Braisière (Beef Stock), Part 2
Hi again, So, here I am 8+ hours later since I last blogged. My stock has been strained through my chinois (it is coming in rather handy, despite its unwieldy quality), rapidly cooled in a cold water bath, and more fat was skimmed from the top. Now that it is cooled, I've put in the fridge in temporary containers for now -- but will put half in the freezer and then use the other half this week because, I'm done with stocks and am moving on to Theory #4 --Sauces. (So long stockpot!)
(Beef stock in back, chicken in front.)
This week I will be trying the following:
- Sauce Espagnole (Basic Brown Sauce)
- Sauce Tomate (Tomato Sauce)
- Fond de Veau Lié (Thickened Veal Stock)
- Sauce Béchamel (Béchamel Sauce)
- Sauce Bordelaise (Bordelaise Sauce)
- Sauce Chasseur (Hunter Sauce)
Fun!
One note -- I was a bit disappointed at first that it seemed like my beef stock wasn't the dark, rich brown color I'm used to buying. Mine is a chestnut brown, so I'm wondering if my bones needed to be roasted longer? I was afraid of over browning them... However, I looked at a can of beef stock I had in the pantry and it does include "caramel color" and "soy" -- so perhaps that's why the stock is so dark in color. After all of the hours of stock making, it is nice to know that mine had 10 ingredients -- all natural. The canned version: 18 and four of them started with "hydrolyzed..." Ick. Same with the chicken stock. So, even if I don't always make my own stock going forward (I will try!), I will be sure to take a closer look at the ingredients.
Okay, I'm off to dreamland (yawn). Busy week ahead.
Happy dreams.
xoxoxo
