02191 Making the Perfect Soup Stock

Stock Cooking Notes.

The cookbooks say that the best pots for making stock are tall and narrow. I have made stock in several different shapes of pots that turned out quite tasty. Meat stocks benefit from long, slow cooking (eight hours at least, I simmer my beef stocks overnight for 18 hours). Vegetable stocks, on the other hand, complete their cooking in an hour.

You can make stock in a crockpot, although you obviously can’t make as much at one time in a crockpot as you can in a larger pot. If you’re living alone in a dormitory room, that’s all that you need!

After you roast the bones and veggies, put them in a pot and add plenty of water. Turn the heat on high until bubbles start to drift up, and then turn it down. You don’t want the stock to boil when the bones, meat, and vegetables are in the pot. You want just a slow simmer. Do not stir the stock. Skim off any scum that rises to the top during the cooking process. You will skim it several times during the cooking process.

Eight to eighteen hours later . . . when you finish cooking the stock, strain it to remove any bits and pieces. Refrigerate it overnight and remove any fat that congeals on the top of the liquid. Bring it to a boil, and cook it until it reduces its volume. The more you reduce the volume, the stronger tasting the resulting stock and the less you will use in a recipe. Professional chefs reduce it so much that when refrigerated, it congeals and turns to a jelly-like solid. The advantage of reducing the volume is that it takes less room to store in your freezer. If you have considerably reduced the volume of the stock, you add water to it when you use it in a recipe. Think of it as a homemade bouillon cube, except that you don’t dehydrate it into a powder and press it into a cube.

Pick the meat off the bones and save it for use in other recipes. Even though it has been simmered for a long time, the meat will still contribute flavor and texture when added to a soup or casserole. I like to make a sandwich spread from it by mixing it with chopped onion, chopped pickles, mayo, and mustard. Freeze the leftover meat in meal-size portions until needed. (Waste not, want not.)

Since stock making can be quite a production, make more than you will need and freeze it for later. It is easy to make stock for a month or two in one session. Freezing is the easiest method of preservation. You can preserve stock by canning so it stores at room temperature. That requires a pressure canner.

In pursuit of a plastic-free kitchen, I use glass canning jars to freeze stock and leftover meats from stock making. I stocked up on half pint jars, which work well for this purpose. For meats or any solid food, wide-mouth canning jars are best.

Use stock often in gravies and sauces to add amazing flavor, texture, and incredible nutrition to your meals. Drink it hot, with a sprinkling of herbs and a bit of salt. The more you reduce the volume of the stock, the stronger its taste. I don’t take mine all the way down to the demi glace stage (the near-solid form referred to above). I dilute mine with at least an equal amount of water when using as a gravy or soup or drink.

Rules of Thumb for Ingredients.

You need 1 pound of bones/meat for each 2 quarts of water.

Use onions, carrots, celery, at a ratio of 2-1-1.

That is, for every two parts of onions, you want 1 part each of carrots and celery.

The amount of carrots and celery together equals the amount of onions.

For four quarts stock, use about 3/4 lbs of onions and a quarter pound each of celery and carrots (about 2 pounds of bones/meat).

For 8 quarts stock, you want about 1-1/2 pounds of onions and ½ pound each of celery and carrots (and 4 pounds of bones/meat).

For a 16 quart batch of stock, start with 3 pounds of onions, and 1 pound each of celery and carrots (and 8 pounds of bones/meat).

The reason it looks like there is more onion than the sum of the carrots and celery is that you peel the onions. This loses some weight.

Stock is very forgiving so these measurements do not have to be absolutely precise. Indeed, they are "rules of thumb" so you can use a little more or less. Use more carrots, for example, if you want a sweeter tasting stock.

Use a little tomato paste. For a large 16-20 quart batch, you can add a small can of tomato paste to enrich the color. As an alternative, you could use a food brush and paint the bones with a light coating of tomato paste before you roast them. Or not, as you prefer.

Chicken Soup Stock

If you make a small batch, say 4 quarts, of chicken stock, you’ll want:

• 2 pounds of chicken (which could be backs and necks, or even chicken feet)
• 3/4 pound onions (about 2-3 onions)
• 1/4 pound each celery and carrots (this would be about 2 carrots and a couple of ribs of celery).

For a large batch (16 quarts), you’ll want:

• 8 pounds chicken
• 3 pounds onions
• 1 pound each of carrots and celery

Peel onions before chopping. Chop the vegetables in large pieces, do not include the leaves from the celery (they can be bitter). Put the ingredients in a soup pot and cover with water. Simmer for 1 hour. Skim off any scum or froth that rises to the top, also any fat. Note that "simmer" is not a rapid boil. Turn the heat up high when you start. When bubbles start to form, turn the heat down so that the stock simmers. The surface of the stock will appear to “shimmer” and steam but will not rapidly boil.

