Rosie Makes Chicken Consomme.

Let's start at the very beginning. From the other night, here's my pomegranate seed and rosemary and garlic stuffed chicken with the pomegranate juice poured over top of the chicken. The chick is then sprinkled with salt and pepper and chopped rosemary.









Here's the lovely chicken. This was so moist, juicy, and, tender, and flavorful. Once again, as Sandy says, "You can just see all those flavors!"
















Here's the poor bird minutes later.
Mr. H. and littlest Hawthorne apparently enjoyed this offering.











Yesterday, I took the chicken carcass and what little meat was attached to it, added water, coarsely chopped onions with skins, chopped carrots, celery, garlic, and bay leaves plucked from my tree. I simmered this all day.


















This is what it looked like after simmering llllllliteralllly for hours. After cooling down, I popped it INto the fridge and left it over night so the fat could congeal.









After an overnight stay in the fridge, here's my chicken stock - a gelatinous mass with the fat solids on top. First, skim off the fat, then pour the stock through a strainer, removing all solids, saving any usable chunks of chicken for later. This was Dixie's favorite part since she gets the tiny pieces of meat that I don't want to save for myself.










Now, I've poured a little bit of the stock INto a clear container so you can see what it looks like. Not too appetizing. Cloudy and filled with particulate matter. Compare this to the end result.
















I'm whisking 6 egg whites to which I've added about a cup of the cold stock.
I probably have about 1 1/2 quarts of stock total.











Bring your stock to a full rolling boil and remove from heat.












Next, add a cup of hot stock to the egg white mixture and whisk it in.













Now, pour the egg white mixture INto your stock and return to moderate heat. Continue whisking to have a gentle but constant circulation.

Bring just to a simmer and immediately stop whisking. Slide your pan to the side of the heat, lower the heat so your mixture is just barely simmering.

Continue for 5 minutes.

What's happening during this process is that the egg whites are adhering to the impurities and particles in the stock that cloud it and have started rising to the surface. You want them to coagulate enough so that when you strain the stock, the whites will hold together, allowing the clear liquid to drip through.

After five minutes, turn your pan 1/4 turn, to the side of the heat at a bare bubble. Another 5 minutes.




Rotate another 1/4 turn for 5 minutes.

Then another 1/4 turn for a final 5 minutes.







Remove pan from heat and carefully skim off coagulated egg whites.

Very carefully and slowly, pour liquid INto a cheesecloth lined sieve, being careful that cheesecloth is above level of liquid.

Gently remove cheesecloth. Do not squeeze it out or the impurities will go through.

I always discard my used cheesecloths. I happened to wash some cheesecloths one time and reused them. Unfortunately, I had used a bounce sheet in the dryer.
And I had bounce-flavored consomme.

Here are the egg whites with the nasty bits on the left and my beautiful, clear, intensely flavorful consomme on the right.













And WALLAH! The finished product.

This is totally worth the effort. I hate wasting anything, even bones, so this takes care of leftover carcasses. It has acquired a subtle refinement of taste and a depth of flavor you just can't appreciate unless you actually make this and try it.

Refrigerate, covered for several days, or freeze for several months. I pour mine INto Ziploc freezer bags for storage.

Bon appetit.