Joey Abitabilo, Executive Chef at Shelter Harbor GC in Charlestown, R.I., kicks off his “Pastiche” blog by detailing Executive Sous Chef Josh Scott’s process of creating a rich, consistent demi glace.
Hi all! In this blog I want to present things that chefs do well so that chef readers can glean some benefit. I hope to tackle a variety of subjects not limited to food—it might be an HR or financial issue that is a worthy point of interest, or it could be a good technique, or an old fashioned item making a resurgence, either because of a new spin or a prolonged absence. Pastiche refers to a collection of different little things.
As I slog through pre-opening administrative tasks in my office, I am distracted by waves of scent—roasting veal bones.
My first topic:
Discipline, Detail, Demi Glace!
Chefs love to make demi glace, the rich, reduced foundation of all or many of our meat sauces. It is a labor of love. Heavy cases of bones simmered down to very small quantities of finished product. And that is why it works so well—a dense and miniaturized package that explodes into a sauce.
Our demi glace at Shelter Harbor Golf Club is handled by Executive Sous Chef Josh Scott. Each year, he roasts more than 1000 pounds of bones to generate neatly labeled quarts of demi. This year the number of pounds is 1200. He will roast, simmer, skim, strain and reduce almost constantly for nearly three weeks.
A few years ago we made the decision to do the demi for the whole year all at once, and the results have been excellent. As Josh says, it’s about control. The busy work day has many things going. Three burnt bones can ruin a batch. Since he has the opportunity to work the demi during our closed period, it would seem foolish not to do so.
Chef Josh sets up the three-week period for success. The night security employee’s schedule is altered, so that he is around at the right time to check on the speed of the simmer and do a late night water addition. Our chef team schedule is offset so that I am in the kitchen for the morning skim and the addition of the measured quantity of mire poix.
Josh handles the real work of the project, the roasting, straining, and reducing. He roasts 100 pounds of bones at a time and checks them at intervals. All of the bones are not ready at the same time. He looks for each individual bone to be beautifully caramelized and not more. As they get close, he picks through the large roasting pans with his tongs and pulls a few out, every fifteen minutes or so until they are all done. This extra step takes sweat, effort, and discipline. He has to miss meetings and forego opportunities to get involved in other things. “I gotta stay with my bones,” he always says.
You might think when you roast batch after batch you could just put the next batch right into the pan, but not so. The pans are scrubbed thoroughly to eliminate any build up of charred bits. Each batch starts just like the last one. Nor is the fond used. While many are fond of the fond, it is really an ingredient that is helpful when there is a scarcity of high quality stock goods. Chef Josh regards it as inferior to the roasted bones, and feels it would contribute mainly bitterness and impurities.
When the water is added along with fresh bay leaves, peppercorns and high quality canned tomatoes, the two large stock pots are set on the candy burners to simmer slowly.
There are many who favor tomato paste to canned tomatoes. It is cheaper and acts as a thickener. However, in the world of tomatoes, the paste is the lowest of the low. The acidity and bitterness it adds would need to be counterbalanced. Why counterbalance? Why not just build it right from the bottom up?
As I think about Chef Josh’s process and the quality of the ingredients in the demi glace, I am reminded of a time when as a young cook I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours in the kitchen at Bouley. I boldly asked David Bouley what was his approach to sauces. He answered immediately, that when he makes a sauce, he does not think of it as a sauce, but instead as a beautiful, natural stew that will be strained.
Chef Josh never leaves the building until the pots have achieved an appropriate simmer. He does this despite the fact that he knows the burners and pots well and has executed this task dozens of times. The bones have come too far to look at the flame and guess that it should be alright.
After the post-mire-poix simmer, strain and skim, the stock is chilled and the visible fat removed. Each 100-lb. batch is then reduced, but only to three quarters of the way of its final viscosity. It must wait for all of the 100-lb. batches to reach the same point. Why? So all of the semi-reduced batches can be combined for one, master 1200-lb. reduction. As much as all of the batches were just about the same anyway, now the final product will be exactly the same.
As Josh says, “From opening cocktail party to the closing a la carte dinner, I know it will be the same every time I make a sauce.”
Not surprisingly, every time he does make a sauce, he follows similar, structured steps to ensure consistency. And in terms of professional cooking in general, Chef Josh says: “There is so much you can’t control—what they will order, how the tickets come in—but you can control what goes on the plate.”
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