This is the basis for the creation of delicious Roman soups such as: stracciatella or quadrucci. For the broth, you use pieces of veal, beef, or chicken meat that are not valuable but tasty; to these must be added vegetables such as onion, leek, celery, and carrot. Traditionally, you should also use the bones of a calf’s knee and a bouquet garni composed of cloves, bay leaf, thyme and peppercorns, but in my family, we definitely prefer to keep things simpler.

Beef stock

  • Preparation time: 240 minutes
  • Ingredients for 1 1/2 US quart of stock
  • Difficulty: Easy recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 450 gr or 1 lb of beef and veal (shoulder, neck, snout, shin, and all bony and tendinous parts)
  • 1 chicken without skin
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 celery stalk
  • ½ carrot
  • 2.5 liters or 3 US quarts of iced water
  1. Instructions
  2. Wash the vegetables well and cut them into pieces. Place them in a gauze bag. Tie it with a string.
  3. Wash the meat well. Put all the meat in a pot with cold water. Bring to a boil at moderate heat, skimming well to remove the coagulated albumin layer.
  4. Continue cooking for about an hour over a gentle fire.
  5. Add the vegetables and continue cooking for another two hours always on low heat.
  6. Filter the broth with a chinois and then filter it a second time by passing it through a sterile gauze. Salt when needed.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • The water must be very cold and reach a rolling boil slowly. Only in this way will the collagen melt well and the broth be tasty.
  • Put the vegetables inside the gauze and tie the meat with string to prevent the broth from being cloudy.
  • If you want to use the chicken with its skin, it would be advisable to brown it in the oven first at 355° F for about twenty minutes toeliminate all the external fat that would make the broth too “heavy.” If you want to proceed more quickly the solution I choose is to use chicken without skin.