Consommé

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Type of clear soup

title: "Consommé" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["french-soups"] description: "Type of clear soup" topic_path: "geography/france" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consommé" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Type of clear soup ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox food"]

FieldValue
nameConsommé
imageConsomme de volaille.jpg
image_size250px
captionPoultry consommé
countryFrance
typeSoup
main_ingredientStock or bouillon, ground meat, mirepoix (carrots, celery, leek), tomatoes, egg whites
::

| name = Consommé | image = Consomme de volaille.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = Poultry consommé | alternate_name = | country = France | region = | creator = | course = | type = Soup | served = | main_ingredient = Stock or bouillon, ground meat, mirepoix (carrots, celery, leek), tomatoes, egg whites | variations = | calories = | other = Consommé ( () is a type of clear soup made from richly flavoured stock or broth that has been clarified, a process that traditionally uses egg whites to remove fat and sediment. A later technique for clarification employs gelatin filtration. Consommés are most commonly made from beef or veal, but chicken, fish and game variants are recognised in French cuisine. They may be served on their own – hot or chilled – or be used as the basis of many soups, sauces and stews.

Etymology and history

In French usage the word dates back to the fourteenth century as the past participle of consommer, meaning consumed, accomplished or finished. By the sixteenth century the word was used as a noun meaning a "finished" soup – a concentrated and clarified meat broth as opposed to a simple stock or broth. The first edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694) defines it as "boüillon fort succulent d'une viande extremement cuite" – strong succulent broth of very well-cooked meat. and in Don Juan (Canto XV, 1824), Lord Byron writes of "The salmi, the consommé, the purée". In French usage each of the three syllables is given approximately equal stress. In Anglophone usage the main stress may be on the first syllable (Canadian and modern British pronunciation), the second (earlier British pronunciation) or the third (American pronunciation); in Australian usage either the first or second syllable may be stressed."English pronunciation of consommé", Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2025; "consommé", The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2004 ; and "consommé", Australian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2004

Alexis Soyer published his recipe for consommé in his Gastronomic Regenerator (1846):

Both Soyer and a later French chef, Auguste Escoffier, use consommé for the basis of many soups, sauces and stews as well as for serving on its own. Soyer includes it in more than a hundred of his recipes, from demi-glace to Macaroni à la Napolitaine. Escoffier gives recipes for consommés of chicken, fish and [[Game (hunting)| game]] ("the necks, breasts, and shoulders of venison and of hare, old wild rabbits, old pheasants, and old partridges may be used"). He distinguishes between consommés served at dinners, garnished, in soup plates and those served at suppers: "These, being only served in cups, either hot or cold, do not allow of any garnishing, since they are to be drunk at table. They must therefore be perfect in themselves, delicate, and quite clear".

In Le Répertoire de la cuisine (1914) Louis Saulnier gives recipes for more than a hundred variants of consommé, including bergère (oxtail consommé with asparagus tips, diced mushrooms with tarragon and chervil); Cyrano (beef consommé with duck and Parmesan); ecossaise (mutton consommé with pearl barley); George Sand (fish consommé with crayfish and morels); Mikado (chicken consommé with tomato); parisienne (beef consommé with leeks); Rossini (chicken consommé with truffles and foie gras); and Rothschild (game consommé with Sauternes).

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Bruehe-1.jpg" caption="Beef consommé"] ::

In their 1961 book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child say this about clarifying consommé:

Varieties

Double consommé is made to double strength.

In a 2007 New York Times article Harold McGee set out an alternative method for clarifying broths, originating among chefs of the molecular gastronomy movement: gelatin filtration, relying on some of the properties of a super-saturated solution of gelatin, created by freezing, to remove macroscopic particles that cause cloudiness from a water-based stock. This method is distinct from traditional consommé both in technique and in final product, as gelatin filtration results in a gelatin-free broth, while traditional consommé gives a final product rich in gelatin, with a correspondingly rich mouthfeel. A traditional consommé gels when chilled; a gelatin-filtered consommé does not.

What is advertised as beef consommé is available in cans. A proprietary brand on sale in Britain in 2025 contained water, sherry (3%), beef gelatin, yeast extract, salt, sugar, beef extract (0.2%), onion extract, black pepper extract, parsley extract, sunflower oil, mixed peppers, spice extracts (celery, nutmeg, pimento, cinnamon, capsicum) and niacin. In the US a proprietary brand contained "beef stock (water, dried beef stock), gelatin, yeast extract, salt, sugar, natural flavoring, monosodium glutamate, tamari soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt), caramel color, citric acid, carrots, beef stock, soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt, wheat), onions, celery, beef tallow, dried beef, dried carrots, wheat and soy". Beck, Bertholle and Child state that they do not recommend tinned consommé.

References

Sources

References

  1. [https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9C3723 "Consommé"], {{lang. fr. Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Retrieved 19 June 2025
  2. Davidson, p. 211
  3. consommé
  4. Soyer, recipe no. 134
  5. Soyer, recipes 9 to 1359 {{lang. la. et passim
  6. Escoffier, pp. 6–7
  7. Escoffier, p. 8
  8. Saulnier, pp. 33–39
  9. Beck ''et al'', p. 116
  10. Christensen, Tricia. (16 May 2024). "What is Consomme?". DelightedCooking.
  11. (5 September 2007). "The Curious Cook; The Essence of Nearly Anything, Drop by Limpid Drop". The New York Times.
  12. [https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/baxters-luxury--beef-consomme-soup-400g "Baxters Chef Selections, Beef Consomme Soup 400g"], Sainsburys. Retrieved 19 June 2025
  13. [https://www.walmart.com/ip/Campbell-s-Condensed-Beef-Consomme-Soup-10-5-oz-Can/10321653?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1200&from=/search "Campbell's Condensed Beef Consommé Soup, 10.5 oz Can"], Walmart. Retrieved 19 June 2025
  14. Beck ''et al'', p. 111

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