I made another attempt at demiglaze last weekend. However, it failed again.
First things first: my brown stock did not gelatinize after spending a night in the fridge; it was still liquid. Since everyone told me that it was a good thing that my stock turned to gelatin in the fridge the first time I made it, can I assume that I did not properly reduce it this time, since it remained liquid? Last time I allowed the temperature to hover in the 95 degree plus range, at what was probably a fairly strong simmer, if not a weak boil. This time, I was more fastidious about following the instructions (which defined a simmer as technically being between 86 and 96 degree) and keept things around 90. At this level, for about 7 hours, it barely reduced at all. What do you think? Was this wrong? Was I better off the first time?
But that's not the main problem I had. That I can easily adjust once I know the correct answer. The more difficult problem was with the roux. To make the espagnol, the recipe has you put about 8 oz butter in a pot, and then saute the mire poixe with the butter until browned, and then mix in about 8 oz flour to create the roux, brown the roux, and then mix in the stock.
Trouble is, the stock is the bottle neck. It calls for 6 litres of stock, on top of 2 litres for the demiglaze. There is no way I can produce that much stock, even with my 16 quart stock pot. So I cut the recipe to 2/3. So that was a little over 5 oz of butter to a little over 5 oz flour, with the mire poix also reduced accordingly.
Trouble is, after adding the flour, my roux looked nothing like the picture in the book. In the book, they showed something that looked like a choux paste. What I got instead was just mire poix covered with batter. You can't make a paste out of chunks of vegetables mixed with a little butter and flour. Instead of smooth paste, you just get gunky vegetables.
I ended up throwing everything out, because the roux just seemed wrong. Is this because I reduced the roux recipe? What should I have done instead? Or was this supposed to happen? Should I have just browned the gunky vegetables and then incorporated the stock?
By the way, if anyone has a recipe for Brown stock / brown sauce / demiglaze for home use, I'd be very grateful. It would be nice to have a recipe poportioned more for the home cook, and less for a commercial kitchen!
First things first: my brown stock did not gelatinize after spending a night in the fridge; it was still liquid. Since everyone told me that it was a good thing that my stock turned to gelatin in the fridge the first time I made it, can I assume that I did not properly reduce it this time, since it remained liquid? Last time I allowed the temperature to hover in the 95 degree plus range, at what was probably a fairly strong simmer, if not a weak boil. This time, I was more fastidious about following the instructions (which defined a simmer as technically being between 86 and 96 degree) and keept things around 90. At this level, for about 7 hours, it barely reduced at all. What do you think? Was this wrong? Was I better off the first time?
But that's not the main problem I had. That I can easily adjust once I know the correct answer. The more difficult problem was with the roux. To make the espagnol, the recipe has you put about 8 oz butter in a pot, and then saute the mire poixe with the butter until browned, and then mix in about 8 oz flour to create the roux, brown the roux, and then mix in the stock.
Trouble is, the stock is the bottle neck. It calls for 6 litres of stock, on top of 2 litres for the demiglaze. There is no way I can produce that much stock, even with my 16 quart stock pot. So I cut the recipe to 2/3. So that was a little over 5 oz of butter to a little over 5 oz flour, with the mire poix also reduced accordingly.
Trouble is, after adding the flour, my roux looked nothing like the picture in the book. In the book, they showed something that looked like a choux paste. What I got instead was just mire poix covered with batter. You can't make a paste out of chunks of vegetables mixed with a little butter and flour. Instead of smooth paste, you just get gunky vegetables.
I ended up throwing everything out, because the roux just seemed wrong. Is this because I reduced the roux recipe? What should I have done instead? Or was this supposed to happen? Should I have just browned the gunky vegetables and then incorporated the stock?
By the way, if anyone has a recipe for Brown stock / brown sauce / demiglaze for home use, I'd be very grateful. It would be nice to have a recipe poportioned more for the home cook, and less for a commercial kitchen!