Escoffier’s Brown Stock (Estouffade) Recipe

For those wanting to prepare their own brown stock at home I offer the following recipe.  This is from Escoffier, the master himself and hence why you’ll see words like flavour in the preparations as well as the use of grams in the ingredients list.

Ingredients

6000 g Beef shin on the bone

6000 g Veal knuckle (or lean veal trimmings)

1 knuckle of Raw ham, blanched

650 g Fresh pork rind, blanched

650 g Carrots, roughly chopped

650 g Onion, roughly chopped

100 g Fresh parsley

10 g Fresh thyme sprigs

5 g Whole fresh bay leaves

1 clove Garlic

14 liters of Water

Preparation

Bone out the meats.  Break the bones small and lightly brown them in the oven.  Fry the carrot and onion brown in a little fat.  Prepare the stock by placing these bones, vegetables, ham, pork rind and Bouquet garni into a stockpot, add the cold water, bring to the boil, skim and simmer very gently for at least 12 hours keeping the liquid at the same level throughout this time by adding boiling water as required.  Cut the meat into very large dice, fry brown in hot fat and place in a pan.  Cover with some of the prepared stock and boil until it is reduced to a glaze; repeat this process two or three times.  Add the remainder of the stock, bring to the boil, skim to remove all fat and allow to simmer gently until all the flavour has been extracted from the meat.  Pass through a strainer and reserve for use.

Note:  When preparing brown stock which includes bones, especially those from beef, it is recommended that the procedure should be in accordance with the above recipe by first preparing a stock from the bones, simmering it gently for 12-15 hours and using it as the liquid for moistening the meat. 

It is incorrect to place all the ingredients in the stockpot and fry them together in fat before adding the water as there will be a danger of over-colouring the ingredients thus spoiling the flavour of the stock.  In practice the principle of diffusion is sufficient in itself to colour the stock; this is the most natural and suitable method of obtaining the required colour.

Yield:  2 – 4 quarts of stock, depending on how long you simmer it.

A. Escoffier.  Le guide culinaire: the complete guide to modern cookery, H.L. Cracknell & R.J. Kaufmann, transl.

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