Boiling means the liquid is rapidly circulating throughout the pot, mixing up the liquid with whatever else may be in it. Clarification means you're trying to get as much of a clear product as possible, and boiling the consomme would undo all of the work that you just did.
To make it more clear! The proteins are what make up the haziness. You see these as the scum that happens just before it boils. If you boil it, these proteins break down to smaller bits that dissolve and make the broth cloudy again, permanently.
Because you want the stock as calm as possible so that the small pieces that cloud up the stock float to the surface and get embedded into the float (commonly egg whites)
Only important during the clarification process. You can boil finished consomme! And as others have said, it's purely because a rolling boil disturbs your stock (or what you're making your stock from) and breaks it up. Having said that, with enough egg, on a VERY slow steep, I have yet to fail in clarifying even the cloudiest consomme.
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Boiling means the liquid is rapidly circulating throughout the pot, mixing up the liquid with whatever else may be in it. Clarification means you're trying to get as much of a clear product as possible, and boiling the consomme would undo all of the work that you just did.
Clarifying Consomme
To make it more clear! The proteins are what make up the haziness. You see these as the scum that happens just before it boils. If you boil it, these proteins break down to smaller bits that dissolve and make the broth cloudy again, permanently.
Because you want the stock as calm as possible so that the small pieces that cloud up the stock float to the surface and get embedded into the float (commonly egg whites)
I don't believe there is any need.
There are two ways here to read about clarification
http://www.emerils.com/recipe/4642/Chicken-Consomm...
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-consomme.htm
Only important during the clarification process. You can boil finished consomme! And as others have said, it's purely because a rolling boil disturbs your stock (or what you're making your stock from) and breaks it up. Having said that, with enough egg, on a VERY slow steep, I have yet to fail in clarifying even the cloudiest consomme.
Good luck!