Beef – Do you need a stock for carbonade flamande

It's the points/levels in the duty imposed that have made UK beer weak, from a historic point of view.

Over 4% and you are on to a higher tariff point for the duty paid on it, so brewers aimed at 3.9x% for a long time, although there have been changes, and a lot of brewers find that people are prepared to pay a few pennies extra for a stronger brew these days.

Pub prices were once highly sensitive to duty, but so much of the price of a pint is now determined by the running costs of the pub, rather than duty, that stronger beers are becoming more common.

When I was a lad, Old Peculier was only sold in 6oz bottles, and a lot of pubs would only sell it in halves on draught ...

To get that gelatin you're looking, you need joint bones and lots of them. The back, neck, tail are great for that. If you've ever made Ox tail soup you'll know what I'm talking about as you'll get a really thick coating on your tongue from the gelatin that is disolved from the tail's connective tissues.

The reason for avoiding marrow bones is because it can make for a cloudy stock if the marrow gets broken up and the fact that marrow bones don't generally have the highest amount of connective tissues. Cloudy stocks also are caused by boiling of the stock instead of simmering.

Typically when making stock bases, you want them to be as clear as possible so you can use them for just about anything. A cloudy stock doesn't make a consomme look very nice. However, if you are just going to use the stock in items which don't demand a high amount of clarity then don't worry too much.

When you go to your butcher ask for knuckle bones(joint bones) and chine bones(back bones) as your first choice.