How to Make Brown Stock

Stock starts with bones, and since we're making a brown stock, we'll want to use beef or veal bones. Veal bones are particularly desirable because they have more cartilage, which adds body to the stock in the form of gelatin. You may want to review this article on what goes into a stock.

Most supermarkets sell soup bones, but just ask the butcher if you don't see them displayed. The best bones to use are the so-called "knuckle" bones from the various leg joints, because of their high cartilage content. Calves feet are also frequently available, and are another good source of the proteins that form gelatin.

The bones should be cut up — pieces 3 to 4 inches long should be about right. The same goes for calves feet, if you're using them. If the bones aren't cut up yet, ask your butcher to do it for you.

Arrange the bones in a heavy roasting pan. You can drizzle them with a bit of vegetable oil if you like.

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10 Ways to Use Chicken Stock

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Making Stock: The Basics

It's easy to think of the procedure for making stock as just another recipe. "Add this, this and this to the pot, simmer for this long and you're done." And it's certainly possible to prepare a decent stock using this approach.

But given the importance of stock and its relationship to so many other areas of the culinary arts, it's worth taking the time to understand the purpose of each ingredient, and the properties each one brings to the stock.

White stocks are used as the base for veloute sauce and various derivative sauces like the allemande and supreme sauces.

Brown stocks are used for making demiglaze and its derivatives, such as bordelaise and Robert.

Note that beef or veal bones can be used for either white or brown stocks. The difference is that when making white stock, the bones are blanched first, or quickly boiled, then drained and rinsed, before simmering.

For brown stock, the bones are roasted before simmering, and some sort of tomato product is usually added. The roasting and tomato product give the brown stock its darker color.

Stock Pot

Tall and deep, stock pots typically range in size from 8 to 16 quarts, large enough to boil water for potatoes, lobsters or pasta, simmer big batches of soup and stew, make large quantities of tomato sauce and, as its name would suggest, make stock. The stock pot has straight sides and is typically taller than it is wide, so that it can fit on one burner and minimize the surface of the liquid, to reduce evaporation. Look for two sturdy, easy-to-grip loop handles and a tight-fitting lid. Most home cooks will find an 8- to 10-quart size is ideal for their needs. An ideal stock pot is made of medium-grade anodized aluminum and stainless steel. Boiling potatoes and other vegetables such as corn or beets, making stock, cooking soup and stews, simmering large batches of tomato sauce Smashed Potatoes

Calphalon Contemporary Stainless Steel 8-Quart Stock Pot

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