How do I cut bones in preparing a fast brown stock ("fond brun rapide")?

Question

I tried to prepare the bone and skin from a ham shank for use as a kind of brown sauce or stock. The purpose was to fold the reduction into a beef/pork chili. I was very pleased with the flavor that resulted, but want to push it further. However, I had to use them whole and my guess is that the fast process and uncut nature of the bones made them less effective.

First I roasted the (hickory smoked) ham shank (meat and skin on) at 350'F for about 2 hours. Then I removed it and pulled off the meat and skin from the bone. I took an old boning knife and was able to separate the two bones from each other; covered with water (added some onions and salt etc) and boiled vigorously for about 3 1/2 hours (covered in a high-walled frying pan), replacing water as necessary. Shortly after beginning that, I kind of pan steamed the skin from the meat and added the meat to the chili and the skin to the stock pan. What resulted was a good broth.

Basically, I would like to know how I can take it from good broth to a demi-glace or essential oil; one pungent enough to be rendered with a roux or other thickener and incorporated into a chili. (Forgive me, there are better words for what I am asking; I just don't think I know them.) After the process I had about 8 ounces of the oily liquid, and per the scale of 4 quarts of chili the ham stock was just not as pronounced as I would have liked.

• Any initial suggestions or red flags that my process may have brought to mind are appreciated.
• The process I wanted to follow but couldn't (no cleaver, are they necessary?) involved cutting the bones into 1-2 inch segments and pan-frying those (instead of the two whole bones) then vigorously boiling. What knife is actually suited for this purpose where there is some required accuracy in the portioning?
• There was a time constraint on me originally, but does really getting to demi-glace require a minimum of 6-8 hours simmering and reducing?

Answer 1

Yes, making a demiglace will take a long time. There isn't much of a way around that, as liquid will only evaporate so fast. For a proper demi, you will need to include lots of connective tissue in order to convert collagen to gelatine.

To make a stock, don't boil, it's not necessary. A simmer should be fine. And whatever size pot you're using, you'll want to have approximately 1:1::bones:aromatics, the solids should fill the pot completely, add just enough water to cover.

There isn't that much accuracy required in chopping up the bones, as long as they're relatively around the same size. I wouldn't pan-fry them, I would roast. And yes, you will need a cleaver (or a saw) to cut through the bones; you will destroy your other knives.