White Veal Stock, and Poultry Stock

Fond blanc de veau et fond de volaille teach the discipline behind the pale sauces of the French canon. Break the veal bones small before they see water. That is the one true thing to know: the cut surfaces expose the collagen and marrow that give a finished fond its body, while a hard boil merely clouds what careful work has drawn out.

The original preparation assumed a stock never off the fire, hands nearby to skim it, two large stewpan loads, and four quarts needed for service. This version keeps the same proportions and makes about two quarts in an eight-quart home stockpot. The brigade volume and constant hovering were scaffolding, so they can go. The butcher-sawed bones and two-stage, eight-hour extraction are the dish, and they stay exactly where they belong.

For fond de volaille, one mature stewing hen joins the veal meat for the final three hours. Nothing is roasted, because blanc names the method as well as the color: pale, clean, and gently extracted. Before you begin, have the butcher separate the shin meat and saw every bone into pieces no larger than two inches. Everything that follows depends on it.