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Stock from Bones
The bones from steaks, roasts, and poultry may be saved till a sufficient amount is on hand; then crack, cover with cold water, and, as soon as it boils, skim; then let it simmer four hours; after the third hour add the flavorings, as in plain stock.
Stock from bones is not apt to be as clear as when made from fresh meat, and if transparency is desired it must be clarified. After the fat has been taken from the surface, turn the stock into soup-kettle, keeping back the sediment in the bottom of the bowl. Wash 2 eggs, and beat the whites with the shells in 1/2 cup cold water; put this into the cold soup, mix carefully; let it come to a boil, add 1 table-spoonful lemon juice, and boil hard five minutes. After it has stood a minute to settle, strain through two or three thicknesses of cheesecloth, wrung out of cold water.
A stock recipe and a clarification method in one entry. The clarifying half is the older technique — a raft of egg white and shell — and it still works exactly as described.
- Start cold, and keep it lowCovering the bones with cold water and bringing them up slowly draws out gelatin without emulsifying the fat. Once it reaches a bare simmer, hold it there: a rolling boil will cloud the stock past the point clarification can fix easily.
- Four hours is right for beef bonesFour hours is the recipe's figure -- Poultry bones tend to give up what they have sooner than beef bones, so a mixed batch of beef, pork and chicken may be worth tasting from the third hour rather than running the full four. The recipe itself makes no distinction and sets four hours for all of them.
- Crack the bonesSplitting the bones exposes marrow and the spongy interior, which is where the body of the stock comes from. A cleaver or a heavy knife on the joint ends is enough; a butcher will do it if you ask.
- "Flavorings, as in plain stock"A cross-reference to the book's plain stock recipe, which is not given here; the aromatics of the period were typically some combination of onion, carrot, celery, cloves, peppercorns, bay and parsley stems, but the exact list is the other recipe's, not this one's. Added in the last hour, as here, they stay bright rather than turning muddy.
- Roast the bones if you want colorThe recipe puts raw bones straight into water, which gives a pale, mild stock. If you want the browner, deeper stock of modern practice, roast them first -- around forty minutes in a hot oven -- but that is a departure from what is written here.
- The clarification must be started coldThis is the hinge. The egg white has to be stirred into cold or barely warm stock so it disperses; drop it into hot stock and it sets instantly in strings and clarifies nothing. Chill the stock fully, skim the hard fat, then mix in the whites.
- Don't stir once it sets"Boil hard five minutes" means the raft rises and holds together. Leave it alone from the moment it begins to coagulate, and ladle rather than pour when straining, so the raft is not broken back into the liquid.
- Yield and keepingThe recipe gives no quantity of bones or water, so the yield depends entirely on how much you have accumulated. Refrigerate a few days or freeze; the fat cap left on top acts as a seal in the refrigerator, so skim it only when you are ready to use the stock.