Beef stock, sauces and gelatin

[kutsu]

Question to you fine folks.

When I reduce a home made beefstock down, it never gets to that stage of really thickening through gelatin.

Having googled a way to add some gelatin to the stock, it seems a pig foot or veal foot is the way to do it. However, thanks to the wonderful butchers around here (..ahem) neither are available to me to use.

Could I use something like a fresh ham hock in place of pig trotter to add body to the stock?

[Qwerty]

What is your recipe for beef stock?

[Pam R]

I made a soup last week with shortribs and marrow bones. Super beefy jello once it was chilled.

[Henry dV]

You may need to have the bones cut in two and if possible a lot of connective tissue to give that sticky gelatinous that we all crave

[Magictofu]

Did you simmer your broth long enough?

[agalarneau]

How long is long enough? 12 hours?

[Shalmanese]

I would bother with veals feet, just add some commercial powdered gelatine if you really need the texture. You should be concerned about why your stock doesn't gel though, perhaps your technique is missing something.

[Always_a_3rd]

First off, I would make sure to have the right quantity and correct type of bones. Veal shank bones contain more gelatine than similar shanks from full grown cows. By weight, I would suggest 10kg nicely roasted veal bones to 20kg COLD water and 5kg assorted mire poix, a nice herb sachet and some tomato paste (I caramelize my tomato paste in equal parts duck fat until well browned) and bring to a lazy, key word LAZY simmer, very minimal amount of bubbles coming to the surface. Make sure to skim every hour or so and overnight you will have a nice veal stock with a nice color, body (which you want when you try to reduce) and if it has simmered slowly, nice clarity.

However, if you find that you stock is missing body, oxtail will provide body to spare. A little will go a long way.

Sorry for the long post, great sauces start from great stocks!

[Magictofu]

How long is long enough? 12 hours?

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I personnaly think that there is a fine balance between taste and body when making stock . I find that I get better flavour with 4-5 hours and a better gelatinous body with 10-12 hours with veal/beef bones. For chicken, my standard is now 2 hours for taste and 6 hours for body.

An option I only tried once is to make a double stock: using bones for a long simmer and then using bones and meat for a second shorter simmer using the same stock. This way you get the best of both world and do not have to reduce much for sauce making... but it is a long and expensive process...

[DerekW]

Lots of valid points made, and questions raised.

To answer your question directly, a fresh hock [rind on] will yield a lot of what a pig foot would add, just not as much weight for weight [since much of the weight in the hock is flesh, where the foot is all otherwise.