Posted: Oct 16, 07
10:30pm
I wish I could say that I regularly spend days preparing the ultimate base - Glace de Viande. The truth is, I buy my stock in a box, or make a quick one with shrimp shells, chicken bones, or whatever I have on hand to put to good use for the dish I'm trying to prepare. Once a year, usually in the fall, I pull out my biggest gumbo pot, and cook down to syrup a pile of beef bones and a few veggies.
Nothing compares with a true Glace. It almost like a candy -- heaven on earth. A few simple procedures are required to make yours a success.
Ingredients:
Big pile of beef bones from the local butcher.
2 large onions, whole and unpeeled.
1 Bunch of celery, unwashed,
Several cloves of roasted garlic (see below)
Equipment:
large stock pot, the biggest you have.
Skimmer
Shallow ladle
Baking pan or sheet.
Procedure.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Stack bones on your baking sheet.
Brush garlic bulb with olive oil and place on corner of baking sheet.
Place the sheet into the oven and bake until the bones have a carmelized brown color. This should take longer than the roasted garlic, so remove the garlic first (when it's golden brown, the cloves shoudl squish right out of their husks)
Meanwhile, fill your large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Make sure you leave enough volume available to accomodate the bones, celery, and onions.
Add your browned beef bones, onion, celery, and two or three garlic cloves. Drop the heat down until its just hot enough that every so often, a bubble pops up to the surface of the pot. ILeave the pot uncovered, you are going to reduce this volume to a thick syrup, it should take 36-48 hours depending on the size of your pot.
Once the volume reduces to the point your bones aren't completely covered, start removing the bones, celery, onions, and whatever is left of your garlic cloves. As nore bones are revealed, remove them.
Continue the painfully slow boil. Resist the temptation to speed this process up.
*essential point* - As foam or scum appears on the waters surface, remove it with your skimmer or shallow ladle. This scum will ruin your base, and must be removed periodically.
Before your go to bed, amke one last skim and leave it overnight. Continue the process the following day.
Your finished product should resemble clear brown syrup. You may store this in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid. I don't bother to freeze it because I'm to busy thinking of recipes in which to use this wonderful flavoring. A teaspoon or two is all you need to turn an ordinary gravy or sauce into something incredible.
