Calf’s-foot Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Split the calf's feet and place them in a stewpan with water.
Simmer gently for 5 hours, skimming frequently.
Strain through a fine sieve dipped in cold water into an uncovered earthen pan.
Chill and clarify
Refrigerate overnight and remove all fat the next morning.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Calf's feet
- Break down into collagen-rich gelatin that gives the stock body and a jelly-like set when cooled.
- Water
- Acts as the cooking medium that slowly extracts gelatin and flavour from the feet.
The step that matters
Simmer gently for 5 hours, skimming frequently. A gentle simmer draws gelatin out of the bones and connective tissue without making the liquid cloudy. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and impurities into the stock, and skimming removes the foam that would otherwise muddy it.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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