No. 423

Veal Blond Stock

Fond de Blond de Veau

Butter the bottom of a saucepan capable of containing sixteen quarts; set in four sliced onions, and on top of these four pounds of split knuckle of veal and four pounds of shoulder of veal, two fowls, after removing the breasts, and moisten all with one quart of beef stock (No. 194a). Place the saucepan on a brisk fire, keeping the lid on, and reduce the moisture by moderating the heat of the fire, and letting the liquid fall slowly to a glaze; now moisten again with six quarts more of beef stock, season with salt and whole peppers, and add four leeks, two carrots, cut in pieces, a bunch of parsley, some celery, one bay leaf and as much thyme. Cook all slowly for six hours, then skim off the fat and strain through a fine sieve. Chop up the breasts taken from the two fowls with the same quantity of lean beef, and mix this in a little cold water, and with this meat clarify the veal blond the same as consomme; then strain it through a napkin.

Veal blond should be clear, succulent and of a nice color, the grease should be thoroughly removed from it; added to clear soups it greatly improves them; it is also used in reducing sauces.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A restaurant-scale veal stock built on beef stock rather than water, then clarified like a consommé. The whole thing hinges on the first reduction: the meat and onions must fall to a sticky glaze without scorching, since that glaze is where the color and the name come from.

The glaze stepThe first quart of beef stock is reduced until it forms a syrupy film on the pan bottom, which then dissolves into the second addition. Watch it closely at the end; a brown glaze gives the blond its color, a burnt one makes the whole batch bitter and unsalvageable.
Scaling downAs written this fills a sixteen-quart pot: one quart of beef stock for the glaze, then six more, so several quarts of finished stock. Quartering everything — 1 lb knuckle, 1 lb shoulder, half a chicken, 1 cup of beef stock for the glaze and 1½ quarts after it — fits an 8-quart pot and behaves the same.
"Brisk fire" then "slowly"Brisk means high heat, covered, to draw juices out fast. Once the six quarts go in, the pot should never do more than shiver — a rolling boil emulsifies the fat back into the liquid and no amount of skimming will clear it afterward.
Fowls and knuckleTwo fowls means two whole chickens, breasts removed and reserved for the clarification. Knuckle of veal is the joint end of the leg; ask a butcher for split veal shank or veal marrow bones with meat attached. Veal is what supplies the gelatin, so do not substitute all chicken.
Beef stock No. 194 aThe book expects a beef stock already made, from its own numbered recipe. A good unsalted homemade beef or brown chicken stock works; commercial broth is generally too salty here, because the stock is reduced twice and the salt concentrates.
Whole peppersWhole black peppercorns. The recipe adds them with the six quarts at the start of the six-hour cook; if you prefer a milder result you can add them nearer the end instead.
ClarifyingThe chopped raw breast meat and lean beef, mixed with cold water, are stirred into the cold or barely warm strained stock and brought up slowly. The protein coagulates into a raft that traps the haze. Once the raft forms, stop stirring and do not let it boil.
"Strain through a napkin"A linen napkin or several layers of damp cheesecloth in a sieve. Rinse the cloth in cold water first so it does not absorb and hold back the liquid, and let it drain by gravity rather than pressing.
Keeping itChill, lift off the fat cap, and use within three or four days or freeze. Reduced hard it becomes the glaze used to finish sauces, which keeps well frozen in an ice-cube tray.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is pure French professional practice transplanted to Manhattan: fond de blond de veau is the pale veal foundation that sits between a white stock and a brown one, colored only by the glaze left in the pan rather than by roasted bones. The numbered cross-references — No. 194 a for the beef stock, No. 422 for the velouté — show how the book was meant to work, as a system of building blocks in which sauces are assembled from preparations given elsewhere. The scale is the real period marker: sixteen quarts of stock consuming four pounds of veal shank, four of shoulder and two whole chickens made sense only in a brigade kitchen serving a dining room.