The Essence of Nearly Anything, Drop by Limpid Drop - New York Times

Harold McGee never fails to make me interested:

The Essence of Nearly Anything, Drop by Limpid Drop - New York Times: "Think of such liquids as essences. They have no fibers, no pulp, no fat, no substance at all. They’re just flavor in fluid form, perhaps with a tinge of color, like a classic beef consommé. In fact chefs are calling these essences consommés, and they often use them the same way, as a soup or a sauce. And they can be delightfully surprising, because their appearance often gives no hint of the pleasure they’re about to deliver."

Interestingly, I saw the following from khymos.org just a day or so before:

blog.khymos.org » Blog Archive » Clarification of stock and other liquids: "The fascinating thing about a filtration like this is that you can also remove color. At the EuroFoodChem XIV conference I was told by Jorge Ruiz of Lamaragaritaseagita that you can make perfectly clear tomato juice by succesive filtrations, starting with a coarse filter and moving to finer filters. All in all, 3-5 filtrations should be sufficient."