No veal bones in stock, no bones = no stock

So I've gotten the urge to make veal stock: both the Ruhlman.com and the French Laundry at Home blogs have talked about it lately, and the Elements of Cooking keep harping about how important the darn stuff is...

But I can't find veal bones out here in the burbs -- not in any quantity. Any store I go into will have about 1-3lbs max of veal neck bones, at $1.49 to $3.99 per pound, but no more, and don't expect to get more (yes, I ask). So I either go on tour and harvest small quantities from six stores, or... what?

I haven't tried the nearest butcher yet, I'm fearing the costs.

Any suggestions?

Joel,

With Ruhlman and French Laundry as your inspiration, I'd skip the neck bones. They're a great for enhancement since they are somewhat meaty, but you need veal shank, leg, and or breast bones (with meat) for maximum collagen and the richest, silkiest possible stock.

http://www.bonewerksculinarte.com/about_us/?idPage=2

This is an excellent product which Paulina Market and others carry. Although we make our own demi glace at the club from veal shank ends, I use this excellent product at home. I understand the fact that you want to enjoy the whole process of making it, but you can't turn out a better, more consistent product than this at home, not to mention what you'll save on gasoline, mirepoix, wine, time in your kitchen, clean up, etc...

Thanks for that link, Ronnie. I'm not sure that I'll ever make stock again.

I'd try to make your own at least once. I make as much of my stock as I can from scratch, not just for the taste but also for the fun experience.

Evil Ronnie wrote:With Ruhlman and French Laundry as your inspiration, I'd skip the neck bones. They're a great for enhancement since they are somewhat meaty, but you need veal shank, leg, and or breast bones (with meat) for maximum collagen and the richest, silkiest possible stock.

Evil,
The recipe in Elements of Cooking, and others I've seen call for "meaty" bones -- how meaty is meaty? Is veal breast as it shows up in stores right as is, or should I scrape off most of the meat and add it to a meatball mix or something? Shanks and necks I've seen are pretty much the same way -- more like I'd use for a soup than a clear stock.

The stuff you've pointed out does sound excellent... but I do want to try it homemade, at least once, for comparison if nothing else.

Joel

Jeez, people are going off and reading Ruhlmann when they could learn about veal stock here? (Okay, it's not a bad thing.)

Even though I'm sure the product you can buy is terrific, I think this is a great thing to do, once or twice a year will get you nice quantities of concentrated stock which add such richness to your cooking, it's not hard, it makes your house smell so nice, it's yours and you're the master of a key skill of French cuisine-- everyone should try it once, at least. Even if you have to pay through the nose for the bones, you'll get plenty out of it, when else can you add $3 worth of something to a big pot and lift it to a whole 'nother level.

Meaty bones do NOT mean a big expensive hunk of meat like a breast. They mean bits and pieces clinging to the bone, not scraped clean to the bone.

Mike,
Thanks for the tips -- both the 2006 stock-simmering food porn, and what "meaty bones" means. I may end up buying some less expensive cuts of veal to get the bones out of, and making some tasty meat-a-balls, if I can't find a stash of them out here in the burbs. Cathy2 mentions finding shank bones at her local Garden Fresh, no such luck at mine (plenty of grown-up beef bones, though).

Joel

Yeah, but I don't think skinny little rib bones have the marrow and the collagen and so on you need to make this work, flavor and gelatinous-texture-wise. I'd at least pick up the couple of pounds of shanks that you can find.

OK -- last question: Is there anything that will disturb the quality if I freeze bones as I find them in small batches, waiting for the day when they'll all be together in one pot?

JoelF wrote:OK -- last question: Is there anything that will disturb the quality if I freeze bones as I find them in small batches, waiting for the day when they'll all be together in one pot?

That's what I did recently when I made veal stock. I located veal bones at Garden Fresh in Northbrook at very reasonable prices. Unfortunately it was always 1-2 packages, but not all I needed. I took them and froze them until I accumulated enough to work with. I didn't notice any differences by stockpiling bones in my freezer.

Regards,

JoelF wrote:OK -- last question: Is there anything that will disturb the quality if I freeze bones as I find them in small batches, waiting for the day when they'll all be together in one pot?

Nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, that's a pretty common thing to do. I keep frozen chicken carcasses in the freezer and then make a large pot of stock when I have enough bones saved up.

When I get them at Paulina they're frozen.

Hard to imagine what freezing could do to something you plan to boil for three hours, that you'd notice in the end.

If it helps, this is my standard procedure with roast chicken, and I've never noticed any negative effect on my chicken stock...