It’s been a while since my last post so I thought I would just post some of the new things I am learning in school. I definitely won’t have a lot of time to type up “books” anymore but hopefully my little tips of the day will help you further your cooking techniques if you want them to.
Tip of the Day
Beef Stock
Never boil a stock rapidly. It reincorporates the impurities that come out of the bones back into the stock. Still edible just not a perfect product!
Vocabulary Words
mirepoix (meer-pwa) -50% onion to 25% carrot and 25% celery by weight (usually 1lb total)
bouquet garni (boo-KAY gar-NEE) -2 bay leaves, 3 twigs of thyme, 2 stems of parsley and 6 peppercorns wrapped in cheesecloth and tied up
Sachet – same as bouquet garni
Stock is one of the easiest things to make and is the basis for many things. Without a great tasting stock so many of your soups and sauces will only be good. Not GRRRRReat!
Recipe
Yields: about one gallon of stock
Ingredients:
• 8 pounds beef bones, including knuckle bones, trimmings, etc., sawn into 3-4 inch pieces
• Oil
• 6-7 quarts cold water
• 8 ounces onions, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces carrots, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces celery, coarsely chopped
• 3 ounces tomato paste
• 3 or 4 parsley stems
• 3 twigs of thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 black peppercorns
Heat the oven to 400F. Lightly oil sheet pan. Place the bones on the sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Slather the bones with tomato paste, add the mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery) on top of the bones and roast for an additional 30 – 45 minutes (until the tomato paste turns dark “almost” burnt looking, turning occasionally, until evenly browned.


2 Comments
Dixie
You have the butcher do it for you. Generally they just come small enough and you don’t need to do anything at all.
I cannot imagine any butcher giving you a whole leg none or hip bone unles you specified you that’s what you wanted.
We in class had to cut up half a cow, literally!
Shel
ok, you sorta lost me at sawing beef bones. Do you buy them like that? Do you have to go to a good butcher (and not the grocery/costco kind)?
:)shel