Valerie’s Homemade Veal Jus Cubes

This is my first attempt at veal jus and it was a great success!

At Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) I was very excited to find some gorgeous veal bones at the Four Whistle Farm Booth. I had asked a few years ago when I was desperate to make veal jus, and they could not be found anywhere. Now, they can! They are not always available, but this is now a possibility for me. I was tickled pink!

I had twice as many bones as in the above photo. Lucky for me, I have two ovens, so had no problem roasting them all at once. Below, you will see how golden they were when finished.

While they were roasting, I prepared the ingredients for the stock. The onions, I chopped coarsely and placed in the bottom of my soup pot with all of their skins. (Onion skins are excellent for all broths as they aid in richly darkening the colour.) Then, I sliced the leeks and used my Thermomix to mince them. I read many recipes, but – unfortunately, had my bones in the oven before pulling out The French Laundry to make Thomas Keller’s veal jus recipe. For some reason, I had it in my head that he roasted his bones. He does not. Woops!

Neither does he roast his mirepoix. I was going to roast that, too… but, after reading his recipe again while the bones roasted, I decided to follow the proportions of the other items in his recipe, sans the tomatoes. Why? Because he said the majority of the flavour in his stock comes from the tomatoes. I opted for the flavour to come from the veal. At least, this time.

So, as I had roasted the bones, everything else he suggested to add to the unroasted (but purified) bones, I added. And, I added them as he suggested, kind of. His recipe calls for all of the vegetables, except the garlic, to be cut brunoise. In this instance… in a stock, I opted to mince in my Thermomix instead of labour over this particular technique.

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I assumed the minuscule dice was to let as much flavour in each aromatic out as possible. The leeks and time went in.

The carrot and garlic went in.

And the bay. The onion was in before the bones were.

And the peppercorn.

Last, the tomato paste.

Eight hours after the stock above began to simmer, this is what it looked like, below.

The next morning, I had fat to remove from the top of the pot. Once I did, however, I could see there was so much more goodness left on the bones, so I took another liberty added to a good dose of common sense after warming up the gelatin enough to strain it off. I then filled the pot up with water again, and simmered it another four hours. Telling Kevin about this, he told me that the French term for this is “remouillage” from the verb mouillir meaning ‘to wet’.  I must have been on to something. My stock pot was way to small and these bones filled with incredible goodness, as I did this three times in total.

Even the last straining produced a beautiful gelatinous stock. Below, you will see the amount of stock I gained in total: both bowls.

The one below and the the left, above, is from the last remouillage. There was fat to remove from both bowls, again.

The bowl below is the larger one filled with the first three stocks sieved into it. It looked like there was a thick layer of  fat on it, but there was just another thin layer, see?

After it was removed, there was clearly a thick layer of something. What was it? The fat is completely removed from the bowl below and you can see the layer remaining over the stock.

I turned it upside down for a look. I was excited to see the gleaming stock. I tasted it the layer above it and it was absolutely delicious. I assume it was the vegetables that “snuck” through the sieve as I didn’t use cheesecloth. So, I removed this layer and used it later in a soup. YUM!

You can see that process, below.

I am comparing the colours of both stocks, below. The darker one is from the first three “remouillages” and the lighter one from the last. It was still exceedingly flavourful, so I was definitely going to add it to the mix.

Below is the opaque layer skimmed off of the top of the dark stock and used later in a soup. There was a considerable amount and I was so happy not to waste it.

Both stocks, the light and the dark, completely skimmed of fat, are below.

After a good three hours of very gently simmering this stock, I arrived at the veal jus. Still no salt had been added. And, another “skim” had formed… though I continued to skim through this process, too. It was a very thin elusive layer of fat that kept escaping through my very fine mesh skimmer.

I recovered two quarts of the jus. You can see that the one on the right, below, still has something murky on the top quarter of it. I skimmed and sieved this jus.

To get a more close up view, it is not the one on the left.

However, I am not going to complain. The jus is so delicious and gorgeous. I am very pleased with my first effort and will continue to make more and more and more. Once can NEVER have enough veal jus!

Above is the cold veal jus, once finished hooray for me!!

Of course, your suggestions and feedback are not only welcome, but sought!

Print Recipe

Valerie's Veal Jus Cubes

This is a two day process and quite labour intensive at specific times; however, the cubes of golden jus frozen will delight your family throughout the year and the effort is well worth it.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time2 days d

Total Time2 days d 30 minutes mins

Course: Sauce

Cuisine: Canadian

Servings: 2 quarts

Author: Valerie Lugonja

Ingredients

• 10 pounds veal bones (I had 11.6)
• About 8 quarts of water (I didn't measure, I just covered the bones four times)
• 1 pound onion (I used 2 a little over a pound), roughly chopped (skins, too)
• 1 pound of leeks , minced (3-4 leeks: I used 4 cups of minced leeks)
• 250 g or 8 ounces of carrots , minced
• 1 head garlic , all skin removed, roughly chopped
• 1/2 ounce or 15g of fresh thyme
• 1 1/2 ounces or 25g fresh flat leaf parsley (less than a bunch)
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorn
• 1 small can of tomato paste

Instructions

• Roast bones on parchment covered cookie sheets at 425°F for an hour, turning and moving in oven every 20 minutes, until golden brown (do not char the bones)
• Place onion in a 14-quart stockpot; add veal bones and scrape in all drippings from parchment paper, avoiding fat (use 2 pots if you don't have a large one)
• Cover bones with water and bring to a simmer over medium high heat: skim, skim, skim
• After simmered about 30 minutes and well skimmed, add remaining ingredients; mix well
• Stir occasionally; skim as needed (much easier to skim before aromatics are added, so try to get that done well, during first 30 minutes)
• Reduce heat to low as soon as coming to a simmer; partially cover pot, adjusting heat as needed to maintain gentle simmer: never boil
• Simmer 8 hours longer
• Cool stock in sink filled with cold water and ice cubes (I set mine in snow)
• When cool, (next day, even) skim fat off surface; strain through a fine-mesh sieve into 2 smaller pots
• Bring each to a simmer over medium-high heat and simmer for about 1 hour, or until reduced to 2 quarts
• Strain again using fine sieve or cheese cloth over coarser sieve; cool to room temperature
• Refrigerate, uncovered, until cold; cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze in ice cube trays
• Remove from trays, pack well into freezer ziplock bags and use as needed