White chocolate consomme

[Jenni]

^^

Yes, actually I just did a quick google and found an article which advised using agar in some preparations specifically to avoid syneresis. Oh well, if anyone comes up with any ideas for vegetarian consomes, I would be very grateful!

[racheld]

Total amateur here---not really even that; you can't be an amateur if you haven't tried it ONCE I suppose. Just from a curious bystander's view---just how much of the white chocolate did it take to yield that little cup, and what's the volume of the consomme?

I'm just thinking of a distillation of all the richness into something you could sip, or dip up with a teensy spoon, and I'd think the serving for any course would be infinitesimal. Perhaps I just don't have a transmutation-ratio spot in my brain.

I kept waiting for a picture, as I could NOT IMAGINE clarifying something so densely clouded, especially with the addition of creme fraiche. This is just fascinating. Still from my ignorant point of view---it's just amazing.

Will there be more?

LEXICOGRAPHER, Are you paying attention? Consommified

[Tri2Cook]

I got ~200g of liquid as a result but I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't weigh everything going in. I would say 75g - 100g of chocolate and probably around 400g - 450g of liquid. The total combined was just under 500g, I am sure of that because I had to weigh it to calculate the gelatin. I didn't use creme fraiche in mine, this was intended to be a control batch to work from starting with the most basic formula... water and chocolate. Test 2 will involve buttermilk as was mentioned having been done by the brilliant folks at Ideas in Food. That's going to involve some willpower during the tasting to get the balance right phase because I am not a lover of buttermilk.

[twodogs]

• White chocolate-buttermilk consomme: 976g white chocolate, 1452g water, 14g salt, 1940g buttermilk, 174g brown butter was then cooked and strained and clarified with .7% gelatin

enjoy

[Tri2Cook]

Awesome! Thanks! I'm having fun playing with it but the idea of trying to do it came from reading about it on your site so this is really cool. I appreciate it and will be giving it a shot tomorrow. I'd do it tonight but I don't have buttermilk on hand.

Edit: Hey! Looking at your numbers it looks like I was pretty close on the chocolate to liquid ratio.

Edited February 7, 2008 by Tri2Cook (log)

[JeanneCake]

The Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Food Arts mentions this technique (as well as the Ideas in Food chefs) in an article about hydrocolloids written by David Arnold of the French Culinary Institute; it gives an overview as well as comparing and contrasting the use of low acyl gellan gum, high acyl gellan gum, methocelF150, gelatin, and xanthan gum among others. Now I feel like I'm ready to experiment with this too!

[Tri2Cook]

I've never seen that magazine around here but I'll have to look into it.

The second filtering of my first round of playing didn't work out like I hoped. It's crystal clear (I'll get a pic up soon) which is what I wanted but the cocoa butter which was still making it's presence known after the first filtering couldn't handle two rounds of filtering. It disappeared. I was left with sweet and vanilla which is what I didn't want.

I started a batch of the white chocolate buttermilk consomme that Alex and Aki at Ideas in Food created and shared with us in this thread. They were awesome for doing that and, as usual, they got it right. I haven't filtered it yet but the buttermilk did exactly what they said it would... it balanced it. It has all of the good qualities of white chocolate but that almost overwhelming sweetness is mellowed perfectly. It's truly a thing of beauty and if it carries through after filtering (which I don't doubt it will) I'll be very happy. I would definitely recommend it as the place to start to anyone wanting to play with this. Thanks Alex and Aki, you rock!