John you should get some good responses here as quite a few members have made stock and demi. I make my own chicken stock or chicken, veg and beef bones mixed. But it's not a regular thing at the moment and I'm looking for a big stock pot to make it easier to do larger quantities. Here's what I have written about my method for stock and chicken soup.

Here

Soup Ingredients:

Homemade chicken stock - about 2 quarts
2 carrots - diced
2 stalks celery - diced
1 leek - diced
1 cup diced rutabaga or orange squash
1/2 cup fine soup noodles
salt & pepper
oil or chicken fat

Ratio of solids to stock should be about 2 cups stock to 1 lb chopped vegetables. Add any more chopped veg if you don't have enough.

Stock ingredients:

1 meaty chicken carcass or piece of whole chicken
2 heads of garlic
1 onion - cut in half
celery stick - sliced
1 carrot sliced
fresh thyme - large sprig
1 bayleaf
black pepper & salt

MAKING STOCK:

1. Early in day or day before:
Preheat oven to 350F. Cut top off heads of garlic. Place on roasting pan together with chicken carcass and sliced onion and drizzle a bit of oil over top of all.
(I had two carcasss to roast as they are sold this way in pairs at our supermarket. I also added a couple of beef bones.)
Roast in oven about 40 minutes or until all is toasted.

2. Put bones into a very large pot. Squeeze one head of the buttery garlic cloves into the stock pot, saving the other head of garlic for adding to the soup. Add the rest of the stock ingredients and fill pot with water to cover. Grind in fresh pepper. Bring to boil, turn down heat, put on lid and simmer for a couple of hours.
Skim off any grey residue that rises to the top.

3. Afterwards, strain the solid debris from the stock ---(REMEMBER you're saving the stock so don't pour it down the sink - as has been done LOL !).
I look through the solids and pick out the meaty chicken pieces to save for the soup. Throw away all the rest of the solid material.
Here I let it cool and refrigerate until next day when it's easy to remove solid fat from top. Otherwise continue to make soup.

MAKING THE SOUP:

1. Sauté the chopped ingredients in a frypan in a TBS of chicken fat or oil until lightly golden. Squeeze out the buttery cloves from the 2nd head of garlic and add to pan.

2. Put soup ingredients including small bits of chicken into large saucepan and add an appropriate amount of stock - about double the amount of liquid to vegetables.
Put on lid and simmerwith lid on for about an hour. Add soup noodles during last 5 minutes.

3. Check seasoning, add salt.

SharonCb

I always make my own stocks and broths (I really don't think there is a serious difference between the two) as well as my own Sauce Espangole and my own demi. It takes me days (elapsed time not effort) but I enjoy the process as much as the result.

I know that traditional demi is made with all veal bones but I really don't find a difference in taste using beef or a combination of beef and veal.

I've also made my own Consomme, that's fun !

Demi Glace and Sauce Espagnole (Brown Sauce) made from stock

For Stock

5 Or 6 Pounds Of Beef Bones, Veal Bones ,Maybe More
2 Celery Stalks Chopped
1 Onion Chopped
2 Carrots Chopped

For Brown Sauce

3 carrots chopped
4 celery ribs chopped
1 Large Onion Or 2 Small chopped
1 cups Butter
1 Cup Flour
3 TBSP tomato paste
12 Cups hot beef stock
Thyme, Bay Leaf, Parsley

For Demi Glace
2 Tbl Maderia
additional beef stock equal to The Brown Sauce

For the Beef Broth
Drizzel the bones and veggie with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and
pepper. Roast the veggies and beef bones in the oven at 400 degres for
30 minutes, turn and cook 30 minutes more or until lovely and carmelized.
Place in a large stock pot and cover with 18 cups of cold water. Simmer
for 4-6 hours. Strain, place in fridge. In the morning skim off fat.

For the Brown Sauce ( Sauce Espagnole)

Saute mirepoix ( chopped onons, carots and celery) in butter until the
onions are light golden brown. Add tomato paste and continue cooking
gently. Make a brown roux over low heat in a heavy pan with 1 cup of
butter and 1 cup of flour. When the roux is a hazelnut color, add two
thirds of HOT beef broth. (Reserve one third for demi glace), and whisk
together. Add the vegetables, as well as a bay leaf, a little thyme and
some parsley stems. Simmer the mixture for 2 to 3 hours, skimming off
the scum that rises to the

surface. Strain it through a fine strainer, and press the mirepoix
gently to extract their juices. CHill over night. Skim off fat.~
Then, for the demi-glace, add an equal amount of beef or veal stock,
bring it to a boil, and simmer until the sauce is reduced by half, again
skimming the surface as necessary. Off the heat, add 2 tablespoons
Madeira. Freeze in ice cube trays.

Note: Totals are:
18 cups water for broth
12 cups broth for Brown Sauce
6 cups broth for Demi Glace plus 6 cups of brown sauce

Because I raise my own beef and in the fall, I have a LOT of soup bones and such, I make and can my own beef broth. I roast a big 18 quart Nesco roaster full of bones, add broth, let it simmer for as long as it takes. I refrigerate overnight and skim the fat, then pressure can it.

