Right now I am sitting at one end of my home dining table. At the other end, on the other side is my brand new stock pot. It is the largest stock pot I have ever owned. The gianorma-pot is sitting on an induction burner and in it are the slow beginnings of a demi glace.
Today was a day of learning. I studied my game plan and recipie for prepping the beef stock. I went shopping. I bought ingredients for my mire poix, bought the best looking bones I could find and even a gargantuan stock pot to hold it all.
I got home, prepped everything up and fired the bones in the oven to roast off.
Lesson #1
Roasting at anything higher then 400 is always dicey and at worst, can be ruinous. I roasted my bones really hot. I was following some ideas from a french restaurant renowned for its demi glace. It did not work. I over caramelized any useful drippings. To be honest, I flat out burnt the crap out of the bones, veg and the pan.
Which brings me to lesson #2.
Expensive, brand name, roasting pans, do not like high heat. I melted the finish off my lovely roasting pan. It is dead to me now. I am never going to roast anything that ergonomically designed, easy to use, suspended rack roasting pan ever again. While my oven was hot, it was not that hot. I have to say I am a little surprised and dissappointed. I may call the company (who shall remain nameless but may or may not sound a lot like ‘bitchen maid’) and see what they have to say about their heat sensitive products.
Lesson #3
Carbonized anything does not go well in a stock. Within 30 seconds of trying to fake my way through the stock with my charred remains, it was clear that it was not going to work. There is no going back, no reset, no redo, no mulligans. Burnt offerings taste awful and when it comes to flavor, a little goes along way. I had to throw everything out and start again.
Lesson #4
Smoking beef fat is not a passing aroma. It is the anti Fabreeze. It likes to cling to clothes, furniture, walls, hair and anything else it comes into contact with. It makes your home smell beefy and kinda gross at the same time. When I went out to buy new ingredients to start again, I noticed dogs paying extra close attention to me.
Lesson #5
Its ok to totally mess up. I’ll keep telling myself that ’cause its easier to stomach the loss of 3 hours of work. But really, its not so bad. Just a bummer and something I think everyone has faced while working with food. Frustating as hell, yes, heartbreaking yes, but worth the learning curve.
In the end, a few hours behind, my stock is happily bubbling away while I write this out. Its going to simmer away for the next day or so until all that’s left is some sticky, beefy goodness without a single hint of its charred ancestor. At the end of the day, its about putting the best food out that you can, everything in between is all about the learning.