I know, with all my talk on stretching ingredients, I should've known better. As it turns out, those bones are on their way to a landfill somewhere, destined to eventually re-enter the ecological cycles that saw their creation. But, it leaves me to wonder what a second stock might have looked and tasted like in comparison to the prototype.
Remouillage is the term for "re-wetting" bones for this second stock. Its primary purpose serves efficiency—extending the use of those bones for flavor and body. Veal bones tend to be the routine, which sources suggest is due to veal's higher market price. And the reason money actually matters here is that the product of a remouillage (called the same) is traditionally nothing special. You wouldn't ordinarily use a second stock the same way as a fresh one. In fact, it's often simply added to the first and reduced (i.e., boiled down).
Other practical uses for a remouillage include replacing water in a recipe, such as for a soup that would use your first stock or for a risotto; reducing it to form a glaze for meats; etc.
A Good Source
Going back to stock, the best of the best will utilize joints more than straight sections of bone. Knuckles, neck, and similar areas which happen to have less meat would be full of tendons, ligaments, and cartilage; chicken feet fall especially within this category. Considered inedible and unpleasant to the average palate, these parts are perfect for making stock; and after seeing what's really left from boiling bones, you'll know why.
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| January 23, 2016 - Beef Stock Scraps |
To see the bone beforehand, it's hard to imagine just how little of it was actually bone. I can't discern weight very well, but for the size of that raw bone, 1½ pounds felt very heavy. In reality, it was merely dense. That inner collagen-matrix (or scaffold, as some call it)—what we simply refer to as the marrow—ultimately melted down and became the broth. And that's exactly what you're looking for when you slowcook a bone for hours.
The leftover bone itself (pictured) obviously could have withstood a lot more pressure. But the question is, would it have been worth it? to simmer that bone until there'd be nothing solid left to discard? Before you answer that, you have to be certain of one thing: where did your bones come from?
The Element of Surprise
Apparently, there's a lot of controversy over the risks of consuming a bone broth; and we're not talking about swallowing bone fragments. A healthy bone consists of calcium and phosphorous, dense collagen, and numerous micronutrients. However, bones are also a repository for toxic elements such as lead (Pb). The health-scare comes from the belief that this lead will seep into the broth alongside the beneficial elements. So then, sourcing your bones to healthier animals, those which are less likely to have consumed lead in the first place, is your best option for combatting this claim.
I say "claim" because a January-2013 study took a lot of heat for its well-meaning public alert regarding lead exposure in bone broth. A scathing, comprehensive review of it can be seen here. While lead, when it is present, does effectively contaminate the stock, there was much left unsaid about the source of the researchers' samples (chicken parts as well as the water used). But to return to the thought at hand, how and where an animal is raised has much to do with the nutrition consuming it will pass on.
Lead is one of those elements that plagues our environment and never goes away; it is labeled "non-essential and toxic." A by-product of mining, some countries are more affected by it than others. It can be present in soils to varying degrees (including absence), but it is also present in the atmosphere. Soil-lead tends to remain sequestered within a plant's roots (read here), while atmospheric dust accounts for the majority of lead present in a plant's shoots (reference here) or in the plant as a whole (read here). The point of all this is to say, if lead is in the plants, it is in the food chain; and whether we're consuming the animals that feed on leaded plants, or other plants fertilized with those animals' manure, lead is likely in our diet as well.
As with any toxin, however, there is a limit. (Indeed, some naturally occurring poisonous compounds, if consumed, will only result in sickness, not death.) By natural order, most of the lead which enters the body moves into the animal's bones, humans included. This keeps it far from the systems which would ultimately end up most affected by it. If lead concentrations grow too great, the effects start to poison various metabolic processes throughout the body. So the operative question is, how does the body remove lead from its stores?
This author relates it to the advantage of the mineral selenium on the detriment of mercury (both from the consumption of fish). Where mercury aims to replace selenium and destroy those puzzle-piece enzymes in the process, a greater quantity of selenium will inhibit this effect. Lead has a similar relationship with calcium and iron, but by extension, calcium and iron guard against the bodily absorption of lead. Additionally, vitamins such as D, C and B1 help to pass lead into the urine to be removed entirely from the body.
