The "Clear" Picture on soup

I relived my past recently.  A culinary school past...Classic French Cuisine.  If there was one love from my days training at GRCC's Culinary Arts program, it was my love of Duck Confit (A future post on that awesome food).  I recently invited some fun friends over for an evening of Confit.  After breaking the duck down into its parts, I roasted the remaining pieces with vegetables and made a fresh and rich stock.  Like this recipe here!  Just substitute duck for the chicken.


Now, for the fun part.  Clarifying the Stock to make a classic Consomme.  The rich and flavorful broth that can amplify your soup to super star status.  What is a consomme?  How do you make it?  How hard is it to do?  Ahhhh.  Time is the most difficult start. 

Consomme is a clarified stock that is the base for your soup.  It is a process that takes a few hours to create the best soup you will ever have.

Do you see that?  That is a clear broth.  It did not start out that way but now, now it rocks!  Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 gallons stock
2 lbs ground meat (pork for chicken and duck, beef for lamb and beef stock)
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
10 egg whites

Directions:  Place meat, vegetables and egg whites into a bowl.  Mix thoroughly.  In a clean stock pot, place mixture into bottom of pan, pat down do it covers the whole bottom.  Gently pour stock over mixture, it will rise to the top.  Heat pot on stove set at medium.  Over the next hour, the mixture (raft) will rise to the top.  Once pot begins to boil, cut two holes in the raft, reduce heat to medium low, simmer for 2 to 3 hours.  Never let the pot rapid boil.  It will break the raft and the stock will not clarify if this happens.

Once cooking time is up, remove the raft gently, toss or use in something else.  Strain stock through a fine mesh strainer lined with 2 layers of cheese cloth.  Cool in an ice bath.  Let sit over night.  Next day, remove chilled fat on top layer. 

If you wish, cut up some vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets, mushrooms, etc) in a fine dice.  Place each vegetable separately in a pot of boiling water, cook for 2 minutes, strain, cool.

Bring consomme to a boil, season with salt.  Place some vegetables in each bowl, fill each bowl with hot stock, garnish with parsley and green onion, enjoy!  Really...ENJOY this incredible stock.  The time reaps the rewards.