does anyone else here religiously make stock...?

I make stock out of everything, LOL. I keep bags in the freezer for leftover carcases, bones, veggie trimmings, etc, and every few weeks make big kettles of stock. I freeze some of it in ziploc bags a quart at at time, but most goes into ice cube trays so I can easily add a few stock cubes to just about anything.

We raise our own chickens every year. Turns out half of them are roosters and we have found they make the best stock. There is not much meat so we always have left over stock which we freeze after making chicken soup of some sort.

Glad you made it down here :hi:

forget about them, let them get freezer burned for about two years, then throw them out. Good intentions, but I lack follow through.

In the cooler months, I do roast a chicken ever week or two and save the bones for stock.

I do the same which is why I never, ever use leftover bits to make stock. I always buy fresh ingredients & go from there.

best

Here I sit, my head hanging down, ashamed, but finally free to admit:

My name is OldLeftieLawyer, and I can't make stock to save my life.

There.

I said it.

What's the trick? Or is making stock one of those things - like musical ability - that you've got or you don't?

(I won't include the 'old' part, cuz that's a relative thing.)

Stock making is a snap.

Boil a bunch of stuff in water, strain the stuff out. Save the now flavored water. Voila - Stock.

Start with your stuff in cold water. Bring the whole thing to a rolling boil. Reduce the fire so it just barely simmers. Let it go until the 'stuff' becomes mush.

Don't season it with salt and pepper until it is done. And maybe not even then.

Use some protein source. This can be meat, bones, even fish trimmings, or lobster or shrimp shells. Use some veggies, too. Celery and carrots, leafy greens. Peelings, even. Herbs can also be added. This is also a good use for things like parsley stems.

Water is a solvent. What you're doing is dissolving all the goodness in the 'stuff' you're using to make the stock. If done right, all the 'stuff' gets reduced to its structural parts - all the soluble stuff becoming one with the water.

Meat used to make stock can be saved and added to whatever you're making from the stock.

Sometimes the meat is roasted to add extra flavor. Beef bones, in particular, are almost always roasted first.

Let the whole thing cool. Remove the solids and any (now probably solidified) surface fat you deem excessive. Strain the liquid. Save or use as desired.

The solids may also have some value. If there's meat in it, separate it from the other stuff and reserve it ... like the beef or chicken for adding back to a soup you may be making.

Think of the stock as an ingredient rather than a completed dish. This goes mostly to the seasoning. Don't add any salt until you're making whatever it is for which the stock will be an ingredient.

If anything is - as Jamie Oliver sez - easy-peasey, this is it.

Some extra thoughts .......

Make the stock with a theme .... use complimentary ingredients. Stock is not a replacement for the compost heap.

Some meats can be mixed, others don't mix so well. Fish and shellfish work together, but fish and beef ... not so good.

Avoid particularly strong flavored veggies, unless you have something specific in mind. Cabbage is not a good idea. Neither is asparagus ... unless its for asparagus bisque or some such.

Did I mention that it isn't as good idea to add salt?

Oh .... and don't add any salt to the stock.

Go ahead and try it again. The worst that happens is you waste some water and buck or two's worth of 'stuff'.

Where are you buying your meat? I wanna know now! When I make beef stock I'll bet it costs me 10 to 15 bucks, if not more if I'm making veal stock. What the hell am I doing wrong?

best

Think of the stock you make after Thanksgiving. The turkey carcass is essentially free. The veggies could also be free, depending on what you use.

True enough, if you start with meat purchased specifically for stock, the cost could be quite high.

...is that meats make better stock when they're roasted or otherwise cooked and have lots of brown bits. For example, I've got a bunch of soup bones in the freezer-- some lamb, some beef-- and I'll spread them in a roasting pan and roast at 400 F or so until they're nicely browned and the meat clinging to them is crunchy in spots. That makes the flavor much richer. Other stock hints-- use LOTS of meat to make rich stocks-- thin stocks are't worth the trouble. Just save trimmings or bones until you have enough. Throw in an onion and a few garlic cloves-- I don't bother with peeling them or anything. Add a small handful of black pepper corns. Add some fresh herbs. Add some of that limp celery from the bottom of the veggie drawer or freeze it for stock later. Finally, don't rush it. I simmer a BUNCH of meat in a huge stockpot all day, turn it off with the lid on overnight (I'm a bit paranoid about leaving the fire on), then simmer again for another day. Let it cool overnight (covered) and then strain out the chunks and any congealed fat.

Second H2S comments about salt-- salt it later, when you use it.

OK, so now these are details. We don't eat a whole lot of meat with bones, so that's going to mean a trip to the meat market for bones. I remember my grandmother doing that!

No peeling, no nothing?

You simmer your stock the way I fix my spaghetti sauce. Let it cool overnight, and the flavors marry. Then, refresh it and bring it to another simmer for the day. Interesting that the same process works for both things, but it makes sense, given the multitude of flavors involved.

Now I have TWO posts printed up.

You're another doll, Mike, and a great big WELCOME, with an even bigger "Thank you."

I left that out cuz I'm old and forgetful.

One of my favorite soups is beef barley. I do the meat and bones (if I have 'em) on the gas grill. The char/smoke flavor adds a lot to the soup.

You total doll.

You just made the whole thing make sense. I've always been confused by the admonitions to skim and never to let it come to boil or else to boil it hard the whole time or whatever particular instructions I was trying to follow.

Like all good things, it's simple, isn't it? Simple is hard, though.

I just printed up your post, H2S, and I thank you from the bottom of my black (lawyer's) heart.

Thank you so much.

and the skimming is to get rid of the dead blood cells from the marrow that go grey and float to the top - it's just yucky crap you don't want in your soup/sauce anyway. Other than that, nothing magical about skimming.

and throw them out after several years. BUT cooked 2 beer can chickens on grill over the weekend and I'm going to make stock. Alton Brown recently did a show on stock which was inspiring - your post is inspiring also!

It's one of my favorite things to do. And yet--somehow--I end up buying stock, too. Enough is never enough.

I never buy canned broth or stocks. Homemade stocks are healthier and just taste so much better.

I used to be a short order cook and we had at least 2 "soup of the day" that used vegetable stock - lentil and vegetable. Every 2 weeks or so I'd have to make up vegetable stock which we stored in glass gallon jars, to use as need for the base of the soups mentioned above.

At home, now, I rarely have meat with carcasses or that many with bones. Plus I try to keep my freezers full of veggies, bread, etc, and
don't even have room for ice cube trays most of the time. So I more or less make stock as I need it. I use frozen chicken thighs and the usual veggies.

But if I ever got a chest freezer, I would definitely start freezing stock.

....that Better Than Bouillon has made me lazy. It's pretty dam easy to put a spoonful of that in something.

I see Amazon sells them. I've tried another of those uber-reduced broths-- I tried the beef-- but I don't think it was as good a quality. It was too salty, and had a funky underlying taste. BtB comes in so many flavors, too. Lobster! Ham! Clam!

We now have a Penzey's up in Portland. Have to get up there.Their products are excellent.

make to cheat

the juice and make beans with it.

It takes up a lot of freezer space, but it's well worth it. (I use mostly 2c plastic containers, with a few smaller, and a couple larger ones). Other stocks...I'll make if I'm thinking about it, have room, etc.