The classic stock used to build a range of French sauces.

Escoffier brown stock (labelled as Estouffade in his book “le guide culinaire”), is a cooking stock that is made in 2 stages. The beef bones are first cooked to create a bone broth and then the broth is used to cook pieces of meat creating the final flavorsome product. This layering technique creates an intense beefy flavour that brings a tasty depth and a mouthfeel that cannot be achieved with ordinary stock made with bones only. This classic brown stock is often used as a base to build upon and create a range of rich French sauces.

ingredients

• 1 kg of pieces of beef and veal knuckles, chin or any stewing beef pieces

• 1 small ham knuckle

• 150 g (5.3 oz) fresh pork rind, blanched

• 2.5 kilos of beef bones (ask you butcher to chopped them in chucks)

• 150 g (5.3 oz) of carrots (roughly diced)

• 150 g (5.3 oz) of onion (roughly diced)

• 5 fresh parsley stokes

• 2 sprigs of thyme

• 1 whole, fresh bay leaves

• 1 clove garlic

• 4 litres water (16.5 cups) (plus 1 litre / 4 cups extra for top up during the simmering process)

NOTES

• This recipe will yield around 2 litres of brown stock (8 cups).

• When preparing brown stock which includes bones, especially those from beef, it is recommended that the procedure should be in accordance with the recipe below. That is, first prepare a stock from the bones and simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours and using it as the liquid for moistening the meats. It’s not considered the best practice to place all the ingredients in the stockpot and fry them together in fat before adding the water. This risks over-colouring the ingredients and spoiling the flavour of the stock. The principle of diffusion is sufficient in itself to colour the stock and is the most natural method of obtaining the required colour.

procedure

1. Bone the meats and break the bones in small chunks. Place them in a roasting pan and leave to roast in a very hot oven to a dark brown color.

2. Make a bouquet garni with the parsley, thyme and bay leaf by tying the herbs together with a piece of string.

3. When roasted, add the carrot and onions to the roasting pan with the bones and cook for 5 minutes to lightly sear the vegetables.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the roasted bones with the vegetables into a sieve and leave to drip for a few minutes over a bowl to remove the excess fat.

5. Then transfer the bones and vegetables into a large stockpot. Add a bouquet garni and the garlic and top up with cold water (the water must come just a few cm above the bones).

6. Bring to the boil, and spend a few minutes skimming the scum that gathers at the surface. Then reduce the heat and simmer on very low heat for 5 to 6 hours. Ensure the liquid is maintained at the same level during the simmering process by adding water as required and continue to skim any impurities gathering at the surface.

For the second phase:

1. Cut the meat into large dices.

2. Use a separate large stock pot or large saucepan and add a small amount of oil. Sear the pieces of meat to a light brown color.

3. When done, pour over the equivalent of a glass of the bone broth prepared earlier and leave to reduce on medium heat until the liquid has almost evaporated to become syrupy (glaze). Repeat this process two or three times. 

4. After the third deglazing, add the rest of the bone broth to the pot and bring to the boil. Skim the top to remove any impurities gathering at the surface and then leave to simmer to allow the flavours to extract from the meat (this will take approximately 2 hours).

5. After 2 hours, turn the heat off and leave the stock to rest for least 30 minutes before passing it through a fine mesh sieve into a clean glass container. You can go further by doing a second filtering using a cheese cloth.

6. Leave the stock to cool at room temperature and refrigerate overnight.

7. Once the stock has cooled down a hard shell of fat will form at the surface which can be easily scooped out and kept for other use.