How the French art of remouillage makes the most of your real food budget by saving money making bone broth or stock.
The Culinary Arts Dictionary defines the French word remouillage as a weak stock made by resimmering bones that have been used to make bone broth once already.
Indeed, this is exactly what remouillage is: a rewetting or remoistening of soup bones that have already served their purpose with a previous batch of bone broth or stock (not to be confused with meat stock).
It is a frugal approach to using broth bones much like boiling meat is the thiftiest way to cook it on a tight budget.
Despite the fact that my Father’s side of the family is French, I only started practicing remouillage well into the second decade of my traditional foods journey.
Folks had mentioned to me in the past that they “reused soup bones”. At first, this approach seemed to be an example of frugality run amok.
If you’ve simmered bones once, how could resimmering them possibly achieve anything close to the delectable flavor and superior nutrition of first batch?
As it turns out, there is always something new to learn with Traditional Cooking!
Broth from Reused Bones
The second batch of stock made from the same soup bones is definitely weaker than the first.
This is the case even when adding fresh carrots, celery, onions, and a bay leaf or two. Note that it is not advisable to reuse the vegetables from the first batch of stock.
However, you can easily compensate for this by simply boiling the remouillage down until the flavor and color is roughly comparable with the first batch.
The final result yields less stock – about half in my experience. The upside is that you will have more thoroughly made use of your investment in quality soup bones!
What Type of Bones Work for Remouillage?
What types of bones work best when making remouillage?
I’ve used all types of poultry (including chicken feet) and beef bones. All have worked very well and produced excellent results.
I am not in favor of using fish heads for stock more than once. The heads pretty much disintegrate after the first batch, and fish heads are so cheap to buy anyway. I pay $1.50/lb for top quality snapper heads.
Making Stock With the Same Bones More than Twice?
Some cooks claim to use hard bones like beef or buffalo for making stock not once, not twice, but three or more times!
An article by Amanda Rose on The Nourishing Gourmet claims that high gelatin bones called “beef feet” can produce up to 12 batches of gelatinous stock!
How many times should you make remouillage considering that each batch will have less flavor than the previous one?
The choice is totally up to you.
Certainly, when the bones disintegrate is a good sign to stop. This happens with fish heads which are good for only a single batch.
However, if you have beef bones that are still hard and obviously have some minerals left in them after the first couple of batches, then go ahead and make another batch and see what happens.
Best Uses for “Second Batch Bone Broth”
It’s important to keep in mind that you aren’t losing anything by making a second batch of broth with the same bones.
If the stock turns out too weak tasting, simply boil it down. This will concentrate the flavor until it is acceptable to use as a base for your soups, sauces, and gravies.
Other uses for weak, second batch broth include:
- Weak remouillage is perfect for cooking rice or quinoa instead of plain filtered water.
- Use it to make savory soaked oatmeal instead of the typical sweet versions.
- Remouillage makes a tasty base for mashed potatoes.
- Try cooking up your next pot of sourdough pasta in remouillage instead of water.
Are you already a fan of this French art of using bones twice to make broth? If so, please share your experience!
Would like guidelines for finding ‘safe’ fish heads…just read about GE salmon & now i’m leery of purchasing fish in general. Thanks!
For all that are simmering broth for hours and hours….did you know this can be done much quicker in a pressure cooker. Here is a recipe from Food Renegade, http://www.foodrenegade.com/pressure-cooker-bone-broth/
And another, http://www.foodrenegade.com/pressure-cooking-healthy/
Sarah, where do you stand on pressure cooking broth? Can it be done twice as well?
Will this work with rabbit? I thought about using whole rabbit in this way and wondered if it would be just as healthy. I also wondered if during hunting season would a deer work too because I’ve read that, though rare, deer have a version of mad cow, and though my husband says that the deer would be obvious prior to shooting and at check point, it still makes me nervous, beef too for that matter. Perhaps I am over thinking it? Thanks all!
I store my stock in the freezer without the jar – after cooling and pouring it into a pint or pint and a half straight sided jars, I freeze it solid. Then, because I’m always short on jars, I remove the stock from the freezer just for a few minutes until the frozen broth slips out like a giant ice cube into a plastic zipper type bag.
I just tried this in the last month! I’d never heard of it and was taking the ‘next step’ to beef broth after I felt comfortable with chicken broth. After what I paid for the bones (and they didn’t have any meat on them like the chicken did!) I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away after boiling them for that first batch. They were still rock hard and obviously, in my mind, full of plenty of calcium if nothing else. I was amazed at how the hollow cavity through the center of the bones kept getting wider and wider with each successive batch. In all, I got 3 if not 4 batches out of those bones. All were full of gelatin, though progressively less rich in flavor. The first batch or two made the best French Onion Soup I’ve ever had. *Each time I soaked the bones in the water with a little (1/4 c or less) vinegar for an hour or two before I turned on the stove. I just love knowing there is a tradition to this and that it has a name! Healthful frugality at its best!
I can’t find anywhere in town to get fish bones or fish heads. Of course I live in the desert….
Rebecca – try finding them online or on Craigslist. I get a lot of meats from US Wellness – here’s a link for chicken feet, They have organic ones too.
http://www.grasslandbeef.com/Detail.bok?no=808
off topic question but I made beef bone broth (oxtail and cross shanks) in the pressure cooker (nom nom paleo) and chicken in my crockpot, with pastured chicken backs and a roasted carcass for 24 hours. The beef gelled beautifully but my chicken did not? Bones used, method? I am new to making my own bone broth…but will never buy packaged again!
You could try adding chicken feet… they add a lot of gel.
How does one go about adding chicken feet to broth? I have some in my freezer and not sure what to do. The thought of dirty feet! Yuk.
Diane, just toss them in your stock pot. They are washed and the skin peeled off, so you don’t need to worry about them being unsanitary. I remember my Grandmother would roast them with the rest of the chicken then suck the meat off of the bones. They were one of her favorite parts.
Melanie I’ve had with chicken bones, some gel and some do not. I do use chicken feet now in every batch and they do add gel.
Help! I’ve been making perpetual stock in my stockpot every week, refilling with water, as we use it. However, I find it gets a rancid taste at or after day 3. I have it set on warm, because I find it boils too hard on the low setting. What to do?
Mine does the same thing, on low it boils too hard, so I go back and forth from warm to low for 2 days. It’s so much easier just to use my pressure cooker!
What kind of bones? I’ve found that rancid flavor every time I’ve tried to make beef bone broth. I gave up on it. Never have a problem with chicken. Except I don’t do perpetual – can’t stand the smell for that long. I do it in my pressure cooker.
I’ve been using my chicken bones 3 times every time I make broth, 24 hours at a time in the crock pot (on Low, after the first hour on High). Obviously the first batch is richer than the others, but I pour each batch up & keep it in the fridge until I’m thru w/ the 3rd batch, then I mix all 3 batches together so that I have the same concentration of all my broth (of that batch). I strain the bones, feet, fat, veggies each time, discarding the veggies. Then I add new water, vinegar, salt & veggies if using. Sometimes I add gelatin. Then I freeze in quart zip loc bags, measuring & labeling for 2 or 3 cups each. I freeze on cookie sheets til hard, the stack in the freezer to minimize space needed. It’s not quite as handy as using canned broth, but it defrosts pretty quick on the stove, or on it’s on if I have time. I feed my leftover bones to the dog “as is” – a little each morning w/ his food til they’re gone. They’re so soft I don’t have to put them in the blender. 🙂