Consommé à la Mikado

History

The formula printed in Le Guide Culinaire reads: "Consommé à la Mikado. — Consommé de volaille additionné de 6 cuillerées de purée de tomates séchée et passée au linge, par litre de Consommé" — chicken consommé with six spoonfuls of tomato purée, dried and passed through cloth, per litre. The garnish follows: "Blanc de volaille en dés ; chair de tomate bien rouge pelée, et détaillée en dés pochés au Consommé. Les dés de tomate en quantité double de ceux de blanc de volaille." The recipe carries the number 573.

The preparation outlived its first printing: Saulnier's Le Répertoire de la cuisine (1914) still lists "Mikado (chicken consommé with tomato)" among more than a hundred consommé variants.

On the name: "Mikado" is the title by which Europe knew Japan's sovereign, derived from mi, "august," and kado, "a gate." In French classical cookery the word attaches to several unrelated preparations; a culinary glossary defines Mikado as the name of various classical French preparations using ingredients evoking Japan — dishes built on soy, soy sprouts, crosnes, or mandarin. This consommé contains none of those: its components are chicken and tomato.

Why Escoffier attached the name to this particular soup is not stated in any source consulted. The label appears to work as a naming convention within the Guide's repertoire rather than as a claim about Japanese technique, but that is inference; no source records his reasoning, and none ties this recipe to a specific person, occasion, or event.

Ingredients

• 1 liter chicken consommé (consommé de volaille)
• 6 tablespoons dried tomato purée, passed through fine cloth
• chicken breast, diced
• tomato flesh, bright red, peeled and diced, poached in consommé

Instructions

1. Heat the chicken consommé. Stir in the dried tomato purée that has been passed through fine cloth at a ratio of 6 tablespoons per liter.
2. Prepare the garnish: dice the chicken breast finely. Peel bright red tomatoes, dice them finely, and poach the tomato dice gently in the hot consommé. Use tomato dice in a quantity twice that of the chicken breast dice.
3. Combine the chicken consommé with the tomato purée. Ladle into bowls and distribute the diced chicken breast and poached tomato dice evenly among the servings.