Hello! I am planning out my first meal from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” for an upcoming dinner party, and am looking at the Boeuf à la Mode (pp. 309-12 in my copy).

Most of the recipe and ingredients seem fairly straightforward — marinade the beef, brown it, braise for a few hours, etc.

But one step calls for, just before braising the beef, adding “one or all of these to give body to the sauce”: cracked veal knuckles, calf’s feet, pork rind/bacon rind/ham rind.

One of the guests at the party does not eat pork products, and one refuses to eat veal and other meat derived from baby animals. So I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for other ingredients that I could add at this stage to accomplish the same goal of giving “body to the sauce”?

Thank you in advance from an amateur cook!