Methodology of Brown Stock

Knowing how to make stock is the foundation of what makes a good sauce. A little bad humor for you, how many cooks does it take to make a stock? Now here is where most say one, but the correct answer is EVERYONE. So if you have six cooks, it takes six, 20 cooks it takes 20. As you will see it can be a long process. So lets get into it.

Let’s start with picking the right bones. The best bones for stock are bones from younger animals, such as veal bones. Younger bones are higher in collagen, which breaks down and turns into the “jello” as Cosby would say. This gelatin gives the stock body and coats your mouth. Start by blanching the 15lbs veal bones, one at a time, to remove all the excess blood. Now lay your bones on roasting pans, one layer per pan. Roast bones in a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees for 8 to 9 hours. Check the bones occasionally, turning to ensure even browning. Once your bones are fully caramelized and looking all sexy like on the outside, pull them from the oven and toss them into a stockpot, reserving some of the fat. Fill the pot with cold water and ice. The colder the temperature of the stock at the start, the clearer it will be in the end.

Take your roasting pan from the bones and deglaze it with water. Deglazing means to add a liquid to a hot pan that contains either bones or meat. Now with the reserved fat from the bones, sauté your mirepoix (50% onions, 25% carrots, 25% celery). For 15 lbs of bones you will need 2 lbs of mirepoix. Cut into large dice, I repeat LARGE DICE (3/4in x 3/4in x 3/4in) at the smallest and cook until caramelized evenly all over. Brush your mirepoix with 8oz of tomato paste and cook for another 10min. In a cheesecloth or coffee filter, wrap the parsley stems, peppercorns, thyme, bay leaf, and a few pieces of clove and tie it off, this is called a sachet. Toss it into your pot with your caramelized mirepoix. A sachet is not always needed when making stock because we are going to strain everything at least twice before we are all said and done.

Once you have all the bones and mirepoix in your pot and it’s on the heat, you are going to wait until the proteins start to coagulate and a layer of scum forms on top of the water. You’ll then want to turn the heat down so you have a light simmer and begin to skim off scum and fat. The French term “Mijoter” means to create a convection current by putting the pot on only half of the heat. This will cause the scum and fat to move to one side of the pot. The bones need to cook for about 8 hours, while periodically skimming.

After the 8 hours, the stock is to be strained, tasted and analyzed to meet stock criteria. Body: the stock should have weight to it so when you taste it doesn’t taste like water. Aroma: how does it smell, Veal stock should have a sudden roasted meat smell with a aromatic back round, color: how clear is it, you should be able to see bottom of your container. Once you check the criteria and your stock meets all three, you are good to strain trough a chinois (fine mesh strainer). If your stock is lacking body, reduce it down a little more. For more aroma, add more mirepiox and/or aromatics (thyme, peppercorns, etc.). If your stock isn’t clear enough, well that’s an issue for another day but it usual means that the temperature was off at some point in the process.

Now that we have our stock strained and in a clean container, the stock needs to brought down in temperature to around 40 degrees within two hours to keep it out of the temperature danger zone. Once your stock is cool, if done right should look like Bill Cosby’s meat jello. 15lbs of bones should yield you around 2 gallons of stock and it can be keep for up to 2 weeks when covered and stored properly in the fridge.