When my old hens get too old to be productive layers, they become stock too, and I'm thinking of making some duck stock with parts of the ducks I raised last year. I just keep all the backs, wing tips, carcasses, etc., in a gallon ziplock. When I get a couple, I make stock and I can that too. By the time I put a pig and half a beef in the freezer in the fall, my freezer room is at a premium and so the pints and quarts get put on a shelf in the basement where they are unaffected by power outages, etc.

I don't eat veal, I don't butcher veal, and so I don't make any stock that requires veal. (shrug) I've made stock from venison, though, and it was not bad. I've also made turkey stock and fish stock, but not as often as I make the beef and chicken.

I like onion, carrot, bay leaf, salt and pepper in my stock. I've been known to add parsnip, but it makes it a bit sweet for my taste.

Annie

Interesting.

Sharon, my chicken stock process is very similar to yours. I am lazy and simply brown the carcasses in the stock pot with some oil, then add veggies, brown those, then add the water and start simmering. Usually during the process I'll retrieve the bones and scraps from whatever the chicken was used for, crack the bones, and add that to the stock.

Chase, from looking at your recipe as it carries all the way through from beef stock to sauce espagnole to demi-glace, it looks like I'm doing something vaguely similar. Maybe I am reducing more and using more wine (you use 2 TBSP, I'm using an entire bottle! and reducing it by 1/2 before adding the stock). Maybe I am being inefficient or over-doing it on the wine.

Or maybe I am not adjusting for the quantities. Are you starting w/ 18 cups of water, and ending up with appx 6 cups of demi-glace?

Do you try to get gelatin in the stock/demi? I try to include knuckles, sometimes a couple pigs' feet. But maybe the resulting gelatin ends up being skimmed off with the fat, making it a wasted effort?

As you can tell, my process is sort of haphazard, so I'm trying to learn how to improve it.

John, I'm not Chase, but my stock is always much like jello, all the way to the bottom of the container, I don't skim it off with the fat, the fat rises to the top of it and I skim it off.

If you can get some chicken feet they make awesome stock/broth, dark yellow and very gelatinous. The oriental markets often have them.

Annie

John,

Yes, I start with 18 cups of stock and end up with 6 cups of demi PLUS 6 cups of Brown Sauce as only 6 cups of the sauce are required for the demi (note totals at the end of the recipe).

The 2 TBSP of Maderia is added to the demi after it reduces so there is no cook down of the wine. I find it adds exactly the right taste for me.

The process I posted is what I do when I am bringing stock/broth down to demi. I don't care for a gelatinous texture to my demi so I am religious about skimming the fat. However, when I'm making stock only I use bones with meat and lots of connective tissue and only skim surface yuk. I like the flavour of a very gelatinous stock but not sauce or demi.

Now clarifying your broth...that's an interesting challenge! I don't do it often only when a very clear broth is important to me which is thankfully almost never!

I see.

I was curious to see what "yield" we get. Looks like I start w/ (appx) 12 qts/48 cups of water and 6 qts/24 cups of bones and veg (the solids are 1/3 of the pot by volume), this fills a 18 qt/72 cup pot. Simmer until pot is half-full, so the 48 cups of water turn into around 12 cups of stock. Reduce 1 bottle/about 4(?) cups of wine by half, to 2 cups. To that, add the 12 cups of stock to make 14 cups, reduce by half, to yield 7 cups of quasi demi. I didn't measure these volumes as I went along, but since I got enough quasi demi to fill 3.5 ice cube trays and each tray is about 2 cups, the numbers seem to be more or less right. My "12 cups stock to yield 7 cups quasi demi" seems similar to your "18 cups of stock to yield 6 cups of demi plus 6 of brown".

That's a lot of liquid to evaporate - guess there's no need for a humidifier when you're making stock.

I've never clarified broth, all I ever do is strain it - even when I made aspic, I just strained through cloth then coffee filters. You mean the process of making a "raft"? I'd be interested to hear how that is done.

Annie, I too love the bounty of cheap bits and ends at the Asian markets. I've never used chicken feet, but will definitely try that next time.

John,

I use Julia Child's method which does involve a "raft" the instructions are in Volume 1 of her " Mastering the Art of French Cooking". My copy is at the cottage so I can't share all the particulars but it is interesting and does yield a lovely clear broth.

Great for consomme or aspic which I'm happy to say I rarely make!

I love making homemade stocks when time allows and I have saved up enought bones and whatnot to do it. I've pick up chicken backs and wings on sale and toss them in too. I freeze it in two cup portions in zip bags. I lay them flat on a sheet pan until frozen so I can stake them in the freezer.

I started making demi glace several years ago and love having those little cubes of flavor in the freezer for various things. My method is about the same as Chase. I followed this recipe that I found on the net at this site.

http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets027.htm

The whole raft thing caught my attention and I found this discussion on the web. Hope it gives you some ideas and information.

David

Here is a link that might be useful: Raft