Jump to content

Veal Stock


Heather

Recommended Posts

Wagshals has 12 lbs. of bones waiting for me to pick up today. Veal stock is a twice a year project, and I hoard it for those time when chicken, or another flavor, can't be substituted. It used to be a brown stock (roasted bones) but now I use Keller's recipe for a white stock.

There's a discussion going on here about Michael Ruhlman's new book, and whether the home cook should bother making veal stock. I'm curious if anyone else on donrockwell.com makes their own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have made veal stock for years--also about twice a year. I tend to concentrate my stock-making efforts during cold weather time, when I can chill it outside, since my refrigerator never has enough room for a stockpot. I made some duck stock yesterday. Veal stock is especially convenient for storage in my small freezer, because after I strain, chill and remove the solidified fat, I reduce it essentially to a glace de viande, which when chilled and jellied, bags up easily in two-to three tablespoon portions in small snack bags, which I aggregate into gallon-sized ziplock bags and keep in the freezer. It's really easy to grab a little baggie or two out of the freezer to make a pan reduction sauce or add to a braise or soup pot. When I don't have any, I really feel that my cooking is diminished.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I make chicken and beef stock when I have room in the freezer. I have contemplated veal stock, but given my freezer space, I have to choose between that and one of the other two. Probably soon after the new year I'll have things cleaned out enough to make some stock. I'll have to decide which to make.

ETA: Somehow I missed Zora's post. I guess if I reduced it enough, I shouldn't have to worry so much about space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I make glace de viande once a year, usually in January when it's blustery. I make a batch with 25lbs of bones and turn it into a roasted, brown stock. Some I freeze in ice cube trays and pop into a Ziploc, some I freeze in deli cups. I also sometimes give some to a friend to help them boost their cooking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I make veal stock once or twice a year following Madelaine Kamman's recipe in "New Making of a Cook" (which I find to be an otherwise unwieldy and bloated book). She suggests using veal breast for the stock as it already contains the proper proportions of bone, meat and gelatin in one piece. I get it frozen at Union Meat and have it cut into cubes that can be conveniently browned in the oven. After the first batch is made I make a "rémuage" using the same meat but with new vegetables. This "secondary stock" is still very full bodied, but when diluted is great for risotto, soups and other less-demanding items. But the "primary stock" I reduce to a glace and freeze in tubs of various sizes. I use it for pan sauces, pates, and the like. The whole process takes me about two days, but it's worth it. The relatively neutral flavor of veal stock lends itself to various preparations of practically any meat, and I always miss it if I don't have it. If you're doing a lot of quick cooking, it also is essential to have around in order to make a quick pan sauce with a just a butter liaison. This simple technique has probably produced more "oohs and ahhs" in my dining room than any other, save the occasional lap dance that I reserve for special guests.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll pipe up as someone who has never, ever made veal stock. For that matter, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've roasted beef bones for stock and I'm no spring chicken.

Nonetheless, I make a stock at least once a month when the weather turns cold, most frequently when chicken legs go on sale, supplementing them with a small package of chicken wings. Lately, I've gone back to saving bones from roasted chickens, leek greens, etc. for variety's sake. I also take advantage of the greater accessibility of turkey wings at this time of year to make a combo-poultry stock. Lidia Bastianich advocates something of this nature for its depth of flavor. I bet results are closer to what one gets from the capons prized back in Renaissance courts--and in Western Europe at Christmas when demand exceeds supply.

Last December I tried out Lynne Rosetto Kasper's recipe for a combo poultry-beef stock, expressly for the purpose of serving hand-stuffed pasta in broth. The long-simmered mixture of chicken, turkey and beef was actually quite different from a pure chicken stock. Not at all neutral, but the source of the meat was harder to define. Not that there's anything wrong about that. Actually superior for intended use.

Regarding Michael Ruhlman's call for making veal stock at home, I wonder what all the fuss is about, especially when it comes to the cost of the ingredients. The CIA graduate and high priest of Thomas Keller is simply distilling his sense of what distinguishes great cooking in restaurants from the kind of food served by untrained home cooks.

I suspect he's proselytizing to someone like me who can cook, but screws up when following recipes from time to time and never saw the need for making veal stock. In his mind, it's something that is not as blatantly impressive as an exquisitely sauced, tiered puff pastry, but rather, a "hidden" ingredient that lends refinement to one's cooking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding Michael Ruhlman's call for making veal stock at home, I wonder what all the fuss is about, especially when it comes to the cost of the ingredients.
Speaking of cost, Wagshals wanted $8.99/lb. for bones. :( That's insane.

