“Scum, in reference to soup skimming, is mostly the coagulation of protein particles held together with fat,” explained McKenzie Johnson, a chef-instructor at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts who teaches a class called Foundations of Soup-Making.
You will need a fine-mesh skimmer and a liquid measuring cup (or bowl) filled with water. When the soup/stock is about to boil, stay around the kitchen. You start to see the scum and fat floating and creating forms. With the mesh sieve in one hand and the other hand with the bowl of water, start scooping it off.
Why skim a stock? As stocks start to simmer the proteins and fats in the pot congeal and form a grey foam that rises to the surface. It's important to regularly remove the scum to ensure the stock is clear and prevent it from containing excess fat.
In addition to the visual impact, Johnson told us that “it's important to skim the scum early in the simmering process if you don't want to have any unwanted mouth feel or flavor affecting your outcome. If you don't skim the scum before it rapidly boils, it can drop back into the soup.”
In addition to the visual impact, Johnson told us that “it's important to skim the scum early in the simmering process if you don't want to have any unwanted mouth feel or flavor affecting your outcome. If you don't skim the scum before it rapidly boils, it can drop back into the soup.”
Removing the fat from soup and broth can be an essential part of a recipe, or it might be a preference to help you maintain a leaner diet. Skim the soup during the cooking process to get a clearer, leaner broth. Or strain out the broth if you prefer to keep the fat for the cooking process but don't want to consume it.
Cool the soup in the refrigerator and after a couple of hours the fat will solidify on top and will be easy to scrape off. Remove majority of fat off the top with a bulb baster and remove the remaining thin layer by laying a paper towel on the surface. The fat will cling to the paper towel.
To achieve a silky-smooth texture, keep the blender running for at least 1 to 2 minutes in order to fully break down the solids. A common mistake is to not run the blender long enough. This results in a grainy-textured soup. The soup should be blended long enough to create a silky-smooth texture.
The fat rises to the top of your sauce as it simmers. If you leave it in and continue to stir your sauce, it will separate again later. To prevent your sauce from separating, use a spoon to skim off the fat when it rises. Be sure that you're cooking it slowly as well.
Cooking a soup, stew, or sauce uncovered allows water to evaporate, so if your goal is to reduce a sauce or thicken a soup, skip the lid. The longer you cook your dish, the more water that will evaporate and the thicker the liquid becomes—that means the flavors become more concentrated, too.
Chill the bowl in the freezer of refrigerator until a thin layer of whitish fat forms on the top of the now gel like broth. This fat, though some people might look at it in alarming fear and disgust, is actually wonderful for high heat cooking. It adds a rich flavor to meals and is incredibly nutrient dense.
Skimming is a strategic, selective reading method in which you focus on the main ideas of a text. When skimming, deliberately skip text that provides details, stories, data, or other elaboration.
Skimming is reading rapidly in order to get a general overview of the material. Scanning is reading rapidly in order to find specific facts. While skimming tells you what general information is within a section, scanning helps you locate a particular fact.
Skimming the fat
Just skim the fat off with a ladle. Don't worry, you'll pick up some of the broth as well, but losing a little of the good broth is well worth removing the fat and calories. If you're like me and determined not to lose a bit of the good stuff, the bowl of hot skimmings can be cooled and chilled.
Chunkier soups, like black bean or lentil, tend to lean thick—and, it must be said, gloopy. To thin them out (and dial down the intense salinity), add more water or low-sodium stock while they're heating. (If you overdo it, don't stress: Continue simmering until the liquid has reduced to your desired consistency.)
The scum is denatured protein, mostly comprising the same proteins that make up egg whites. It is harmless and flavorless, but visually unappealing. Eventually, the foam will break up into microscopic particles and disperse into your stock, leaving it grayish and cloudy.
To skim is to remove something from the surface of a liquid. Some cooks skim the fat off of the top of their chicken noodle soup, others skim the cream off milk to make skim (or skimmed) milk.
Soup tends to drip off the soupspoon on the way from the bowl to your mouth. You can take two steps to reduce the chances of drips. 1. Dip your spoon into the soup with the spoon facing away from you and then scoop the soup away from you rather than towards you.
The short answer to this is yes. The foam on top of chicken broth/stock isn't harmful, it's simply unpleasant. But that unpleasantness is confined to the look (and perhaps the texture) and not the taste, so deciding to rid your stock of this pond-scum-reminiscent substance is purely a matter of preference.
Many soups, with the possible exception of seafood soups, may taste better the next day! For best safety and quality, plan to eat refrigerated soup within 3 to 4 days or freeze it. And avoid letting soup set at room temperature for more than TWO hours. Don't put a large pot of hot soup directly into your refrigerator.
You want your stew to be rich, but not so decadent that it's a gut bomb. Skim the top of your stew and remove as much of the fat as you can before serving. If you're making your stew ahead, skip this step—when you refrigerate, the fat on top will harden, making it easy to get rid of.