Brown Stock

When the talk turns to pot roast, it's time to make stock. You can braise with red or white wine, canned tomatoes, mushroom or vegetable broth, juice, or even water. But for the richest, heartiest soups, stews, and sauces, there's no substitute for brown stock.

Stocks can be classified as white or brown depending on whether the meat and bones are roasted beforehand. White stock is valuable in cooking as a relatively neutral flavor base, and because it tastes most like the thing it was to begin with: chicken, fish, or (less commonly) beef or veal. Brown stock, put simply, is all about browning.

Browning is a topic unto itself, but suffice it to say that certain carbohydrates and proteins, when subjected to intense, dry heat, undergo a series of reactions so complicated that scientists are still working out the details. Literally hundreds of compounds are created, but the result, to you and me, is flavor. When you hear the sizzle of a steak hitting a hot grill, this is what your tastebuds are actually watering about.

The goal of stock-making is to capture those complex, roasted flavors in liquid form, yielding the best of both worlds. Intense dry heat meets long slow simmering; flavors mingle as they dissolve, then concentrate as the stock reduces. That liquid essence can then be used as a basis for soups, sauces, and everything in between.

And pot roast. When you make a pot roast you follow the same basic procedure: brown first, then simmer. If you use a quality stock as the cooking liquid for your pot roast, you're essentially making a double stock, fortifying and concentrating the flavors even more.

Brown stock can be made from whatever meat or bones you can get your hands on, including chicken, beef, veal, duck, rabbit, etc. Chefs love veal for its rich, neutral flavor -- you can add veal stock to almost anything -- but beef bones are cheaper, easier to find, and, well... taste like beef. The best stocks are made from a combination of meat and bones, but in a pinch, bones will do. Finding bones that have some trim left on them is a nice compromise.

Unless you work all day in a kitchen, one of the big obstacles to making stock is that you have to be home to do it. To avoid this problem, use a crock pot. For more tips on stock-making, see my posting on white chicken stock.

Brown Beef Stock

In terms of quanties, a simple rule of thumb is that you need enough meat and bones to fill whatever pot you're using at least two-thirds of the way, and enough water to just cover the bones. Vary the amount of the other ingredients accordingly.

5-10 lb beef bones, meat, or trim
Water to cover
1 medium carrot, cut into large dice
1-2 stalks celery, large dice
1 medium onion, large dice
2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
Fresh parsley and thyme (2-4 sprigs each)
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 Bay leaf

1. Coat a roasting pan with a thin layer of vegetable oil. Add the bones, meat, and trim in a single layer, and roast at 425° F until thoroughly browned. Turn the pieces once or twice so they roast evenly. The bones should fill the pan with crowding. If the pan is too large, the juices may burn to the bottom; if too crowded, the bones will steam in their own juices, which inhibits browning.

2. Remove the bones and trim to a stock pot. Cover with COLD water and set the pan on a burner. Start on high heat to quickly bring the pot to a simmer, but reduce the heat before it boils. (Stock should simmer at a lazy bubble; never boil.) Skim off any fat or scum that comes to the surface with a spoon or ladle. The more you skim, the clearer the stock.

3. Meanwhile, brown the onions, carrots and celery on the stove top, then add the tomato paste and cook a few minutes more. This can be done using the same pan used to roast the bones. Like the bones, you want them dark but not burned. Set the browned vegetables aside until you are ready to add them to the stock pot (see below).

4. To deglaze the roasting pan, set it over a burner, add a cup or two of water, and use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan to help them dissolve into the liquid. Pour the liquid into the stock pot.

5. Wrap the parsley, thyme, and spices in a piece of cheesecloth and tie it off with a long piece of string. This is called a sachet, and it works like a teabag, allowing you to add or remove the spices whenever you want. Or you can use one of those metal or plastic tea infusers. Or you can just throw the spices in with the bones since you're going to strain the whole thing anyway.

6. After the stock has cooked for about 5-6 hours, add the browned vegetables and sachet (spices). Continue to simmer for another 2-4 hours, or even longer, skimming fat and scum when you can. Trust your senses. If it tastes weak and the bones still seem to have life in them, let it go longer. If the bones look like they've been leeched of all flavor and nutrients -- kind of like my dog after he's been out in the rain -- then you're done.

(Alternatively, you can add the vegetables and sachet as soon as the pot comes to a simmer, put the whole thing in a crock pot, and let it all cook overnight. This is not the ideal procedure, but it beats canned beef stock any day of the week.)

7. Strain through the finest mesh strainer available. Use whatever you have, but if you do this often, you'll end up buying a large one, because it's a real pain working a full pot of stock through a puny half-moon strainer that only holds a cup or two at a time. For best results, line the strainer with cheese cloth.

8. Skim any remaining fat of the stock and cool. The best way to quickly cool a pot of stock is to set it in a sink filled with cold water, occasionally replenishing the water so it stays cold. Or divide it into two smaller containers and set them in the refrigerator. (The idea is to avoid overwhelming your fridge with a huge pot of very hot liquid.) Chill or freeze until ready to use.

Do not add salt to the stock. Once you put it in you can't take it out, and the salt will concentrate as the stock reduces during cooking. Instead, add salt to the finished dish when you use the stock.

Comments

[Idetrorce]

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Idetrorce

[Wouperunseste]

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