Best Homemade Veal Stock

This is a proper professional-style brown veal stock, the kind that classical French sauces are built on. Veal bones contain more collagen than beef, which means the finished stock has body that beef stock can’t match. Reduce it down further and you have demi-glace, the secret weapon of every fine-dining kitchen.

The roasting is non-negotiable. Bones, vegetables, and tomato paste all need to hit that deep mahogany color in the oven before they meet water. This is the Maillard reaction at work, and the color of your roast determines the color and depth of the finished stock.

The long simmer is where collagen breaks down into gelatin. Twelve to sixteen hours is the typical range; cut this short and you’ll get a thin, weak stock that lacks the silky mouthfeel that makes veal stock so prized.

Chef Tips

• Ask the butcher for veal bones with knuckles and joints, where the collagen lives
• Spread the tomato paste on top of the vegetables after they’ve browned, never alongside
• Keep the heat at a bare simmer, hard boiling makes the stock cloudy
• Skim foam and fat religiously during the first hour, this is the difference between clear and murky stock
• Strain through fine-mesh cheesecloth or a chinois for the clearest finished stock

Variations

• Reduce the strained stock by half again to make demi-glace, one of the mother sauces
• Add a sachet of black peppercorns to the simmer for added warmth
• Freeze in ice cube trays for portion-controlled use in pan sauces