SINCE I just wrote about beef consommé, it is only natural that I should include the recipe for those of you purists who might want to have a container or two in the freezer for just one of those moments I shared in the previous recipe. If you must use the packaged stuff, College Inn makes the best consommés/stocks and if you're really in a pinch and absolutely have no other alternative, the Knorr chicken and beef stock cubes are the best (but beware: they are highly salted!). All others . . . better to make your own.
Stocks in general are very easy to make; it's just the matter of time. To make myself perfectly clear here, you don't have to do much, but you must watch and wait, refrigerate, de-grease, reheat and then clarify. All in all, a process which may or may not, according to your own timetable, take up as much or as little as two or three days. Given the fact that you are investing so much time, with so little effort (to be realistic here), it is always best to make vast quantities of it and store in the fridge (up to a week) or in the freezer (up to a year). Some may say that a year is overkill, but I have stored some stocks in the freezer which I completely forgot about (octopus, shellfish, even pork) and used more than a year later and found that they were perfectly intact and rather tasty, too. Of course, a very good freezer is key here.
Anyway, there are two kinds of stocks: a white stock and a dark stock. White stocks use bones in their natural composition. Dark stocks are made from bones which have been slowly roasted to bring out the most amount of flavor. There really isn't much difference in the ingredients or the process, except for the roasting and the recipe below can be used for both types of beef and/or poultry. Some of the steps differ but not too much, as I will explain.
Since I used a dark consommé for the preceding Orzo and Kale recipe, I shall set down here how I make my dark beef stock. However, when I make Tortellini in Brodo, I use veal bones and a veal shank (see below) for my stock and consommé which I think is the queen of stocks (I am including the recipe below). If you make your stock with love and patience, what you will get is liquid velvet.
BASIC DARK BEEF* STOCK
4-5 pounds beef bones (I save mine in the freezer from steaks, ribs, etc., and add fresh ones from the butcher)
1-2 beef shanks
One large onion, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and cut into medium dice
1 large leek (white part only) chopped, save the green part of the leek for later
4 stalks celery peeled and cut into large dice
1 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
Heat the oven to 400º
Place vegetables, bones and shank(s) on a lightly greased chef's roasting pan and roast the bones and shanks for about 1-1/2-2 hours. Turn the ingredients a few times during roasting. The shanks should be browned and the marrow softened and shrinking from the bone.
Removed bones and vegetables and place in a large, 12-16 quart stockpot. Pour the grease from the pan out and pour some water into the roasting pan and place on the stove over medium heat. Scrape off as much of the remains from the bottom as you can during the cooking and then pour that into the stockpot as well. Fill the pot with cold water (about 2 gallons) and set over moderately high heat. Bring to a boil and immediately lower the heat and skim off any scum while it simmers. Once you have removed the scum, add
2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
and cover the pot and simmer anywhere from 2-4 hours.
While the stock is simmering, make a bouquet garní as follows:
One can make a bouquet garní with cheesecloth, OR you can make one with the wide green leaves of the leeks.
3 sprigs fresh thyme
5-6 large leaves fresh sage
1 whole stalke fresh rosemary
4-5 sprigs fresh parsley
8-10 whole black pepper corns
1 bay leaf
Take two of the flattened green leaves of the leef and place them flat on a cutting board. Place all of the herbs, the bay leaf, and the peppercorns on the leeks and start to roll the leaves to contain the herbs. Cover these two leaves with two more leaves of the leek so you have a nice circular package. Take some kitchen twine and tie the bundle at the far ends like a log. It doesn't matter if some of the herbs are protruding at the open ends. The twine will keep everything in place (I sometimes use wide rubber bands that I have saved from asparagus or broccoli bundles, which work perfectly for this).
Add the bouquet garní to the stockpot, cover and continue to simmer for several hours.
(For a white stock, do not sauté the vegetables, but rather, add the bones, the meat, the vegetables and the herb bouquet in a stockpot full of water and continue with the recipe.)
When the stock is finished, remove from the heat, and let it cool completely. You will need a large china cap strainer (or two large mesh strainers, cheesecloth, and another stock pot of roughly the same or slightly smaller size. Remove as many bones as you can with a slotted spoon as well as the shanks and the bouquet garní. You can save the meat for another use (I usually use it for filling or for soup; I salt and pepper the marrow and eat it with bread and butter almost immediately, glutton for marrow that I am!). Take a large piece of cheesecloth, double it up and get it wet. Squeeze out the excess water and line the strainer with it. If you are using two strainers, line the first one and put the other strainer on top of the one with the cheesecloth. Strain contents of the stockpot into the other stockpot. Discard the vegetables Refrigerate over night.
The next day, take the stockpot out of the fridge and remove all pieces of fat that have hardened on the top of the stock. The stock itself, should be somewhat gelatinous in its cold form.
To make BEEF CONSOMMÉ, you will need:
3 egg whites
1 stalk of chopped celery
1 small carrot (chopped)
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
6 peppercorns
1 tbs. dried tarragon
1 tomato chopped
1/2 lb. chopped meat (NO MEAT for poultry consommé)
Mix all of the ingredients together as if you were making a meat loaf. Add everything to the cold stock and place over high heat. Stir often to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. You want all of the ingredients to break up as much as possible to absorb the liquid. Continue to stir while the stock heats. As soon as the liquid starts to boil, STOP STIRRING! You will see all of the ingredients begin to foam and rise to the surface and form one large mass. Turn the heat down to a simmer. You want the liquid to bubble and you will see the mass form craters on the surface. Allow it to continue in this fashion for about an hour and do not disturb it in any way. The albumen from the egg white draws all the bacteria and fat from the stock to create a delicious, rich and completely fat free liquid. After an hour or so, the top of the mass will have formed a crust. Leave it to rest for a bit; the mixture will retain its shape and gradually sink to the bottom of the pot. Strain the stock into another pot exactly as you did with the first stock and use immediately or store it for future use as discussed above. I should mention here that with a clarified stock as this one or especially the one below made from veal, you have here that basis for what is called Sauce Espagnole, which in turn can become demi-glace. In fact, the possibilities are endless what you can do with clarified stock.
VEAL STOCK
Everything is basically the same, but for the best, and I mean THE BEST veal stock, use:
Neck bones, the shank and a veal tongue
Do not brown the tongue, but add it with the water. The process is exactly the same as the beef stock (and consommé) with the exception of adding the tongue to the liquid. When you've finished cooking the stock, the outer skin will have to be removed and you can then use the meat from the shank and the tongue for whatever you chose to make. I often use the tongue, sneaky devil that I am, and the shank, including the marrow in sauce for Lasagna. People who are squeamish about tongue never know and always say how delicious it is. Then I tell them . . .
Buon appetito!
*For a richer stock, Jacques Pepin recommends using Beef, Veal and Chicken bones simultaneously. If you collect bones of all sorts like I do, then by all means use them all at once. Just make enough stock so you can freeze it in separate containers for multiple uses.
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