Do you roast veal bones for brown stock?

[EnriqueB]

Hi, I've always roasted veal bones for making brown veal stock. But the other day I was reading Thomas Keller's French Laundry and he specified they do not roast veal bones, and I could not find the reason. Then I went to the stocks table in Modernist Cuisine and saw that they don't roast veal bones neither (they tell to only roast the meat for veal stock).

So I wonder, is there a specific reason why veal bones, unlike beef or others, should not be roasted?

Edited September 12, 2011 by EnriqueB (log)

[Ufimizm]

Veal bones are not roasted, because the point of making veal stock is to have a rich "neutral" tasting base. In my opinion, veal stock is best used when creating sauces for delicate tasting items where if you used another stock these flavors would be overpowered.

[Badiane]

There is white veal stock and brown veal stock.

White is generally used as the one of the options for the base of the mother sauce veloute (chicken and fish being the others), and by extension, it's children, eg: sauce allemande.

Brown stocks are used for making demiglaze and its many children, eg: bordelaise.

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, and some sort of tomato product is usually added to enrich the color.

These facts brought to you by the chef instructors of the Dubrulle French Culinary School, who beat them into my head so hard that I still remember them almost exactly as spoken, nearly 20 years later

[Badiane]

and just for the record, I only ever make brown veal stock. To me, the whole point of it is that luscious, gelatinous deep dark flavor with a distinct veal-iness. If I need a more neutral stock, I go with chicken.

There is nothing better than beef braised in veal stock for a stew. I cannot wait for fall to hit so I can cook cool weather food again!

[EnriqueB]

Thanks for the answers. Ufimizm, I think your answer is right. Badiane, I know all these definitions, but the issue is that MC does NOT recommend to roast the bones for veal BROWN stock (on their table for their best bets for stocks, althoug they do on the recipe that appears later), only the meat. Also Thomas Keller says they NEVER roast veal bones, be it for either white or brown stock.

[Country]

For what it's worth, the Professional Chef (CIA, 7th ed. 2002, p.252) recipe for brown veal stock includes roasting the bones at 425-450F, until the bones are a deep brown, 30-45 minutes.

Doesn't it seem a bit counter-intuitive that a brown stock would be made without roasting the bones?

[mkayahara]

What strikes me about this discussion is that Keller takes pains to point out that he doesn't roast the bones for his brown veal stock: "The depth of color comes from the tomatoes and tomato paste and the final reduction process." In other words, he knows full well that his approach is idiosyncratic. He also comments that "roasting adds impurities to [...] stocks." Maybe these are the same impurities that are removed in the blanching process for the veal stock?

As far as the Modernist Cuisine version goes, their recipe for brown veal stock calls for the bones to be roasted. The brown stock instructions in the parametric stock recipe calls for the bones to be roasted. So the fact that roasting the bones for veal stock is not specified in the table is probably just an oversight.

[Mark Donnelly]

Keller's veal stock recipe is unusual. It does not use celery, madeira or (button) mushrooms. It also uses an unusually large volume of tomato paste, presumably to impart colour (but quite likely an overly tomato flavour as well).

The truth is every receipe for any stock will be different. Just try several until you find one you like.

Personally, I roast my veal bones and make scant use of tomato paste.

[catdaddy]

Thankfully, TK and MC are not the be all end all of the culinary worlds. Western traditions aside, in the end trust your own palate and cook what you want.

Of course if you have a howling French guy in your ear you ought to follow what he wants.....

[EnriqueB]

Ok, so it's just preferences and maybe a typo. Just found the coincidence and wondered whether there was some reasoning behing that I had missed.

Thanks for all the answers!