http://www.democraticunderground.com/11573245Oh my.
Stinky The Clown (44,341 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
Just a simple soup tip
When making beef soup (beef barley, in my case, but it applies to any vegetable beef sort of soup) from canned stock, we usually use our favorite brand of canned beef stock (or the cheapest brand we can find).
I've been using a can of condensed consomme to fortify the flavor of the ordinary stock. I've done this a few times and it seems to be best to use one can of consomme for every two cans of stock. I also add a quarter can of water to cut the cloying nature of the fully condensed consomme down to a wonderfully unctuous taste and mouth.
For stew I go one step further and add an envelope of unflavored gelatine to the stew liquid as it is thickening. Being unflavored, it adds only one thing - a luxurious mouth feel.
Oh, I dunno.
franksolich just tosses a bunch of beef bouillon cubes into the water when making beef noodle soup.
That's all it takes.
kas125 (1,741 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
2. Wow, in all my years of cooking, I've never thought to add gelatin to stew, but it makes so much sense. Thanks!
Bouillon cubes, not gelatin.
grasswire (32,544 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
3. I heard Alton say that.
And you know, this may explain the consistency of some good beef soups I've had. Gelatin. Interesting. Would it also work in chicken soup? Not beef stock, of course, but gelatin.
Stinky The Clown (44,341 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
4. It would have the same effect on chicken soup
You ever notice when you cool the pan juices from a roast chicken they are loaded with natural gelatin? That shows up in chicken soup from natural stock but lacks in a lot of commercial stocks.
grasswire (32,544 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
5. oh, sure
But homemade chicken broth that has inherent chicken gelatin doesn't have a real unctious mouth feel, in my experience. I might try it.
pipoman (7,113 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
8. I've never used gelatine
my mother used fine tapioca in her stew for a similar effect, I have done this. I have some tapioca flour I use for thickening specifically for gluten free diets. I'll try the gelatin sometime.
I use Minor's concentrated bases for most soups. With these bases you can set the strength where you want it. It is somewhat cheaper than canned stock, not paying for as much packaging or shipping of water. On some of the more upscale dinners I have used Custom Culinary demi-glace, it's expensive but contains the natural collagen (gelatin) found in homemade stocks.
EFerrari (158,678 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
9. ATK just showed a beef stew segment and they added gelatin to make the sauce silky. Will have to try this for my advanced beef stew project.
ETA: they also threw in some anchovies & tomato paste to make the flavor more beefy -- before the wine, stock.)
It's actually a pretty mundane campfire, but I just needed to let the cooking and baking primitives know that while franksolich is preoccupied with other things, the cooking and baking primitives are never far from his thoughts.
