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Brown Stock
4 lbs. shin of beef 3 cloves 2 quarts (8 cups) water 2 stalks celery I bay leaf I blade mace I large carrot 2 onions, browned 1 bunch sweet herbs 1 teaspoonful whole peppers 1 teaspoonful salt Some poultry or game bones 3 sprigs parsley Wipe the meat and cut it into small square pieces.
Break up the bones and remove the marrow. Put the bones and the meat into a large casserole, cover with the water, and bring slowly to boiling point; skim thoroughly, then add all the other ingredients,
A classic long-simmered beef stock, written for an era when a lidded earthenware pot sat on the range all afternoon. The text breaks off mid-sentence, so the simmering and straining have to be supplied from standard practice.
- "Casserole" means the potHere a casserole is a deep lidded pot used on the stovetop, not a baked dish. A heavy 6-quart Dutch oven or stockpot is the direct equivalent.
- Shin of beefAsk for beef shin or foreshank, bone in, cut across into rounds. The collagen in shin is what gives brown stock its body; chuck alone will give you a thinner result.
- The hinge: never let it boilBring slowly to the boil once, skim off the grey scum thoroughly, then hold it at a bare tremble for the rest of the cooking. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and suspended protein into the liquid and you will not get it clear again.
- Time and finishingThe text stops before any of this, so it has to be supplied from standard practice: after the aromatics go in, allow roughly 4 to 5 hours at a bare simmer, uncovered or barely covered. Strain through a fine sieve or cloth without pressing the solids, then chill and lift the fat cap off the top.
- Browned onionsHalve the onions and lay them cut side down in a dry pan until genuinely dark, or roast them. In this recipe the bones go in unbrowned, so the onions are the main source of colour; pale onions give pale stock.
- A blade of maceA blade is one piece of the dried outer casing of nutmeg. If you cannot find whole mace, about 1/8 teaspoon ground mace, or a light grating of nutmeg, stands in.
- A bunch of sweet herbsPeriod shorthand for a small bundle of aromatic herbs such as thyme, marjoram or savory, tied with string. Bay and parsley are listed separately here, so three or four thyme sprigs will do; tie them so they lift out cleanly.
- SaltOne teaspoon in 8 cups is deliberately light. Stock that will be reduced or used as a base should stay undersalted; season the finished soup or sauce instead.
- YieldExpect somewhat less than the 2 quarts of water you started with, depending on how long and how hard it simmers and how tightly it is covered.
Brown stock stands near the head of the soup and sauce chapters because so much else in them was built on it: consomm\, brown sauce, gravies, and the reheated meat dishes that used up Sunday's roast. The distinction between brown and white stock rests entirely on whether the bones and aromatics were browned first. The instruction to save "some poultry or game bones" reflects a kitchen where nothing bony was thrown out; a stockpot on the back of a coal range was the household's method of turning scraps into the day's cooking liquid, and the long hours the job required suited a vessel whose thick walls held a low, steady heat.