Consommé à l’Écossaise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •8-quart (7.5-liter) stockpot
• •2-quart (2-liter) saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Clean lint-free cotton cloth or muslin
• •Skimmer and ladle
• •Wide heatproof bowl for rapid chilling
• •3-quart (3-liter) soup tureen

Instructions

1. 1

   Begin the broth cold

   Put the neck bones, mutton trimmings, and whole breast into an 8-quart stockpot. Add the 3 quarts of cold water and warm the pot uncovered over medium-low heat, taking 35 to 45 minutes to reach the first lazy bubbles. Skim away grey foam and loose fat as they rise, keeping the ladle nearly flat so you take scum rather than broth. Do not stir. If the pot reaches a hard boil, slide it off the heat and leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes, then skim the settled impurities and resume gently. Ça se rattrape; the later cloth straining will catch the remaining haze.

   Clarity is easier to preserve than to restore. A slow cold start lets proteins gather at the surface where the skimmer can reach them.
2. 2

   Hold a bare tremble

   Once the foam has largely stopped rising, add the onion, leek, carrot, celery, bouquet garni, peppercorns, and 2 teaspoons of the salt. Hold the broth at a frémissement, a bare tremble around 185 to 194°F (85 to 90°C), for 3 hours from this point. Skim occasionally and add a little boiling water only if the meat becomes exposed. Begin checking the breast after 1½ hours; lift it out when a fork enters easily but the meat still holds its shape, usually within 2 hours. Cover and chill it promptly while the bones finish giving the broth their body.

   If the breast begins to separate as you lift it, support it with a wide skimmer and cool it under a small plate. Once cold and lightly pressed, the meat will cut far more neatly.
3. 3

   Strain and chill

   Lift out the large solids without disturbing the bottom of the pot, then ladle the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide clean bowl. Stop before the cloudy sediment at the bottom reaches the ladle, and never press the bones or vegetables. Set the bowl in an ice-water bath and stir the broth occasionally with a clean spoon until cool, then refrigerate until the mutton fat is completely firm, about 1½ hours. The broad bowl cools the broth quickly and gives the fat room to form one removable sheet.

4. 4

   Cook barley separately

   While the broth finishes simmering, bring 2 cups (475 ml) of the cooking water to a gentle boil with ¼ teaspoon of the remaining salt. Add the pearl barley, lower the heat, and cook very gently until tender but still distinct, 30 to 40 minutes. Drain it and rinse briefly under hot water to remove loose starch, then measure exactly 4 tablespoons cooked. This separate cooking is not dispensable brigade fuss; barley cooked in the consommé would cloud the liquid and continue swelling in the tureen.

   If several grains split, drain and rinse them well, then select the intact kernels. If the barley has become porridge, cook a fresh spoonful. Barley is inexpensive, and the clarity of the consommé is the dish.
5. 5

   Cut the garnish

   Cut the haricots verts on a sharp diagonal into ½-inch (1.25 cm) losanges, small diamond shapes. Bring the remaining cooking water to a boil with ¼ teaspoon salt and blanch the beans until tender but still bright, 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Cool them in cold water, drain thoroughly, and measure exactly 2 tablespoons. Remove the bones, coarse fat, and connective tissue from the cold breast, then cut the meat into regular ½-inch (1.25 cm) dice. Measure ½ cup, which provides the source formula’s one tablespoon for each of eight servings.

6. 6

   Degrease and cloth-strain

   Lift the solid sheet of fat from the chilled broth and wipe away any fragments clinging to the surface. Dampen a clean lint-free cotton cloth or muslin with cold water, wring it thoroughly, and use it to line the fine-mesh sieve. Ladle the broth through without pouring in the sediment and without squeezing the cloth. This is passer au linge, straining through cloth, the home equivalent of the source recipe’s linen. If beads of fat remain, chill the broth again until they set and lift them away; cloth can remove sediment, but it cannot correct careless degreasing.

7. 7

   Restore two quarts

   Measure the strained broth. If there is more than 2 quarts (1.9 liters), hold it at a gentle simmer until reduced to that amount. If there is less, add enough boiling water to restore exactly 2 quarts, then taste and adjust with the remaining salt only as needed. Bring the finished broth just to a full boil before serving. One clean rise is sufficient; boiling it for several minutes would undo the restraint that kept it clear.

8. 8

   Fill the tureen

   Warm a 3-quart soup tureen with very hot water, then empty and dry it. Place the 4 tablespoons of cooked pearl barley, 2 tablespoons of haricots verts, and ½ cup of diced mutton breast in the tureen. Pour about 1 cup of boiling broth over the garnish and wait 30 seconds to warm it, then add the remaining broth. Ladle into eight warmed bowls, sharing the dice evenly so each person receives the promised tablespoon. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask the butcher for a flat piece of mutton breast and meaty neck bones. Mature lamb can stand in when mutton cannot be found, but the broth will be sweeter and gentler; the technique remains the same, while the flavour plainly changes.
• •The garnish looks deliberately spare. Keep the source proportions exactly: four tablespoons cooked barley and two tablespoons beans for two quarts of broth. Add more and the barley ceases to be a garnish, swells in the tureen, and changes the consommé into another soup.
• •Chilling gives the cleanest degreasing because mutton fat sets firmly. A fat separator can help when time is short, but pass the broth through cloth afterward and inspect the surface under good light before calling it finished.
• •Do not store the soup fully assembled. Barley continues drinking broth and shedding starch, so keep broth, barley, beans, and breast separate until the final heating.
• •The broth may set softly in the refrigerator because the neck bones contribute gelatin. That is good work, not a fault; it melts back to a clear liquid over gentle heat.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the broth and poach the breast up to 2 days ahead. Cool them promptly and refrigerate in separate covered containers; the fat will lift most cleanly from broth chilled overnight.
• •Cook the barley and beans up to 1 day ahead, chill them separately, and bring them out only when the broth is being reheated. Keeping the garnishes apart preserves both clarity and texture.
• •The degreased, cloth-strained broth can be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw it gently, strain once more if sediment has settled, and prepare fresh barley and beans for serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)