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I'm planning to do a lobster broth for New-Years.

  • Lobster shells, browned in oven
  • Shallots, parsley root, carrots and other suitable veg
  • Seasoning, tomato paste, I think I have a reasonable slurp of Cognac avaliable.

Boil for about 15 minutes.

When I strain this, it will be cloudy. I was thinking whisking in egg-whites and straining it again to make it clear. Is this possible? Will the procedure change the taste?

I have about 4 hours to make it on saturday. Any suggestions are welcome. I want it as consommé-like(clear) as possible.

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  • Doing a true consommé with egg whites takes time - just whisking and straining won't do much to clarify. But if you have 4 hours, you can do the actual consommé process with an egg-white raft.
    – John Feltz
    Dec 29, 2016 at 21:08
  • @JohnFeltz So with 2 liters of broth, can I get away with a slow simmer with lets say 8 egg whites? I have not made a proper raft before.
    – Captain Giraffe
    Dec 29, 2016 at 21:11
  • Are you actually working from a recipe? A recipe for consomme should give you the proportions. Off the top of my head, that sounds OK, but find an actual recipe you like and follow it.
    – John Feltz
    Dec 29, 2016 at 21:15
  • With 4 hours you may as well try the real way for 3 1/2 hours. Nothing to lose but everything to gain.
    – Doug
    Dec 29, 2016 at 22:16
  • @Doug What is the real way in my case?
    – Captain Giraffe
    Dec 29, 2016 at 22:21

2 Answers 2

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Allow me to describe what happened. (TLDR; complete success)

I started out with

enter image description here

The regular lobster soup starter pack.

enter image description here

enter image description here

About 1.5 liters of water, half a bottle of white wine. enter image description here

This isn't clear at all.

Eggwhites.

enter image description here

Really slow boil.

enter image description here

Siphon to test.

enter image description here

I'm ok with this.

The end result was fantastic

enter image description here

What really surprised me was that I started with well over 2 litres of broth. In the end I had about 7 dl of clear stuff. About 1/3 of the original tasty broth.

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Absolutely, you can clarify your broth with egg whites. It is a very common practice.

However, as @JohnFeltz infers, you'll have to carefully plan ahead to work this into your cook plan. Clarifying broth with egg whites is a delicate operation, difficult to execute while entertaining guests.

If you separate the egg whites ahead of time, and set up your equipment ahead of time, you may be able to pull it off. Also, you'll need to consider how to keep your seafood warm for the 10 minutes or so it will take clarify the broth (a foil covered pan in a warm-ish oven might suffice).

Noting your recipe has Shallots, parsley root, carrots and other suitable veg clarifying might not be worth the effort if you are going to reintroduce those back into the mix. They will surely reintroduce floating particles.

Here is a good video of someone clarifying a consommé with egg whites, starting with a cold stock. This video is someone clarifying a hot stock as you intend.

Note: unlike the videos, restaurants will use a stock pot with a spigot on the bottom to drain the broth through a cheese cloth.

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  • The technique in the cold stock video was pretty much what I had in mind. Good to know the ratios and timings. Excellent find.
    – Captain Giraffe
    Dec 30, 2016 at 9:48
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    I'm going to siphon the broth. I will accept this answer Jan 1, I expect to have pictures of a very clear tasty liquid.
    – Captain Giraffe
    Dec 30, 2016 at 21:58

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