I just have questio for all of you regarding beef jus, or ‘glace de viande”. Is it just the gelatin that makes the sauce thick? Jello does not seem thick when it is warm as beef jus does. You know what I’m saying?

Here’s an old Julia Child (I think) trick: Once the stock is finished, pour it into plastic ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop out the cubes and store them in freezer bags (not a bad idea to double bag). If you’re careful to pour the stock evenly into the trays, one cube should be almost exactly 1/8 cup.

For my purposes, a crock pot makes way too small of a yield. I use a very large pot over low heat on my gas range and still have no need to pay attention while it simmers.

I don’t like using aluminum pans for anything. Aluminum is a soft metal, so it’s easy to scrape some of the pan into your food. It also reacts very easily to acidic foods (for proof, use a piece of aluminum foil to wrap a cut tomato or a pan of lasagna and see what happens to the foil!) Not only does aluminum impart a flavor to the food, some studies suggest that aluminum consumption is a contributing factor to Alzheimer’s Disease (another product affected by this link is underarm antiperspirant, as one common ingredient is an aluminum salt that is absorbed through the skin). For most purposes, I prefer cast iron.