Darn. I was gearing up to try the recipe in Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles cookbook. Really not worth it? Where can I buy demi-glace that is good and already made?
Are you including making your own stock? If so, you have to make the stock, then the sauce Espagnole, THEN the demi-galce. Assuming the stock-making isn’t part of the process, it’s not so bad. Traditionally this should only be done with veal stock - that was right out for me. I was pairing it with duck foie gras, so I figured chicken stock would be fine (and it was). The sauce Espagnole requires a brown roux, so that’s a PITA all on its own. After that you just mix the two and allow to reduce, which isn’t that bad. The result IS great, but you can buy the stuff from D’artgnan for $7. In a lot of applications I bet you could sub a nice veloute with some extra butter tossed in at the end and get close to the same thing.
That said, the only time I make demi is when a snow storm is coming and I have nothing to do over a weekend. It really doesn’t take that much physical contact time, but you need to be around to tend to it now and again over a couple of days.
The reward is in the product and it freezes really well
I don’t find making veal stock or demi hard. I buy a 25# box of veal bones through a friends restaurant and go from there. The final product far exceeds anything I have tasted from retail.
I think if you can get the bones and make a quality stock you’re in business. If not and you need to start with commercial store stocks I can see the resulting product being about the same as a commercial demi in which case… why take the time?
Are you saying you took store-bought stock and turned it into demi-glace, and found the results marginal? Well no crap!
And fuggedabout making your own stock, really? The hardest part about making stock is not spilling it when you pour it through the cheesecloth.
well, most of us don’t have a lot of veal bones lying around. Chicken is dead easy since, well, roast chicken. Veal… not so much so it’s more of an effort…
I can appreciate that, but I make veal stock at home relatively often. I live in a town of 40,000 in the middle of nowheresville, Illinois, and 4 different grocery stores here are more than happy to order veal bones for me. If I can get them easily here, I find it hard to believe that they aren’t easy to get almost anywhere. And at that point, it’s no more difficult than making chicken stock.
Now if someone has a source for commercial veal stock that they’re absolutely happy with, I can see why they’d have no inclination to go to the trouble of special ordering it. But I haven’t found that source.
Oh yeah, you can order the bones… it’s just a barrier unlike chicken, etc where you naturally get the bones as part of a meal. And depending on cost, I imagine it would be pricey. If you need VEAL stock and nothing else will do, ok, but for many things chicken and beef stocks are fine, so…
Bones are bones. Not hard to acquire - not expensive unless you go through white shoe suppliers (s/b $2-3/lb). Most cattle don’t know if they are veal or beef, so I will use beef bones if veal around available and toss in a couple of veal breasts for the gods. I certainly would not make demi with anything other than homemade stock
The results weren’t marginal - they were good, but not great. That’s my issue. I’m not one to shy away from extra work to produce something great - I’ve done coq an vin and cassoulet at home multiple times with great results. I said don’t bother making your own stock only in the context of doing it to make demi-glace. If you are notn the type to have multiple uses for veal stock (I’m not) then it’s not worth it. It’s just me and the wife, so the prospect of making and freezing even a half gallon of demi-glace seems a little silly.
Veal bones are much higher in collagen than beef bones, thus yield a richer, more unctuous stock. If you use beef bones you need something (like your veal breasts, a calf’s foot, a pig’s foot, etc.) to give the stock more gelatin.