La Varenne’s meat stock

This is the first ‘historical’ recipe for stock on my site. This meat stock is taken from Le cuisinier françois by François Pierre la Varenne, from 1651. It is the opening recipe in the book, a real basic recipe. The stock is made with a lot of meat, and all kinds of it: beef, mutton, fowl. From the advise to keep hot water at hand to add to the pan if necessary it seems that less water was added during the preparation than in modern stock making, or in other words, more meat was used for the same amount of water. Mutton (‘mouton’) is used in this basic recipe. If you do not like the taste of mutton, replace with lamb, or with beef. However, the authenticity of the taste is then lost.
There are no vegetables used in this stock, not even onions or leeks.
This stock is used in the recipe for ‘Potage à la Reyne’ from La Varenne. There you can read more about the cook and his books.On the picture on the left you can see a print from the English edition of Le cuisinier François, which appeared in 1653 asThe French Cook. Maybe La Varenne’s meat stock is cooking in the cauldron in the middle of the hearth.

The original recipe

The recipe is from Le cuisinier François (edition Hyman, see bibliography), pp.1/2. For the English translation I have used for the most part the translation by T. Scully (see bibliography), except where the first and second editions themselves appear to be different (difficult to say, as Scully only offers the translation, not the original text, but even then his book counts 626 pages, so it’s understandable).

Modern adaptation of the recipe

I have chosen to adapt the preparation. Instead of using a limited amount of liquid which is not reduced, I use more liquid and concentrate the stock after straining it. The translation by Scully, which is based on the second edition of 1652, shows that a ‘bouquet’ consists of parsley, chives and thyme (Scully, p.133, see bibliography).
Voor 4 liter bouilon; voorbereiding 5 minuten; bereiding 6 uur + zeven, inkoken, afkoelen.

500 gr runderschenkel
500 gr magere runderlappen
500 gr schenkel en lappen van schaap of lam
500 gr soepkip (dat is een kwart tot een zesde hele soepkip, gebruik de rest voor kippenbouillon, gebruik géén kuiken)
bosje peterselie, bosje bieslook, takjes tijm
5 kruidnagels
4 liter water

Preparation in advance

Make a bouquet by tying the herbs together.

Preparation

Place meat and herbs in a large pan. Add 4 litres hot water. Bring to the boil and simmer for four to six hours. Strain the stock, and reduce to two litres, then let it cool quickly. Now you can freeze what you don’t need immediately.
Do not forget to label your frozen stock, in the freezer all stocks look alike.

If you want a dark stock, first roast your meat and fowl for 30 minutes in an oven at 225 dgC/ 440 ^oF. According to La Varenne you should now extract the juice from the meat, which is described on p.127: Prick the meat with a knife, press the meat to extract the juice. Not everyone will have a meat press at hand. Just take two G-cramps and two firm boards. Put the meat between the boards and turn the cramps as tight as possible. Don’t forget to place a dish under it to catch the extracted juices.

If you want to use the stock for potage à la reyne make sure to make it from cooked meat, because the potage should be light-coloured.

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.

• François Pierre La Varenne , Le cuisinier françois d’apres l’édition de 1651, Facsimile edition with an introduction by Philip and Mary Hyman. (Houilles, 2002).
• François Pierre, La Varenne’s Cookery: The French Cook, the French Pastry Chef, the French Confectioner. Engelse vertaling met inleiding en aantekeningen van Terence Scully (Prospect Books, 2006).

Recipe for Meat Stock from the 17th century
A French recipe for stock with meat and poultry by François Pierre La Varenne, from ‘Le cuisinier François’ (1651).
© Auteur Christianne Muusers