French Onion Soup
Sign Up for the Recipe Publishing Newsletter
Homemade Veal Broth Recipe
Veal broth is a less salty but more delicately flavored version of beef broth. Some French soup recipes call for veal broth and many people use chicken broth or vegetable broth instead, or even water. Veal broth has a delicious flavor however and it is delicious in a French onion soup recipe. You might like to make French onion soup with all veal broth or with half veal broth and half beef broth. Veal broth is quite neutral tasting, in that you can use it to make lots of different recipes. Beef broth is always quite strong and meaty flavored, so you are more limited with it.
It can be tricky finding veal bones if you do not live near a traditional butcher who processes a lot of it. One solution is to eat veal chops once a week, trim the meat off and save the raw bones in a freezer bag. When you have a couple of pounds of bones, you can combine them with onion, celery, and carrot to make veal broth.
The following recipe also features cloves, sage, parsley and more, to give your veal broth plenty of aromatic flavor. This broth has to cook for between three and six hours but its delicious flavor is well worth the wait.
How to Make Veal Broth
Ingredients -
4 ½ lbs veal bones
3 whole cloves
2 onions, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, trimmed, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 quarts water
12 peppercorns
¼ teaspoon sage
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 sprigs fresh parsley
Salt, to taste
Preparation:
Combine everything in a big pot and cook it for between 3 and 6 hours or until you have about 3 cups of liquid in the pot.
Strain the veal broth through a cheesecloth lined sieve.
Pour off or skim all the fat you can see, then cook the broth until it is reduced to 2 cups.
(Makes 2 Cups)
What is Veal?
Veal is the meat from very young cattle. Veal calves are classified according to their weight and age and they can be either grain fed or milk fed (which is also known as special fed). Milk fed veal calves are given a milk supplement and this makes their flesh lean, finely textured and pale pink in color. Grain fed veal calves are given milk when they are very young and then hay and grain later. Grain fed veal calves produce fattier, darker colored meat. Both types taste good and can be used in veal recipes.
There is very little waste with veal and you might get four servings out of one pound of veal meat, so you should bear this in mind when buying it. A similar sized portion of beef might only give you two servings. Veal bones can be used to make veal broth, which is a great base for French onion soup and similar recipes. Veal meat can be enjoyed by itself or in a delicately flavored sauce.