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Stock, White, for White Soups and Sauces
Take three pounds of the knuckle of veal and a quarter of a pound of lean ham. Cut the meat into small pieces, break up the bones, and add any trimmings of meat or poultry that may be at hand, with a little pepper and a small pinch of salt. The carcase of a fowl or rabbit will be a valuable addition. Put the meat into the stewpan, and pour upon it four quarts of cold water. Bring the liquor to the boil, draw it to the side, skim carefully, and let it simmer gently for three hours. Strain it into an earthenware pan till wanted. If liked, a carrot, a turnip, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a small piece of mace may be added.
A classic white stock: no browning at any stage, which is the whole point of it. Everything else follows from keeping the liquid pale and clear.
- Never let it boil hardBring it just to the boil, then draw it to the side of the stove — on a modern hob, the lowest setting that keeps a bubble breaking the surface every second or two. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and albumin back into the liquid and the stock turns cloudy grey, which defeats a white stock entirely.
- Veal knuckleAsk a butcher for veal knuckle or shin, sawn across so the marrow and gelatine are exposed. If veal is unavailable, a mix of chicken wings, backs and feet gives a comparable pale, gelatinous body; avoid beef bones, which colour and flavour the stock too heavily.
- Lean hamA quarter pound of unsmoked lean ham or a piece of gammon hock. Modern smoked ham will scent the whole pot and stain it faintly; the original wants seasoning depth, not smoke.
- QuantitiesFour quarts of water to a little over three pounds of meat and bone. In British imperial measure four quarts is about 4.5 litres (read as US quarts it would be nearer 3.8). Expect to finish with roughly two-thirds of the starting liquid after three hours of gentle simmering.
- SaltThe small pinch is deliberate. Stock made for white sauces will be reduced again, sometimes twice, and any salt added now concentrates. Season the finished sauce, not the stock.
- MaceBlade mace is the outer covering of nutmeg, sold dried in flat curls. Ground nutmeg is not a straight substitute here — it clouds the liquid and gets stronger as it sits. A single blade is enough for four quarts.
- SkimmingSkim in the first ten minutes, before the scum breaks up and disperses. Once the pot settles into a bare simmer, the fat rises to one spot and can be lifted off with a ladle, or chilled and lifted as a cap.
- Straining and coolingThe earthenware pan was there to hold the stock in a cool larder. Get it cold quickly instead: strain through muslin, stand the container in a sink of iced water, then refrigerate. It keeps three or four days chilled, or several months frozen; flat freezer bags or ice-cube trays are useful for sauce-sized quantities.
- Yield and useRoughly two-thirds of the starting liquid: around 3 litres if the four quarts are imperial, nearer 2.5 if not. Light and gelatinous — enough for a large velouté, a blanquette and a soup. Chilled, it should set to a soft jelly; if it stays liquid, there was probably too little bone for the water.
White stock, or fond blanc, is one of the two foundation stocks of the nineteenth-century professional kitchen, the pale counterpart to the browned fond brun. It was treated not as a dish but as a raw material, the base from which velouté, blanquette, fricassée and the whole family of white soups descend. Veal was the standard base because it gives abundant gelatine with very little colour or assertive flavour — the meat contributes body and mouthfeel while leaving the sauce free to taste of whatever is added to it. The instruction to throw in the carcase of a fowl or rabbit, and any trimmings to hand, reads as a domestic version of a practice long routine in professional kitchens, where the stockpot absorbed the day's offcuts as a matter of course.