AB, Whole Foods sells backs and wings for .99/lb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of cost, Wagshals wanted $8.99/lb. for bones. :( That's insane.

AB, Whole Foods sells backs and wings for .99/lb.

Whereas, $2.40 for veal breast that others might spend seems like a bargain to me! Besides, you'd expect that the high cost you pay in a great restaurant is due, in part, to the cost of ingredients.

* * *

As for backs, that's a whole 'nother subject. I've used them when picking up chicken leg quarters or cooking from whole chickens--but we all have idiosyncratic preferences and I've given you mine. Never saw wings for 99 cents at WFM before. Regular price is now around $2.39 in the District, $1.89 on sale!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recent chicken stock was made with wings and necks from Bestway. Very cheap. I think 7-8 dollars all together, and it was a lot. I've never made veal stock but am very excited to try it now.

What is a good price for the veal bones? How much do you order?

I see Keller calls for 5 lbs, which doesn't seem like a whole lot. Does anyone add the calf's foot?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whereas, $2.40 for veal breast that others might spend seems like a bargain to me! Besides, you'd expect that the high cost you pay in a great restaurant is due, in part, to the cost of ingredients.

* * *

As for backs, that's a whole 'nother subject. I've used them when picking up chicken leg quarters or cooking from whole chickens--but we all have idiosyncratic preferences and I've given you mine. Never saw wings for 99 cents at WFM before. Regular price is now around $2.39 in the District, $1.89 on sale!

I misspoke. I meant backs and necks - perfect for stock.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somebody please tell me how to do this. I have always wanted to. And where the hell do you get veal bones anyway?
Ask for them at a butcher. You can sometimes get them at Balducci's. I do not recommend Wagshals as they have jacked up their prices.

Here is a good basic recipe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ask for them at a butcher. You can sometimes get them at Balducci's. I do not recommend Wagshals as they have jacked up their prices.

Here is a good basic recipe.

Pool Boy, it depends on how you intend to use the stock, but generally I would discourage you from using just bones. It's cheaper, but the result can often be too gelatinous and without the meaty quality a good stock should have. Bones also contain lots of calcium, which when leached out into the stock in the long simmering process can make it cloudy and slightly bitter. I would suggest replacing half the weight of bones in Emeril's recipe with stewing veal, or replace it all with veal breast as I mentioned upthread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's an old post on Egullet that I've never forgotten. One Chef Fowke posted that he'd found a revolutionary way of making veal stock ("Everything I know about cooking is now in question" he says). I PM'd him at the time, as he omitted the proportion of alcohol in the list of ingredients (he mentions 'alcohol' later on in the recipe). Didn't get a response, though. I'm still curious about this, so I sent him another note just now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somebody please tell me how to do this. I have always wanted to. And where the hell do you get veal bones anyway?

Most butchers can get them for you, but they tend to charge more than they should. Call a chef at a restaurant that you enjoy and ask if you can buy some bones from them at cost. Most would be happy to oblige!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And where the hell do you get veal bones anyway?

I got mine at the Dupont Circle farmers market from the folks who make Keswick cheeses. I tend to buy a bag when they have them (they are frozen), and I store them in my freezer until the time is right to make stock. They are cheap, compared to Wagshal's price as quoted by Heather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ask for them at a butcher. You can sometimes get them at Balducci's. I do not recommend Wagshals as they have jacked up their prices.

Here is a good basic recipe.

Thanks. And thanks to Banco too for the suggestion to add some of the meat, too. I'll give it a whirl at the end of the month I think. I think I can get the bones at the Laurel Meat Market if I call ahead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Balducci's in Bethesda sells veal bones for $2.99/lb. The guy very kindly sawed the knuckles in half for me.

For regular grocery shopping, Balducci's is quite expensive. But their fish counter is first rate, their butcher is a gem, and every employee in that store goes out of their way to help. We shop there more than we should.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For regular grocery shopping, Balducci's is quite expensive. But their fish counter is first rate, their butcher is a gem, and every employee in that store goes out of their way to help. We shop there more than we should.
Agreed. The butcher there has never let me down.

