Deglazing was the secret of Escoffier’s success. The process itself is extremely simple: a piece of meat is cooked at a very high temperature—to produce a nice seared Maillard crust, a cross-linking and caramelizing of amino acids—and then a liquid, such as a rich veal stock, is added. As the liquid evaporates, it loosens the fronde, the burned bits of protein stuck to the bottom of the pan, providing Escoffier’s sauces their divine depth; it’s what makes boeuf bourguignon, bourguignon. A little butter is added for varnish, and—voilà!—the sauce is complet.

Of course, the recipe that makes all of this possible is anything but simple. Estouffade (brown stock) is, Escoffier stresses early in Culinaire, “the humble foundation for all that follows.” Its concoction begins with the browning of beef and veal bones in the oven. Then, says Escoffier, fry a carrot and an onion in a stockpot. Add cold water, your baked bones, a little pork rind, and a bouquet garni of parsley, thyme, bay leaf and a clove of garlic. Simmer gently for 12 hours, making sure to keep the water at a constant level. Once the bones have given up their secrets, sauté some meat scraps in hot fat in a saucepan. Deglaze with your bone water and reduce. Repeat. Do it yet again. Then slowly add the remainder of your stock. Carefully skim off the fat (a stock should be virtually fat-free) and simmer for a few more hours. Strain through a fine chinois. After a full day of stock-making, you are now ready to start cooking.

Why is stock so essential? What is it about denatured protein (denaturing is what happens to meat and bones when you cook them Escoffier’s way) that we find so inexplicably appealing? The answer is umami, the Japanese word for “delicious.” Umami is what we taste when we eat everything from steak to soy sauce. It’s what makes stock more than dirty water and deglazing the essential process of French cooking.