Warning: this method may upset some sauce purists. But this is the way I learned it, and a subsequent taste testing with a classically prepared version decided what I thought instinctively when I saw the classic method as laid out by the master, Escoffier: Continue reading
Be they vegetable or veal, brown or white, all stocks share four common indicators of quality. They are:
Body
Body is created when the collagen in the connective tissue of the bones dissolves and converts to gelatin during the cooking process. Vegetable stocks have less body than protein-based stocks. To increase the body of a vegetable stock, add umami-rich vegetables like shiitake mushrooms, seaweed and tomatoes. (Be aware that tomatoes will also darken the stock.)
So after that big discussion over beef vs veal bones for stock, for me it all comes down to one simple truth. There are no veal bones — free-range or not — available on this Island.
I guess that means I’m going with beef.
May Chef P forgive me…
We never made beef stock in culinary school. Not once. Instead, we made veal stock. A lot of it, almost everyday.
Prior to that, veal wasn’t on my culinary radar. As a born and bred west coaster, I simply saw too many animal cruelty videos in my pasty-faced-I’m-a-vegetarian-anti-Gordon-Gecko teenage years. (In the 80′s — very short lived.)
When I asked Chef P, my culinary skills instructor, if one could use beef stock in place of veal, I got a very French Chef answer: “Non.” No elaboration, no nothing. Not for a couple of minutes, anyway. Chef P never said anything before its time.
“Why can’t you use veal? Are you scared for the little baby cows?”
That’s Chef P. Let’s just say animal cruelty concerns are not on his culinary radar. Continue reading
