No. 3 — Clear Double-Strength Yellow Broth (Consommé)
A complete English translation of historical recipe No. 3 from Elena Molokhovets’ 1901 cookbook, retaining the original quantities and method.
When the basic broth No. 1 is intended for a more refined table, use more meat and, if desired, the additional ingredients listed with that recipe. One and a half hours before serving, clarify the stock to remove the slightest cloudiness and strengthen it further by using a meat clarification mixture (known as ottyazhka).
Take a fourth, fifth or even sixth Russian pound of the finest raw beef, free of fat and bone. Pass it through a meat grinder and put it in a stoneware bowl. Add 2–3 raw egg whites beaten with a whisk, dilute with 1½ glasses of cold water and stir until smooth. Warm the mixture with a glass of hot strained broth, stir, then pour the resulting lukewarm mixture all at once into the boiling broth, stirring vigorously. Move the pot to the edge of the stove and let it simmer gently under a lid.
After 1½ hours—that is, half an hour before serving—the clarification mixture will have coagulated and cleared the broth. Lift it out with a slotted spoon onto a wet napkin stretched over an overturned stool; strain the remaining broth through that mixture. Add more salt as needed, bring once more to the boil and serve.
To provide
4–5 Russian pounds of beef, and assorted meat trimmings. 1 onion and ¾ Russian pound of principal soup roots: 2 carrots, 1 parsley root, 1 leek, ⅓ celery root and a small turnip. A bunch of parsley, celery and leek greens, and fresh dill. | 1 Russian pound of beef for clarification, and 3 egg whites. Optionally: ½ tablespoon dried green peas, 1–2 dried mushrooms, a swede or turnip, an extra carrot, one baked onion, 1–2 Russian pounds of oxtail, 5–6 firm potatoes, a piece of dried game stock, a calf's kidney, 1–2 cloves or nutmeg. 3 level teaspoons of salt. |
Original note
The two yellow broths, Nos. 1 and 3, form the basis of the other clear soups. Consommé No. 3 can be varied in the same ways as No. 1: served clear over chopped dill and parsley, with croutons, little pies or fillings baked in shells (see Section IV); or with separately cooked cereals, vermicelli, neatly shaped soup roots and other additions described under No. 1.