Today’s question is *why* do we bother skimming chicken stock… or any other kind for that matter?
If it isn’t obvious from the question I’m getting back on the diet… and more specifically making the soup to go with it. The reaction to the stings seems to have gone altogether so I can’t use it as an excuse for gutsing all the fattening crap any more and I need to get back on the wagon.
So – why skim? In restaurant grade cooking… and even for some home meals it’s essential to preserve ‘clarity’ in the finished dish, but in a huge number of dishes where clarity isn’t a requirement we do it nonetheless – but why? I’ve left it without skimming in the past and it seems to have no obvious effect on the flavour plus or minus and really only affects clarity.
I was wondering because I’ve just spent ten minutes patiently lifting out as much as I could reasonably manage.
This time the stock will be far more veggie flavoured… I tripled the basic ingredients and will do the same for the soup for which I’ve bought a nice savoy head… lord knows what the effect will be on my digestive system but the wife might consider in advance the possibility she might need to sleep in the spare room tonight!! 😀
If anybody has a url for “skimming rationale’s”… please post it!
The Eclectic Interweb 
I think you are right – it really only gets rid of the coagulated proteins and makes the stock clearer looking. Mind you – it does make a soup look much more appetising.
(Have never bothered to make a consomme, never had decent beef in sufficient quantity plus bones. Always rather fancied clarifying one with whipped up egg whites though.)
Had a fair go at the soup yesterday… mmmm. Even a very basic vegetable ‘soup’ is something special when it has a stock made from the carcases of 4 kilos of chicken carcasses 🙂
I threw in a handful of crushed garlic cloves and a square inch of ginger as well… with the usual bouquet garni of course… very morish.
I’ve never bothered to make consomme either… other than once at catering college when I was 16. I never particularly liked it either so never felt the need.
Maybe I just associated it with being ill? When I was young I linked it in my mind to ‘beef tea’ and I think it prejudiced me. 😀