If you use whole raw chickens, at the one-hour point remove the chicken from the water and take out the breast meat and use it for another recipe. At the one-hour mark, this will be “perfectly poached chicken breast.” It’s a good time to remove the skin. Or if your using backs/necks, chicken leftovers, etc., just let it continue to cook.

Turn it down low and simmer it overnight, or if you are in a hurry, at least four hours. Always resist the urge to stir. If you simmer it overnight, rather than all day when you can watch it, make sure there is plenty of water in the pot.

When finished, strain and use immediately, or refrigerate until the fat congeals at the top, remove the fat and use it then or freeze the stock for use later. You can reduce it by boiling before you freeze it as described above.

The recipe directions above make a “white” stock, which is a light color. If you want a darker poultry stock, with deeper flavors, roast the chicken pieces and vegetables first, and add some tomato paste to the simmering stock. If you make a roast chicken or turkey, save the bones and make stock!

After holidays, use the bones and leftover meat from your turkey to make a brown turkey stock.

Beef Stock

For a four quart quantity of beef or buffalo or pork stock, you’ll want:

• 2 pounds of bones with meat attached
• 3/4 pound onions (about 2-3 onions)
• 1/4 pound each celery and carrots (this would be about 2 carrots and a couple of ribs of celery).

For a large batch (16 quarts), you’ll want:

• 8 pounds of bones with meat
• 3 pounds onions
• 1 pound each of carrots and celery

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (230 degrees C). Slice onion. Chop scrubbed celery and carrots into 1-inch chunks. In a large shallow roasting pan place soup bones, onion, and carrots.

Bake, uncovered until the bones are well browned, turning occasionally. Drain off fat.

Since this can be messy, line the pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper to facilitate the cleanup.

Place the browned bones, onion, and carrots in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Put the empty roasting pan on a burner and add about a cup water and move it around with a spoon or spatula in order to "deglaze" the pan, pour this and any little bits and pieces of meat or vegetables into the soup pot. If you want to know, we call these bits and pieces "fond" and they add LOTS of flavor.

If you plan to add some tomato paste, for a nice flavor burst “paint” the roast bones with the tomato paste before adding them to the stock pot.

Turn the heat on high until bubbles start to form. Reduce heat immediately. Cover and simmer for at least eight hours, you can go as long as 12 (all day or overnight). Skim any scum that rises up. Beef stocks make more froth and scum than poultry stocks, so you will need to skim it often for the first couple of hours.

Adding the vegetables at the beginning of the simmering process will enhance the flavor of the vegetables in the stock. The carrots will give it a sweeter taste. If you want a less sweet stock, or want the flavor of the vegetables to be more subdued, add them later in the cooking. I always add mine at the beginning, as I like a richly flavored stock.

When finished cooking, strain the stock. If you do not use it immediately, refrigerate it and remove the fat that congeals at the top.

After removing the fat, you can reduce the volume of the stock by boiling. This makes it thicker and stronger so that you use less when cooking. It reduces the amount of room in the freezer required for storage.

What to do with the meat and poultry left from making stock:

Save the bits and pieces of meat left from your stock-making adventure. They can be used in casseroles, soups, meat pies, or any dish that calls from some chopped meat. Adding some heat helps boost the flavor. Your dog and cat will love the snacks. Waste not, want not! If you’ve made a lot of stock, and the meat leftovers are more than you can handle in a day or two, freeze the remainder in meal size portions for use later.

Salt. No, we didn’t add any salt. And you shouldn’t either. Add salt when you use the stock in its final recipe, don’t add salt to the stock while it cooks.

Basic Vegetable Stock

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 onions
• 4 carrots
• 1 cup tomatoes
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 stalks celery
• 2 quarts water
• 12 peppercorns

Optional herbs:

• 8 sprigs fresh parsley
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves

Chop the vegetables finely. The greater the surface area, the more quickly vegetables will yield their flavor. Heat oil in a soup pot. Add ingredients except the water and peppercorns. Sauté for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are mostly transparent and starting to caramelize a bit. Add water and peppercorns. Simmer, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Strain. Do not boil. Feed the vegetables to your worms or compost.

Other ingredients to consider: eggplant, asparagus (butt ends), corn cobs, bell peppers, pea pods, chard (stems and leaves), celery root parings, marjoram (stems and leaves), basil, potato parings . . . Get the idea?

For an even more in depth look at stock making, including pictures, visit these pages at the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Sciences:

Unit 1: ingredients and equipment http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/25256-stocks-and-sauces-class-unit-1-day1/ or http://tinyurl.com/ydkmwur .

Unit 2: Simmering the basic stocks.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?//topic/25414-simmering-the-basic-stocks-unit-2-day-2/ or http://tinyurl.com/ydehebb .

Unit 3: Straining, defatting, reducing

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?//topic/25440-stocks-straining-defatting-and-reducing-unit-3/ or http://tinyurl.com/ybpwgn5 .