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Beef and Chicken Stock
Brown an onion and sugar as in the preceding recipe, put in the meat from a shin of beef, and let it become seared; then put in the bones, and arrange the chicken so it will rest on them. Put in 5 quarts cold water, simmer gently till the chicken is thoroughly tender, when it may be taken out for use. Continue cooking the stock for three hours, season, and finish as in consomme stock.
A double-duty stock: the chicken is lifted out while still moist for another dish, and the beef shin carries on to give the liquid body. The instructions assume you have read the two recipes on either side of it, so a few things need filling in.
- The browned onion and sugarThe preceding recipe supplies the method; the point is to take the onion and sugar to a genuinely dark brown rather than pale gold, since that caramel, along with the seared meat, is what colours the finished stock.
- Quantities the text omitsNo weights are given. A shin of beef of roughly 4-5 lb, meat cut from the bone and the bone cut into lengths, and a bird of similar size, would be in proportion to 5 quarts of water. Fowl sold for stockpots were often older, tougher birds, so a modern chicken is likely to be tender sooner than the original expected.
- When to pull the chickenThe recipe says only "thoroughly tender," so judge it rather than the clock; a modern bird may be ready within the first hour, when the thigh joint loosens and the thickest part reads 165F. Left in for the full length of the stock it shreds and is useless for salads, croquettes or creamed dishes.
- Never let it boil"Simmer gently" is the hinge. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and drives fine albumen through the liquid, and no amount of later straining will clear it. Aim for a lazy bubble breaking the surface every second or two, lid ajar.
- Skim before you seasonTake the grey scum off in the first twenty minutes and do not stir it back in. Salt only at the end, as instructed, since three further hours of reduction will concentrate whatever you add early.
- Finishing as for consommeThe cross-reference points to the consomme stock recipe, which will set out the straining and clearing. In practice that means straining through a cloth-lined sieve and chilling so the fat sets in a disc you can lift off; if that recipe calls for clarifying with egg white and lean minced beef, follow it, as that is what produces a crystal-clear stock.
- YieldNo yield is given. Depending on how gently it simmers, 5 quarts may reduce to something in the region of 3 to 3 1/2 quarts of strained stock over the roughly four hours total. Freeze in pint containers.
- CoolingDo not leave the pot to stand on the stove overnight. Get it below 40F within a few hours by dividing it into shallow containers or setting the pot in an ice-water bath.