Early Trials With Gelatin Filtration
Harold McGee’s recent New York Times piece on gelatin filtration, where you clarify liquid with a molecular sieve, latched onto my imagination with a steely grip. I liked the idea of a fail-safe way to make consommes — I don’t make them often enough to be very good at the technique — and gelatin filtration suggests a world in which anything can be made into a clear, intensely flavored liquid. Besides, food science is neat.
After I drained the black water from a pot of cooked beans, I decided to give the technique a try. I dissolved a sheet of gelatin in the hot liquid, froze it, and thawed the block in the refrigerator the next day.
Actually, I tried to thaw it. I had added too much gelatin, I think, and I got not one drop of consomme.
A few days later, I made rabbit broth. I looked at the sloshy soup, gray from my lazy scum-skimming but still liquid in the refrigerator, and nominated it for my next experiment. I placed the frozen, quart-sized cube onto a tamis lined with cheesecloth, and then I put that assembly over a bowl in the refrigerator.
Then I waited. And waited. Though the article suggests 24 to 48 hours of thaw time, my stock had barely dripped a drop by then. I turned my refrigerator down a notch and waited some more. Six days later, I had a dirty, ugly ice block on top, and rabbit consomme on the bottom. (Midway through the process,I brought what I did have to a boil to sterilize it.)
How was it? The gold broth was the clearest consomme I’ve ever made. It may be the clearest one I’ve ever seen, though the chicken consomme at 2nd Avenue Deli in New York City came close. I could have reduced the result a bit for more flavor — my stocks tend to start out watery — but it made a delicious lake for ravioli, sautéed carrots, and minced carrot greens.
So I’m convinced. I’ve got some interesting liquid in the freezer that I’m going to thaw soon: This time, I kept the gelatin proportions consistent with the recipe in the article. I hope it won’t take six days to melt.
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