We reserved all the juices from the lobsters with their carcasses and pressure cooked them with red wine, white wine, and parmesan rinds for 15 minutes at high pressure. When the stock was done cooking, we chilled the entire bowl down, allowing the hemolymph to coagulate. This allowed the flavors to mature so that we could extract every last bit of goodness from the ingredients. When we strained the chilled stock, we were delighted to discover an intensely flavored lobster consommé. It seemed that the coagulation of the hemolymph during the cool-down process created a filter, capturing the myriad particulates which normally settle on the bottom of the pot. This sparks the question of whether we should make traditional consommés and chill them with the raft in place, allowing it to coagulate and chill, thus leading to a more developed flavor and easily strained liquid. Of course, traditional stocks normally gel as they cool, so it may not work, but it certainly seems like a concept worth exploring in pursuit of greater flavor.
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