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White Stock
2 quarts (8 cups) water 1 teaspoonful white whole peppers 1 teaspoonful salt Some bones Wipe the meat and cut it up into small pieces; and put it into a large marmite or casserole; add the
A white stock is the neutral base for cream soups, veloutés and white sauces; everything about the method is aimed at keeping it pale and clear.
- The hinge: never let it boilKeeping it below a boil -- General practice for a white stock is a bare shiver, with the surface barely trembling, for the whole cooking time; the recipe as printed gives no heat instruction. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and works scum back into the liquid, and the result is cloudy and grey.
- Marmite and casseroleBoth are stovetop vessels rather than covered baking dishes: the marmite is the tall French stockpot, the casserole a deep lidded stewpan offered as the alternative. A deeper, narrower pot gives less evaporation and a smaller surface to skim.
- What the meat should beWhite stock conventionally meant veal — knuckle and shin — often with a fowl or chicken carcass added. Nothing is browned first. The recipe gives no weight of meat, only "some bones" alongside the water.
- Bones and gelatineThe "some bones" are best joint bones, split so the cartilage is exposed. The connective tissue supplies the gelatine that makes the stock set to a jelly when cold, which is the mark of a good one.
- Whole white peppercornsWhite peppercorns are used chiefly so that no dark flecks appear in the finished liquid. The recipe lists them with the water and salt, going in at the start rather than late.
- Salt with restraintA teaspoonful in 2 quarts is deliberately light. Stock reduces, and it will be salted again in whatever sauce or soup it becomes, so season the finished dish rather than the stock.
- Time and yieldThe recipe as printed gives neither a cooking time nor a yield; expect some loss to evaporation and skimming. Strain through a cloth without pressing the solids, chill, and lift off the cake of fat.
The brown/white division — brown stock from browned beef and bones, white stock from unbrowned veal and poultry, the fond blanc of French professional kitchens — is long established in cookery writing. The marmite named alongside the casserole is the tall French stockpot that gave its name to petite marmite, the clear broth served in the pot it was made in. Veal was the preferred meat because it is mild and rich in the connective tissue that yields gelatine, giving a stock that sets firm without tasting strongly of any one animal. That neutrality was the point: from white stock one could build a cream soup, a velout ee e, a blanquette or a fricassee.