Stock

Ingredients

• 6 lb shin of beef or knuckle of veal
• bones and trimmings of poultry or fresh meat
• 0.25 lb lean bacon or ham
• 2 oz butter
• 2 large onions, each stuck with cloves
• 1 turnip
• 3 carrots
• 1 head of celery
• 2 oz salt
• 0.5 tsp whole pepper
• 1 large blade of mace
• 1 bunch of savoury herbs (except sage)
• 4.5 pint cold water

Method

Brown the meat and bones hard in the butter first — don't skip this. The Maillard reaction between the protein and heat creates the colour and depth that separates a proper stock from a pale, insipid broth. Cut the beef shin and veal knuckle into 75mm pieces. Break the bones into shards. Render the bacon or ham separately, then use that fat along with the butter to char the meat in a heavy pot over high heat, working in batches so you're not crowding the pan. You're after a mahogany crust, not grey-brown half measures.

Once the meat has colour, add the bacon, aromatics, and seasonings — the clove-stuck onions, turnip, carrots, celery, herbs, mace, and whole pepper all go in now. A brief sauté of these aromatics with the meat draws out flavour compounds before the water arrives. Pour in your 2 litres of cold water. This temperature differential matters: cold liquid hitting hot meat extracts both the soluble proteins and minerals that give stock its gelatinous body. Bring to a simmer, not a rolling boil — a gentle, continuous bubble. The first hour is critical for skimming. Grey-white scum rises as the proteins denature and coagulate. Skim it obsessively with a slotted spoon or ladle, working from the centre outwards. Don't add salt yet; it concentrates as water evaporates and will oversalinate your stock. After two hours of skimming, you can relax slightly, but don't abandon it. Continue at a gentle simmer for five to six hours total. The slow hydrolysis of collagen into gelatin — the compound that gives stock its silken mouthfeel — demands time, not temperature.

When the meat is falling apart and the liquid has reduced by roughly a third, taste it. Add salt only now, at this stage — perhaps 10 grams to start. Strain through fine muslin or a chinois, pressing gently on the solids to extract every bit of flavoured liquid without clouding the stock with pulp. Cool it fast in a shallow pan. Once set, lift the fat layer clean from the top; this protects the stock below and clarifies it. Store in the fridge in small containers. Properly made, this stock will set to a jelly when cold — the proof of collagen extraction and a guarantee of body in any sauce or braise you build from it.