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!
Hey Sara. Ive been away from your site for some time, and now I have come “Back Home” as it were. I actually implemeted several things you preach such as switching to whole milk (raw when I can get it, which it next to never… have to drive 100 miles to get it were I live in MN) and butter instead of margarine. Off the sugar subs. No pop. I have actually come down 20 lbs just from that. Over a year or so… But I was still 380 a little over a week ago. I have been on the HCG diet for about 8 days and have lost what I now find is the requisite amount of “phantom weight” (18lbs so far) according to an article by one of your contributors Konstantin Monastyrsky. I know that its not a great system, I do. I am just desperate to loose weight, I’m 6′ and 360lbs. My knees are shot and I am a Chef turned trucker. I am off for the winter so I am actually able to eat as I choose and not at the mercy of the truck stop. Working online to produce an income that will take me away from trucking hopefully. I have been seriously considering the Gastric Bypass as nearly all of my family has done including my 2 young children (23 & 19) and am desparate to avoid it even though my Dr. is telling me I need to. I am curious if you have ever written about the HCG diet. I cannot find it in your search function. Though I am certain you wouldn’t endorse it, just wanted to know your opinion. Tried to find any info on it on the WAPF website and nothing either. Would appreciate any input Sara. You are one of the few folks on line that I trust.
Hi, Dave –
I just found Sara’s website yesterday, while researching various options for different health issues.
You mentioned you were considering “Gastric Bypass” surgery, but wanted to avoid it. I know of 3 people who have had the operation. Two of these people lost “some” weight, about 70 lbs each, & then stopped losing. (They were trying to lose over 100 lbs. each) Both women also have chronic issues with pain (arthritis, RA, fibromyalgia, etc.) but are no longer able to use certain pain meds which had previously worked well for them, as the meds are metabolized in the stomach. They’ve had to switch to pain patches on skin, which “sort of” help. Both women wish they’d NEVER had the operation, as it didn’t change their “emotional” eating habits, & they re-gained some of their loss. They also miss vegetables as they can’t have them anymore. Just tiny protein & simple carbs, & a multi-vitamin. (Vegs. take up too much room in the “by-passed” stomach)
The third woman I know who had the operation lost over 100 lbs, but, since she also didn’t change her eating habits ended up re-gaining the weight back PLUS more, as she was able to re-stretch her stomach. She also wishes she’d never had the operation.
All three women are trying to lose weight by more traditional, healthy methods, but cannot eat the amt of vegetables they were able to prior to surgery – and again, they ALL wish they’d NEVER had the surgery. IMHO, I think gastric bypass should be outlawed.
watch “fat, sick, and nearly Dead” … and worship the book “nourishing traditions” by sally field after.
awesome, thanks for the tips, by the way happy new year everyone
I just recently discovered simmering my bones all week in the crock pot so I have a constant supply of broth. Basically I throw in the crock pot whatever I want to use, simmer it on low and after it’s simmered for most the day I start scooping out cups as I need and just replace the water I took out. This way I always have broth to sip on as well as for meals and when the bones start to disintegrate (usually about a week for chicken) then I dump them or give them to my dog and start over. Since doing this I have been able to have warm broth available to me all day and the cost I save in bones more than makes up for the cost of electricity.
Geri- you are so fortunate to have access to wild game bones. They are the very best quality you can find! It is great too, out of respect for the animals life and to get the most nutrition as possible it is best to use as much of it as possible meaning the organs, bones, even the hide, etc.
I am now asking for bones from my sons hunting trips. Elk, deer, antelope, are all of these OK for stock? Should I handle them any differently than beef bones?
I didn’t know the french name for this technique, but yes I had heard of this before and have tried it a couple of times. I agree that it’s definitely weaker and it may be worth starting with less (filtered) water to begin with. I have a big pot of bone broth going right now and you have inspired me to re-boil the bones once this batch is done!
Wow, I can’t believe you’ve just now started doing this. I’ve been doing it this way for years. I use an electric roaster and usually get 5 batches per chicken. Only the first two or three gel, but then the bones start breaking down as the minerals leach into the water. When you’re spending mega bucks on organic pastured chickens you want to get every last drop of goodness from it. I cook EVERYTHING with stock instead of water.
http://nourishedkitchen.com/perpetual-soup-the-easiest-bone-broth-youll-make/
I’ve been doing this for quite awhile with chicken bones using my pressure cooker. I’ll cycle them through 3 times. At the end, I portion up the bones which are by now crumbly; freeze them and give them to my dog every now and then as a healthy treat. I purposefully do not put any veggies in with the bones so that they don’t make the later batches bitter, besides the fact that onions are poison for dogs.
I feed what’s left from stock making to our dogs too. I do put veggies, including onion in my stock but quarter the onion so that it’s easily picked out even when very soft.
Thank you for this article! I have been making a lot of stock over the past year and a half, but I have a question. If I use a bunch of chicken backs, do I need to take the meat off them before I begin my second batch of broth? The meat is kind of tricky to get off of them, so I’ve never been sure about putting it through for multiple rounds. Thanks for the help!
Kim, I just take out what meat falls off and don’t worry about the rest.