Page:Escoffier - A Guide to Modern Cookery.djvu/32

 the idea of vegetable garnishes in clarifications, and thus avoid a common stumbling-block.

3—CHICKEN CONSOMMÉ

White chicken consommé is prepared in exactly the same way as ordinary white consommé. There need only be added to the meat, the quantity of which may be lessened, an old hen or a cock, slightly coloured on the spit or in the oven. For the clarification, the quantity of roast fowl-carcases used may be increased, provided the latter be not too fat. The process, however, is the same as in the clarification of ordinary consommés.

The colour of chicken consommé should be lighter than that of the ordinary kind—namely, a light, amber yellow, limpid and warm.

4—FISH CONSOMMÉ

These consommés are rarely used, for Lenten soups with a fish basis are generally thick soups, for the preparation of which the fish fumet whereof I shall give the formula later (Formula No. 11) should avail. Whenever there is no definite reason for the use of an absolutely Lenten consommé, it would be advisable to resort to one of the ordinary kind, and to finish off the same by means of a good fish essence extracted from the bones of a sole or whiting. An excellent consommé is thus obtained, more palatable and less flat than the plain fish consommé.

If, however, one were obliged to make a plain fish consommé, the following procedure should be adopted:

Quantities for making Four Quarts.—Four and one-half quarts of ordinary fish fumet having a decided taste; one-half lb. of good fresh caviare, or pressed caviare.

Mode of Procedure.—Pound the caviare and mix the resulting pulp with the cold fish fumet. Put the whole into a saucepan, place it on the open fire, and stir with a spatula until the contents reach the boil. Then move the saucepan to a corner of the fire, and let the consommé simmer gently for twenty minutes, after which strain it through muslin with great caution, and keep it well covered and in the warmth, so as to prevent the formation of a gelatinous film on the surface.

Fish consommés are greatly improved by the addition of