Broth (Brodo di carne)

This recipe is part of The cooking sunday: Broth post. Check the full event to save on all ingredients!

A little introduction before we start. In Italy we have different beef cuts than in the US. I usually use tasto o biancostato as cut for broth, which seems not to exists in the US, but are the fattest part of the plate and flank.

Also, in italian we distingush between young chicken (pollo) and old chicken (gallina). We use the old chicken for broth, and it’s usually considered old once it doesn’t lay eggs anymore (and as an old saying says, it’s only good for broth). It’s usually much more yellow and fattier and gives all its taste to the stock.

We almost never use young chicken for broth, which is reserved to sick people or those who have problems with digestion.

Using those cuts for broth will make it tastier but oily and very fat. We’ll remove almost 90% of the fat in a very clever way: we’ll just leave it outside to cool down all night. In winter it will be cold enough for the fats to solidify on top, and you will be able to remove them with a strainer the morning after.

 If you start cooking the broth by 6pm, you’ll be ready for 9 and you will be able to leave it outside all the night to cool down.

Peel the onion, clean the celery and the carrots, cut them and place them in a 3gal pressure cooker (1). Add the bones and the beef (2), and eventualy a cleaned tomato (without peeling it) (3). Cut the chicken in a half, and put that too (4).

1. Clean and chop vegetables

2. Add meat

3. Don’t peel tomato.

4. Then the chicken.

 You can also prepare a bag with all the raw ingredients and freeze it. I do that most of the times, since they never sell half chicken or a bone, or a single piece of meat. You’ll have all the ingredients ready the next step.

Add an handful of salt (5), and then cold water until 3 half of it (6). Put it in the stove to boil (7).

5. Salt is important because we’re taking tastes from osmosys.

6. Fill with ambient temperature water for 3/4 of it.

7. Put in the stove to boil.

Remember to use cold water and salt. We want to remove all tastes, and using hot water would close the pores of the meat and trap all the tasty juices inside. We want to have a good broth, not a good boiled meat.

Leave the pot until it start to create a brown foam on the top (8). While it seems disgusting, it’s normal. It’s part made of proteins and gives a lot of tastes to the water. Some removes it to have a lighter, brighter broth. Some keeps it. I personally remove the very first, dense part, before closing the steam pot.

Here you can see some brown foam forming on the top.

Once the broth is boiling, lower for a second the temperature, close the pot, and wait until it starts whistling. Count 2 hours from then, and your broth will be almost ready.

 No pressure cooker: If you don’t have the pressure cooker, you can leave the broth boiling covered for 4-5 hours, adding hot water from time to time if it gets too dense.

After the broth is done, remove the meat, bones and vegetables from inside, drip them well, and leave the broth ouside for a night, to allow the fat to become a dense, white-yellowish cream. Remove it the day after with a strainer.

 Fat: If you have nothing against fat, don’t remove all of it. Leave some. The next time you boil or warm the broth again it will form little golden eyes of fat on top that adds taste and keeps it warm while you eat it. I personally remove 3 quarters of fat and leave the rest.

 Murky: Especially if you used bones, the broth will be very murky. While all that murky adds a lot of taste to the broth, some people prefere it clear. You can make it clear by mixing an egg white onto it while it’s cold and boiling it again until the white grows together again. Filter the broth to remove the white and it will be transparent. But definitely less tasty.

Your broth is ready. You can divide it in liters and freeze it for future use. If it’s too dense, you can always add a glass of water while unfreezing. You’ll adjust salt before serving.

You can use it plain (i love it), with tortellini, or even to cook oven roasted meat. I love to cook rice using broth to add a lot of taste to the rice itself.