Finally figured out why my stocks were coming out cloudy

Honestly, I kept getting cloudy consommé no matter how careful I was with the egg raft. Then an old chef at my place in Chicago told me the trick is to never let it boil even for a second, just a gentle simmer around 190 degrees. That single tip from him fixed everything last week. Has anyone else had the same issue with their base stocks?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbarah191mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but what kind of bubbles are we talking here? I had the same issue where I was too gentle with it and ended up with a lukewarm mess that took like 3 hours and still looked like dishwater. So I started aiming for that spot where you see tiny bubbles barely breaking the surface, like a hot tub on low setting. I do about 2 hours at that temp and the gelatin sets up nice and firm in the fridge. The big bubbles are the enemy for sure, but you gotta have some movement to get that collagen out.

wells.olivia1mo ago

Nice to see someone else figured out the boil thing. I used to think a rolling boil would make it clearer, turns out I was just making muddy water with extra steps. Now I just hover around 185 and pretend I'm a fancy chef for an hour.

josephmartin1mo ago

Now I just hover around 185 and pretend I'm a fancy chef for an hour" - that got a laugh out of me. So does the consistency of the simmer matter more than the exact temperature? Like, are you seeing big bubbles on the surface or just that tiny quiver? Because I swear my problem was the opposite - I was too scared of any movement and ended up with a stock that never got hot enough to extract the gelatin. Just took forever and still came out hazy. What's your timing look like at that 185 mark?