggs

1/2 cup tomato, chopped

a sprig or two of chopped parsley, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 whole clove

1/4 teaspoon whole black pepper corns

2.5 quarts cold homemade chicken stock ( the link takes you to my recipe for rich roasted beef stock which is a template for any stock, just substitute chicken bones for the beef bones)

1.  Keep everything cold.  The colder the better, just not frozen.

2. Combine all the ingredients except the stock in large heavy bottomed 4 quart pot.  Using a wooden spoon stir everything together for 2 minutes.  You need to stir it well to break up the protein strands.  This is all part of the clarification process.

3. Add the cold stock and stir everything to combine.

4. Place the pot over medium low heat.  Let it come to a soft boil very, very slowly.  Stir often and by often I mean every 15 to 30 seconds otherwise your egg whites could burn at the bottom of the pot.  Not only that by stirring you keep the albumen doing its job of clarifying.

5. As it get close to boiling stop stirring.  If you see strings of egg white and your consommé is starting to look like egg drop soup stop stirring immediately.    The raft  needs to form and as it does it will rise to the top.  Reduce the heat so the consommé does not come to a hard boil.  A hard boil will destroy the raft.

6. Once the raft has stabilized and looks like a dirty egg white omelet us a spoon  and make a vent in the raft.  This is like taking the lid off a boiling pot, it keeps it from coming to a boil or boiling over.

7. Simmer the stock for and hour and a half.  At the end of the simmering time use a ladle and ladle the stock through a fine mesh strainer, or a coffee filter, into a storage container.  Season it to taste with kosher salt.  If you use table or sea salt it could cloud the consommé because of impurities in the sodium.

8. Make into soup, or serve hot in your favorite tea or coffee cup.