Stock text
Somehow, we have not discussed stock. Probably it’s too simple to write up in text. But also nobody seems to do it, and I’m going to teach stock to my friends in a little bit, so.
Stock is an essential part of my cooking routine. I truly have no idea how to make food without it. It adds umami & depth to countless forms of food, it freezes indefinitely, and it reheats well.
Here, we will discuss meat stock, then veggie stock, then some notes about stock.
Supplies
- A stock pot, duh. I use a battered old Creuset from 20 years ago, but if I had to choose again I’d go to a restaurant supply store and get something thick, stainless, and bombproof.
- A strainer.
- Several dozen plastic quart containers. You can buy these in bulk on Amazon. Every single restaurant has them laying around, and lids tend to be interchangeable.
- A few 1-cup & 2-cup containers, to hold leftover stock that you’ve reheated once.
Meat stock
Throw bones & meat in a pot, fill the pot with water, get to a boil, simmer overnight on the lowest setting your stove can go, strain, fridge, decant into quart containers, freeze.
Yes, you could add onions or carrots or pepper or whatnot to the stock. There are whole complicated recipes for stock. Screw those. Bones, water, freeze.
Salt? No. Save that for the recipes that you’re going to use this stock for. Bones, water, freeze.
Are you upset at the merest concept of leaving a pot on your stove overnight? Fair. Paranoid, but fair. Use a crock pot or induction cooktop, instead.
Where to get bones for stock
The real pro move is to buy them straight from a butcher on the ultra-cheap. Yes, this requires that you walk up to your butcher counter and talk to a real person. They will be very happy to sell you bones.
Alternately, my personal favorite is to roast a chicken, pick the bird clean, and use everything for a nice simple stock. For bonus points, get another bird and throw that in alongside it.
And then there is the freezer bag. Whenever I make e.g. pork chops, ribs, etc., I leave a bowl out for the bones. Once the meal’s done, I wash the bones and throw them in an ongoing freezer bag. Once the bag is full, I make stock with it. Yes, this results in a baffling pan-species stock, but I love it. If you prefer something more consistent, you can always use different freezer bags for each animal.
Veggie stock
This is an actual recipe, and yes, salt is involved here.
- 1lb carrots, peeled, ends trimmed, chopped 1”
- 1 bunch celery, ends cut, chopped 1”
- 2 heads garlic, peeled & halved
- 4 yellow onions, peeled, chopped 1”
- 1 bunch parsley, washed, ends trimmed off
- 1tsp thyme OR 8 sprigs fresh thyme, washed
- 2 bay leaves
Throw olive oil in a stock pot on medium-high. Sauté everything except for the thyme & bay leaves for 10 minutes. Add water to the top of the stock pot, add a bunch of salt, get to a boil, simmer for 30 minutes, strain, decant into quart containers, freeze.
What to use stock for
Here are some things I have used stock for. Some are obvious, some are less obvious:
- Soups
- Stews
- Chili
- Risotto
- Wild rice
- French lentils
- Japanese curry
- Deglazing a pan to make a sauce
- Congee (mild heresy but my god, try it)
Stock is so useful for grains that it effectively becomes an all-weather thing. You should always have some on hand, no matter what you’re doing.
Using stock
When starting a new recipe, I’ll remove an ingot of stock from the freezer, run under hot water until it pops out, and throw into a covered tiny pot on ultra-high. It’s always at temp by the time I’m done with prep.
A note on scraps
Do not add scraps to your stock. Your stock will taste weird. Also I have no idea where that idea came from? Scraps often have lots of dirt in them?
Wait, why are you making stock out of the roots of your onion or the skins of your garlic? Those are flavorless & weird: garbage in, garbage out. Also, why did you freeze your scraps? Please. My people. Add actual produce to your stock, and compost what’s left. It really is not that much more money or effort.