[Macallan]

Good afternoon:

Working on an impromptu recipe tomorrow which requires veal stock. I do not have any readily made and unfortunately butchers around here do not sell fresh veal. I can, however, buy veal demi-glace. Is there a way to turn it back into veal stock by adding water or some other liquid to sort of reconstitute it?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts . . .

[kuan]

If you are making gravy or a soup, then yes, you should be able to do that with little problem. Look on the same shelf for glace de veau. If it were me I would go with that instead.

[Macallan]

Thank you Kuan, I will give that a try . . . it is for a lamb stew, so it sounds like that should work. Any suggestions on proportion of water to demi-glace? Ultimately the recipe calls for about 3 cups, or 24 oz. of stock.

Thanks again!

[kuan]

Maybe 10x. There should be instructions on the package. Use either, demiglace or glace de veau. It will be superb.

[Macallan]

Thanks Kuan, I appreciate your advice.

Have a good weekend!

[boar_d_laze]

Store bought demi-glace will not dilute back to stock.

Water, which is restaurantese for "profit," is sometimes a good idea, but not so much here, I think. On the way to making derivative sauces, demi is usually diluted with stock, wine or spirit; not water. And for good reason.

My suggestion for beginning your lamb gravy would be to dissolve the demi in a mix made of two parts beef stock, and one part chicken stock; plus a healthy slug of a "smoothing" wine such as madeira or a dryish sherry to cover the canned taste of commercial preps. I would also use a lot of parsley, possibly in a sachet, for its penchant to tone down some of the artifacts of commercial preparation, and generally "smooth out" tastes. Commercial demis are rough.
Remember you're starting with something that already has aromatics far in the background. So consider adding some onion and carrots somewhere in the process to kill their staleness in the demi. There's also more than enough salt in most demis to alert the diners' taste buds. Watch the salt, taste carefully as you go. If appearance is important, fine sieve it to get rid of lumps and bubbles. Then take it from there.

If demi is not the only option, and you're committed to beginning with a commercial product as close to veal stock as possible, I suggest using the best beef stock you can find, with a touch of roast chicken stock base added. It's a cheat, but more like veal stock than working backwards from demi. If you're going to do anything that relies on the high colloid content in veal stock, you'll have to do something to pump that. A butter finish, for example. And again, plenty of parsley, booze and watch out for salt.

Yours in short-notice saucing,
BDL