Consommé Isn't Consommé

Ooh, Calbee Consommé Punch has a new flavor out~♪

crunch — yep yep, the usual taste.

…Hey hey, Miko. Random thought — what flavor even is consommé?

…That’s not consommé, nya.

Wait what (ﾟ∀ﾟ)?

…Read the back of the bag, nya.

Uh — onion powder, beef extract, yeast extract, garlic, spices, seasoning (amino acids etc.)…

…Consommé isn’t listed.

…It’s not in there, nya.

…Come here, nya. I’ll show you the real thing.

…I’ll take the lid off, nya.

…It’s see-through.

…Consommé, nya. French clear soup, nya.

This is it? I expected something browner. Punchier, y’know?

…Brown and thick is bouillon, nya. Consommé is bouillon clarified with an egg-white raft, nya.

Egg-white raft?

…Mix egg whites with ground meat and vegetables, dissolve into cold bouillon, heat slowly, nya.

…When the temperature rises, the egg whites solidify and float to the surface. That mass pulls all the cloudiness with it, nya.

…Like a sponge!

…Nya. Skim off the raft, strain through cloth, and you get this, nya.

…How long does that take?

…Four hours for the bouillon. One more to clarify, nya.

Five… FIVE HOURS?!

…And that’s the shortcut version, nya. Escoffier’s textbook lists 90 consommés, nya.

Ninety… NINETY VARIETIES?!

…The fundamentals of French cuisine, nya. Escoffier codified them in the late 19th century, nya.

…Drink, nya.

…I can see the spoon pattern through the bottom of the bowl.

…Let’s taste, nya.

…Itadakimasu.

——

…Deep. But if someone asked me what flavor it is, I couldn’t answer.

…Nya.

Beef, maybe? Kinda. But not like gyudon-beef. The salt is so subtle. There’s a fragrance but no real shape to it.

…The flavor of what’s left after everything is removed, nya.

After it’s removed?

…The cloudiness, the fat, the off-notes — the egg-white raft takes all of it, nya. What’s left is only the ghost of meat. The ghost of vegetables, nya.

…Ghost…

…Consommé is subtraction, nya. Simmer and simmer, strip away everything unnecessary. What’s left — that’s consommé, nya.

…Gonna go back to the living room and try another chip.

crunch

…Totally different. Even though they’ve both got “consommé” on the label.

…Nya.

The real consommé is what survives five hours of subtraction. But the chip version —

…Reversed.

…Reversed?

Onion powder, beef extract, yeast extract, MSG. They’re assembling “consommé-ness” from separate parts.

The person who subtracted for five hours, and the person who added in a lab. Both calling it “consommé.”

…Like paintings, nya.

Huh?

…Real consommé is realist painting, nya. Depict the material itself, then carve away everything that isn’t needed, nya.

…Consommé Punch is impressionist painting, nya. Extract only the “consommé-ness,” then repaint it with different pigment, nya.

Whoa~, that example is amazing(ﾟ∀ﾟ)

…Both called “consommé” — as a cook, I find that strange, nya.

Oh, I just remembered! Consommé Punch launched in 1978. Third flavor in Calbee’s chip lineup~

…What were one and two, nya?

Lightly salted (うすしお, 1975) and nori seaweed (のりしお, 1976). Then came Consommé Punch. That’s the order the “three basic chip flavors” were born in Japan.

…What does “Punch” mean, nya?

Slang from back then, apparently. Meant something like “has energy.” And 5-or-7-syllable names stick in Japanese ears, so they went with “Consommé Punch” instead of just “Consommé.”

…There’s a whole naming theory behind that, nya.

From 1980, for twelve years it was actually just called “Consommé” — but in 1992, the “Punch” came back.

…Feels lonely without the Punch, nya.

…In 1978, someone, somewhere in Japan invented “the flavor of consommé-ness.” A whole other direction from five hours of clarifying the real thing — 似て非なるもの. Something that resembles, yet isn’t.

That’s been going 45 years. So when Netsuki thinks “the taste of consommé,” this is what I think of.

…Which one is “the real thing,” nya?

…

I dunno. If a French chef says “that’s not consommé,” technically they’re right.

But there are tens of millions of people in Japan who’ve eaten it for 45 years and learned “this is what consommé tastes like.”

…The word just split into two things it points to, nya.

…Which consommé does Netsuki like, nya?

…

…I like both.

…Five-hour consommé and crunch can’t have the same value, nya.

…But Miko’s is deep, and crunch is fun, so…

…

…Fine. Let’s eat crunch together, nya.

Huh?

…What if we put Consommé Punch on top of the consommé soup, nya?

…The clear broth with MSG sprinkled on top…

MIKO YOUR FIVE HOURS WILL DISAPPEAR?!

…Stop, nya.