I've got the bones blanching right now. Nothing whets the appetite like handling raw veal knuckles before breakfast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made my first veal stock this weekend, inspired in part by this thread. I got the veal bones at Balducci's in McLean, where they were nice enough to cut them up for me. The butcher also couldn't recall how to charge me for veal bones, so charged me for beef bones instead. Not too bad. I used the recipe from Tom Colicchio's "Think Like a Chef," which is a white stock (or at least the bones aren't roasted). Next time, I'll probably go for a brown stock. Looking forward to using the stock, maybe with the mushrooms and shallot sauce from the eGullet thread linked above?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bonz:

t_Bonzm_d25903a.jpg

Veal Stock in Christmas Colors:

t_vealstockinm_a2d627c.jpg

Meat Jello:

t_meatjellom_9b30318.jpg

I made a wild mushroom sauce for our hanger steaks last night: saute mushrooms & shallots, then add thyme, s&p, demiglace, and a little extra veal stock, reduce, then finish with butter. It was the perfect example of what Michael Ruhlman talks about in his essay on veal stock in The Elements of Cooking. The demi gave it a depth of flavor that lifted it above an ordinary pan sauce, and the mouthfeel was amazing. It's absolutely worth the time, money, and effort to get results like that.

Wash Post's Chef on Call article this morning features a recipe for Roasted Veal Loin with Black Truffle Madeira Sauce. The body of article lists the steps to make the sauce as "[m]ake a meat essence, add a wine reduction, thicken with butter" and the recipe calls for a chicken stock. It's probably tasty as written, but a good veal stock would send it off the charts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cibola usually has buffalo bones, and Smith Family Farm may have beef bones (I haven't checked). Both are at the Burke farmers market on Saturdays, 8-12, in the VRE station parking lot.

H-Mart has beef bones frozen, and sometimes fresh. I shop more frequently at the Merrifield outpost, but the Fairfax City branch surely has them as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Freeze part of it in an ice cube tray and use the cubes to enrich pan sauces. Make a super summer onion soup, or a kick-ass pea soup.

We made veal stock in our pressure cooker today for the first time. It turned out so cloudy that not even a raft would clear it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I made veal stock.

What should I do with it now?

I saw this recipe posted elsewhere recently and thought I'd like to try it once I had some veal stock. I don't know that I'd personally want to make it in the middle of summer, though.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We made veal stock in our pressure cooker today for the first time. It turned out so cloudy that not even a raft would clear it up.

Strain a couple of times through a wet muslin towel. You may have to bleach the towel afterward, but it works like magic. I remember reading that Keller has his chefs triple strain all stock through muslin towels to get it crystal clear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Strain a couple of times through a wet muslin towel. You may have to bleach the towel afterward, but it works like magic. I remember reading that Keller has his chefs triple strain all stock through muslin towels to get it crystal clear.
Thanks. I strained it through several layers of cheesecloth, then made a raft, then strained through cheesecloth again. Still cloudy. I'll try the towel next.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We made veal stock in our pressure cooker today for the first time. It turned out so cloudy that not even a raft would clear it up.

I wonder why it was so cloudy.

I've only done chicken stock in my pressure cooker so far, and it came out clear. I wonder if you brought it to a simmer first and skimmed, and then put the lid on and pressure cooked, if that would help next time. Or maybe you did that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. I strained it through several layers of cheesecloth, then made a raft, then strained through cheesecloth again. Still cloudy. I'll try the towel next.

Sounds like you may have had a high proportion of bones in the stock. If these are steeped too long or too intensely they release a lot of collagen and calcium, which cloud the stock. I imagine a pressure cooker would encourage this tendency.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like you may have had a high proportion of bones in the stock. If these are steeped too long or too intensely they release a lot of collagen and calcium, which cloud the stock. I imagine a pressure cooker would encourage this tendency.

Even slightly clouded by dissolved collagen and calcium, as long as the particulate matter is strained out, it will do a fine job for making sauces or as a soup base. Unless the stock is going to be used for gelee or consomme, that is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if you brought it to a simmer first and skimmed, and then put the lid on and pressure cooked, if that would help next time. Or maybe you did that.

We did not. Good idea, will try it next time.

With our giant new pressure cooker/canner (my birthday present, aw), it was a good use of time - maybe an hour of labor and a couple hours of time for 6 quarts of veal stock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last time I made veal stock (when it was still cold outside) I got the bones -- around 20 lbs. -- for free from the Lebanese Butcher on Annandale Road in Falls Church. Had to ask for them a day in advance, but they were more than generous when they delivered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...