Name: Consomme Soup
Ingredients: 1 quart strong stock; 1 egg white and shell; 1 tablespoon water; coarse sea salt (to taste)

Consomme Soup

Ingredients

1 quart strong stock
1 egg white and shell
1 tablespoon water
coarse sea salt (to taste)

Directions

Prepare the stock

Remove all fat from the surface of the stock.
Whip together the egg white, shell, and water in a bowl.
Pour the egg mixture into the stock in a saucepan.

Clarify and serve

Heat the stock gradually, stirring often to prevent sticking.
Allow to boil gently until the stock is clear under the egg.
Remove the egg scum that floats on the surface.
Strain the soup through a folded towel in a colander over a bowl.
Season with more salt if needed and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Egg white and shell: Egg white and shell gather impurities and cloud particles, which rise into a raft that clarifies the stock.
Strong stock: The stock is the base of the soup, and its flavor and clarity are what the finished consommé depends on.

The step that matters

Allow to boil gently until the stock is clear under the egg. Boiling hard breaks up the egg raft and mixes cloudy particles back into the stock, so the consommé turns cloudy. A gentle simmer lets the raft trap impurities while the stock clears beneath it.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.