Stock, Medium
INGREDIENTS. 4 lbs. of shin of beef, or 4 lbs. of knuckle of veal, or 2 lbs. of each; any bones, trimmings of poultry, or fresh meat, 1/4 lb. of lean bacon or ham, 2 oz. of butter, 2 large onions, each stuck with 3 cloves; 1 turnip, 3 carrots, 1 head of celery, 3 lumps of sugar, 2 oz. of salt, ½ teaspoonful of whole pepper, 1 large blade of mace, 1 bunch of savoury herbs, 4 quarts and ½ pint of cold water. AVERAGE COST, 2s. 10d.
Cut up the meat or bacon or ham into pieces of about 3 inches square; rub the butter on the bottom of the stewpan; put in 1/2 pint of water, the meat, and all the other ingredients. Cover the stewpan, and place it on a sharp fire, occasionally stirring its contents. When the bottom of the par STOCK, TO CLARIFY. becomes covered with a pale, jelly-like substance, add 4 quarts of cold water, and simmer very gently for 5 hours. As we have said before, do not let it boil quickly.
Remove every particle of scum whilst it is doing, and strain it through a fine hair sieve. This stock is the basis of most of the soups mentioned in this dictionary, and will be found quite strong enough for ordinary purposes. TIME.-5 hours.
A classic brown-tinged general stock: the meat is first sweated in a scant amount of water until it forms a glaze on the pan bottom, then covered with cold water and simmered for hours. The sweating stage is what gives it colour and depth, and it is the step most likely to be rushed.
- The hinge: the glazeThe "pale, jelly-like substance" on the pan bottom is the meat juices reducing and setting. The book puts the pan on a "sharp fire" and says to stir occasionally; let the glaze form fully but keep it pale, since if it scorches the whole stock turns bitter.
- Water quantitiesHalf a pint (a scant cup and a quarter) goes in at the start with the meat; 4 quarts of cold water is added once the glaze has formed. The ingredient list quotes a total, and the water figure in it is printed corruptly; go by the 1/2 pint plus 4 quarts given in the method.
- Cuts of meatShin of beef is beef shank; knuckle of veal is the lower leg and joint, close to what is sold cross-cut as osso buco. Both are heavy in collagen, which is what gives this stock body. Beef shank alone works; veal alone gives a paler, more neutral result.
- SaltTwo ounces of salt in 4 quarts is roughly 1/4 cup, and it is a lot for a stock meant as a base for further cooking. Halve it or leave it out and season the finished dish instead.
- Mace and clovesA blade of mace is a whole piece of the dried aril from nutmeg, not ground; about 1/2 teaspoon of ground mace substitutes, though the flavour is sharper. Two onions with three cloves each is six cloves total, which is enough to be noticeable.
- Never let it boilThe instruction is repeated for good reason. A bare simmer, surface barely trembling, keeps fat and albumen from emulsifying into the liquid; a rolling boil gives cloudy, greasy stock that no straining will fix.
- Straining and storingA fine hair sieve is a fine-mesh strainer; line it with damp muslin for a clearer result. Chill overnight and lift the set fat off the top. Refrigerated stock keeps three or four days, or freeze it in portions.
- YieldExpect roughly 3 quarts after five hours of simmering and straining.
Nineteenth-century English cookery treated stock as the foundation of the whole soup and sauce repertoire, and household books of the period routinely gave a graded series — rich, medium, and economical — so a cook could match the expense to the occasion. This "medium" version sits between a consommé-grade rich stock built on prime meat and the thrift stock made from bones and scraps alone; the sugar and the browning glaze are what push it toward the darker end, giving colour to gravies as well as body to soup. The average cost of 2s. 10d. printed with the ingredients reflects a habit of Victorian domestic manuals, which are generally said to have addressed a mistress of the house budgeting for a kitchen she did not personally work in. Sweating meat in a very little water until the juices set to a glaze before adding the bulk of the liquid is the same principle behind the French glace de viande.