[MarkV]

Dear Friends:

My executive chef made a lobster consomme yesterday that turned out cloudy and very un-consomme like. I have never made a lobster consomme, only consommes from chicken or veal stock. Below is his methodology. Could I get please get your opinions about what you think might have gone wrong.

1) First he took live lobsters and pulled off their tails and claws. These were used for something else. The head/upper part of the body of each lobster was then cut in half and the guts scraped out.

2) He then sauteed the halved heads in a rondeau pan in olive oil. (In my opinion the pan was way overcrowded and the pieces were not browning evenly. There was not a single layer of heads but a pile of them on top of each other.)

3) To facilitate the browning he then transferred the rondeau to a convection oven and finished them there.

4) Meanwhile we caramelized mirepoix & garlic in olive oil.

5) Then the sauteed/roasted heads and the carmelized mirepoix was added to a stockpot with chicken stock and water. (Here's one potential problem. The chicken stock, if not made properly could have been cloudy from either inadequate straining/degreasing or being cooked above a simmer).

6) It was brought to a simmer and then he added a raft of egg whites and fresh mirepoix. No ground beef.

7) That was then simmered for however long he simmered it for. Finally he ladled the consomme out of the pot through the traditional hole in the raft with the previously stated cloudy results.

What do you guys think?

Mark