Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Glace de Viande


fiftydollars

Recommended Posts

After making a large batch of veal stock I decided to follow a recipe from Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques for re-simmering the left over bones to make glace de viande.

I simmered the veal bones for 12 or so hours, then reduced the 24 quarts of resulting stock down to 1 quart and placed it in a small saucepan.

Jacques Pepin asks that you evaporate all water from the glace and this is where I ran into trouble. It seemed almost impossible to get every last bit of moisture out. I eventually gave up on completely dehydrating the glace because I had a difficult time keeping any sort of simmer going at such a low heat and I was afraid of scorching. I tried stirring toward the end, but eventually the glace became too viscous and the stirring was transforming the texture into something that looked liked pulled sugar. When I took this off the heat there were still some small tufts of vapor visible when I stirred the glace.

Any tips on getting the very last little bit of moisture out of the glace? Also… what are some favorite things to do with the glace? I still a yield of about a half cup of powerful veal goodness and I'm looking for some worthy uses.

Edited by fiftydollars (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't take glace that far (and it is beef or chicken rather than veal). What I end up with is a glace that is like a hockey puck when chilled. I put it in those little wide mouth half cup canning jars and put it in the freezer. A tablespoon or so added to roasted or sauteed veggies is sublime. I also add it to pan sauces.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a big fan of making lemonade out of lemons...so if I were to end up with a really thick, flavorful demi from that glace I would save it and use to to flavor and thicken sauces. BUt that's just me...

"Make me some mignardises, &*%$@!" -Mateo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I simmered the veal bones for 12 or so hours, then reduced the 24 quarts of resulting stock down to 1 quart and placed it in a small saucepan.

I think you were probably done right there. It really sounds to me like you reduced it too much. If if coats a spoon and has a nice well rounded not too sticky mouth feel, I call it done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fiftydollars, you are a kindred spirit. I made also made a glace viande about two months ago. I didn't reduce to the point of hockey-puckness, but enough so that it solidified - double thick jello, perhaps.

What to do with this stuff afterwards? I've tried it in a couple of sauces, but it really didn't give that big a difference in taste or texture to the final product. I was pretty disappointed that my apartment was beefy for 24 hours with that little to show for it. Has it been worth it for anyone else?

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After the last reduction I pour mine into a pyrex dish and let it solidify into a nice rectangle of shoe leather. I then cut it into small cubes and put them in a ziploc bag which I keep in the freezer. I generally put a few into any sauce that needs an extra jolt of depth and flavor; and they certainly provide it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depending on how rich your stock was to begin with, you'll probably be okay reducing it to 1/12 or 1/16 (1/12 if good, rich stock; 1/16 if just average). Starting with a remi ("remouillage", or re-boiling, is the second stock made from a given set of bones; it tends to be lighter and thinner), you might even go a bit more than that.

As McDuff says, your mouth should tell you when your glace is done. It should have a nice, rich mouthfeel and lots of flavour; it should coat the back of a spoon nicely. In your mouth, though, it should not be thick and sticky like library paste. Although very rich and viscous, it should dissolve readily in your mouth.

A tablespoon of glace, then, should be the equivalent of roughly 16 tablespoons of good stock; which would be all the flavour of 200ml of stock in concentrated form.

Glace is great for making quick sauces a la minute; deglaze your pan with some wine, cook out the alcohol, stir in a spoonful of glace, finish it with a little butter and some aromatics, and you're there!

Of course, like consomme, the quality of your glace depends entirely on the quality of your stock. If your stock is bland, your glace will be relatively inocuous as well.

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Of course, like consomme, the quality of your glace depends entirely on the quality of your stock. If your stock is bland, your glace will be relatively inocuous as well.

That must have been my problem. I'll try again - as soon as I have a hood installed in my kitchen. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all of the replies. I agree with everyone that says I went too far (although Jaques Pepin would say I didn't go far enough). I realized when the glace was down to about 1 quart that when this thing cooled it would be solid and rubbery and the taste was already very strong. But a slave to the recipe I continued to reduce…

The color deepened dramatically from 1 quart to ½ cup. The color went from caramel to chocolate. Next time I might shoot for about 1½ cups, which seemed to be where the thing became extremely difficult to keep from scorching. I was close to reaching for the double boiler when I thought of stirring it like a custard, which seemed to release vapor rapidly and dissolved the skin that kept forming on the surface. I had skimmed this skin off over and over until I realized it was probably no longer fat and impurities, but rather glace that had cooled and solidified in contact with cold air like a custard left uncovered to cool. Eventually the stirring became ridiculous since the glace became so thick that the spatula could stand on its own. I was slowly creating a growing coating of glace in the saucepan and the spatula that was increasingly difficult to reincorporate. So finally I gave up feeling a sense of failure, but still pretty happy with the result I had achieved.

I think an advantage to completing the reduction is that Jaques’ glace has an indefinite shelf life. He recommends you keep it loosely covered in the refrigerator. I am assuming that this is to thwart botulism. Mine I will keep in the freezer as recommended by balmagowry and I doubt it will last very long.

It was a very worthwhile endeavor. I will definitely try it again when I have 48 hours or so to spare. Despite using bones from which I had already extracted a very flavorful veal stock the glace is rich and powerful.

I melted a small cube slowly in butter and poured it over a steak. The result was worth every minute of effort that I invested into this venture.

Edited by fiftydollars (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

fiftydollars - what were the bones like after you finished making the stock with them? Were they meaty, brown bones? When I made glace, the result was bland. My bones were rather white by that time, perhaps that was the problem. The glace was brown by the time I got it reduced, but hardly chocolate.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I melted a small cube slowly in butter and poured over it over a steak and the result was worth every minute of effort that I invested into this venture.

Precisely. :biggrin:

Thank you for starting this discussion; more will come, let's hope!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fiftydollars - what were the bones like after you finished making the stock with them?  Were they meaty, brown bones?  When I made glace, the result was bland.  My bones were rather white by that time, perhaps that was the problem.  The glace was brown by the time I got it reduced, but hardly chocolate.

Ian

I started with 10lbs of good meaty veal, mostly neck, bones. I also added 1lb or so of meat in the form of assorted veal trimmings. Some of the bones and meat were fresh and some were frozen. They were all roasted before beginning the stock.

When the veal stock was done with them they didn’t look pretty, but they still had some color from the roasting and their was a lot of gelatinous matter and marrow left on the bones. The second stock didn’t look very good when it was at 24 quarts after the bones had simmered for 12-14 hours. It was markedly lighter in color than the first stock had been at that point but I expected this. However, as it reduced, the stock, which at first had looked roughly like chicken stock, began to deepen in color and flavor. It took until it got to less than a cup from the original 24 quarts for it to start looking like melted chocolate.

Edited by fiftydollars (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It sounds as though you are being too hard on yourself. What you want is something that resembles melted chocolate, but dark, almost black. Don't stop skimming, there will always be impurities in the glace and the double boiler idea will work if you have enough time to invest. I wouldn't use the glace in the same way as you would use a demi because the flavor is a little more unrefined. I brush it on grilled steaks to add a nice sheen and depth of meaty flavor.

"He could blanch anything in the fryolator and finish it in the microwave or under the salamander. Talented guy."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would think spreading it over parchment paper and letting it dry out in a very low oven would work better than the stove-top if you've already got it to that stage. A food dehydrator would work better but it's not worth it if your only using it for stocks.

PS: I am a guy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...