Expounding upon a previous point and bringing us back to the bone, homemade stock is not a huge source of calcium (read here). This is because, while the majority of a bone is in fact comprised of calcium and phosphorous, those elements are each part of an insoluble compound (reference here). Suffice it to say, boiling water will not leach calcium from a bone. This is where strong acids such as undiluted vinegar or hydrochloric acid come into play. Not only does this mean eating a bone can be beneficial (consider fish bones), but it makes me really want to utilize a vinegar bath for the start of a remouillage.
Take a Collagen Course
Collagen is the real reason for the bone-broth hype. There is at least a score of types of collagen, differentiated by their structure, as dictated by the levels of the amino acids within them. These types are enumerated after Roman fashion, and the five most common are explained in this video. Of those, types I and III are the most abundant. Type I is found within the skin, bones, tendons, etc.; type III is common to blood vessels and muscles, as well as alongside type I. Type II is present in cartilage, and it also makes up the entirety of the eye's vitreous. Type IV is found in the eye's lens, and is a part of the body's filtration system. Type V is a major component of the placenta, and it also found in the space between cells.
The By-Products' Juices Produce These Uses
If you've skipped straight to this section, I don't blame you. What follows is really the focus to this post: you've made the broth, you've done the easy part; now what? Well, every bit of your previous recipe has its place. Assuming your stock has been freshly strained at this moment, I'd first like to address the leftovers.
A couple of uses include homemade dog food or reconstituting them into a stew. Now, I'm no vet, and I've actually never owned a dog, but I've always been intrigued by the families who've prepped meals for their dogs. And let's face it: this looks the part. Right alongside that idea, putting them in a stew just sounds redundant. I mean, you just removed them from the liquid. If you're going to put them back in and add salt and potatoes, what have you really accomplished? But, hey, the options get better from here.
I thought about it a moment and decided to make shepherd's pie (recipe to follow). Those casseroles of my childhood utilized ground beef, peas and carrots. These leftovers looked even more appetizing, so why not try it? To balance out their lack of flavor, you could either use a marinade on them or really dress up their blanket of mashed potatoes.
Similarly, online sources suggest baking the leftovers into a gravy-laden pot pie.
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| mmm, pudding |
No, that's not a pot pie. Neither is it pudding, but it really looked like it, especially considering Jes had recently made matcha-white-chocolate pudding.
That, my friends, is pure beef fat. Lard. If you'll recall, I said I won't cook with the store-bought, manufactured variety. (It's too much to worry about sources, techniques, age, nutrition; not to mention, that's one thing I wouldn't want to buy in bulk.) Most people advocate throwing this out. I mean, it has separated itself, and refrigeration's made it solid and therefore easy-to-remove.
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| pie crust |
I endorse removing, but also reserving. After attacking the ice-sheet with a blunt knife and a spatula, it portions itself nicely. Just put them in the freezer and take out a piece as needed. You can use it in place of butter in most recipes (homemade biscuits, but not homemade biscotti; this is beef-flavored, after all). Commenters here suggest warming it and basting pre-cooked meat to effectively turn a conventional oven into a microwave oven, or melting it over dog food as a treat that results in a healthier coat. Jes and I might try rubbing it on a roast or a London broil. Additionally, because rendered fat has a decent smoke point and a ton of flavor, it can also be used for the base of a roux.
Other ideas, including for oil sourced from other animals, can be read here.
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| apple sauce |
Finally comes the gelatinous gem itself: stock. How should you use it, beside exploiting its unsettling texture in a video? Well, following the thought of roux, why not make it the base of your gumbo? You know I'm tempted to try that—and, of course, document it. Similarly, as with any stock, once you salt it, you've got a broth and you're well on your way to making soup. These are the kind of meals what make winter bearable, am I right?
If you really reduce this down, you'll end up with a gravy that makes you rethink the canned stuff. I'm not a fan of that gravy, but I love meat au jus; for me, it's a matter of redefining what gravy should be, and this is definitely the way to do that.
As if there weren't enough recipe variants for soups, stews, and gumbos to keep you busy, maybe you'll feel up to the task of creating an aspic. Too often is this traditional garnish turned into a culinary tragedy, as savory jello molds come to mind. But an aspic should work as a cold spread, even a condiment, for the meat it's derived from. Fish tends to be a popular one. Of course, if you're really interested in the nightmarish version, you might at least be better off using powdered gelatin to accomplish your deeds.
