Name: Beef Essence or Extract
Yield: Makes 2 cups (reconstituted, about 8 quarts of stock, or 1 cup of broth per tablespoon of essence)
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled; 1 medium bay leaf; 1 whole clove; 2 or 3 sprigs parsley; 2 ribs celery, with leaves, cut up; 2 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chunked; Water as needed; 2 large carrots, scrubbed and cut up coarsely; 1 unpeeled clove garlic, left whole; 6 pounds (or more, if available) beef and veal bones, sawed into pieces by the butcher (try to have the pieces cut no more than 2 to 3 inches long or wide, if possible); 3½ to 4 pounds boneless shin of beef, cut into 1-inch cubes; 2 large, unpeeled onions, one sliced, the other left whole

Preparation info

Makes
2 cups

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Better Than Store-Bought

By Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider

Published 1979

About

To cook a heap of bones, beef, and vegetables in a big pot for many hours and have to show for it a small jar or two of meat essence is truly making a molehill out of a mountain—but such a molehill! Possessing a batch of this essence—glace de viande, in the language of the unknown chef who devised it—is like having 8 quarts of strong beef stock miraculously confined in a small container in your refrigerator. Use it any time you like and keep it as long as you care to—it is virtually