The whole house, or at least the
kitchen, is permeated with the delicious, warm, appetizing smell that rises from
the pan on the stove: Someone is making stock. How many people still take the
time to do that? And do we know what to do with the resulting brew?
Making your own stock is not difficult, and takes less time than you'd think,
because really, you don't have to be standing guard all the time the stock is
simmering. Stock that isn't used immediately can be deep-frozen in small
quantities so that you can make your own sauce or soup at will.
A sauce or soup can be all right, good, or delicious. If you use a stock cube,
you'll never get a delicious dish. That isn't always necessary either. When you
cook your cauliflower on a rainy Thursday and you want to make a simple sauce to
pour over it, just use a cube. But if you want to serve a mouthwatering sauce,
you'll have to use a good stock or fumet.
I love making stock. On a quiet day
I take my largest pan (content 20 litres or nearly 5.25 US gallons, there are even bigger pans, but
there's no way I can lift or even shift those mammoth-pans). I fill it with meat
and/or bones, vegetables, spices and herbs, add water and heat, and my house
smells like Paradise the whole day. My cats agree with me, they keep walking in
and out of the kitchen, sniffing the air. I have an extra freezer in the cellar
to keep all frozen delicacies.
In this corner of my site I publish
recipes for all kinds of stock, and some recipes for the leftover meat (because
meat that has been used for making stock is still very tasty).
Below you'll find a list of the recipes.
A good stock or broth is not really cheap to make,
it requires a lot of meat and vegetables if you use a 5 gallon pan. However,
compared to some of the basic stocks that were in use in the nineteenth century
it is not so bad: To get one litre stock one needs more than one kilo meat,
according to Escoffier in his Guide Culinaire. But on the other hand, the
reduction of the stock was less drastic than nowadays.
Here are some tips and the
description of a few actions that will have to be performed by the making of all
stock.
Salt:
You won't find a grain of salt in most of my recipes for stock. The taste is
purely what is extracted and reduced from the meat and vegetables. Because these
stocks are used as a base for soups and sauces, it is best that salt is added
only in the last moment, after tasting. Or try omitting the salt completely.
Prefab soups and sauces always contain way too much salt, and we, the poor
public that eat these products, have gotten used to this. But salt
often just hides the lack of real taste. Re-educate yourself, try to appreciate
the taste of the ingredients without enhancers.
Preparing
vegetables for stock:
In most stocks leeks are used. You clean those best by simply slice them two
times lengthwise, but not completely, so you'll get a brush, connected at the
root end. Now it is easy to wash the leeks under the tap, you just spread the
leaves to rinse out the earth.
When using onions, do not discard the outer skin. That yellow or red skin can be
used as a natural way to give your stock a beautiful deep red or brown colour.
Use ecological grown onions, and wash the skin well before using it. If you want
a light-coloured stock you peel the onions as usual.
And now a small problem regarding
a vegetable that is sometimes used in stock: In Dutch, we have knolselderie
(celeriac), bladselderie (celery), en bleekselderie (also celery).
I am amazed that the English language makes no distinction between
'bladselderie' en 'bleekselderie', since they are rather dissimilar in how they
are used in the kitchen (herb vs vegetable). In most recipes it will be evident
which of the three celeries is meant, but in recipes for broth sometimes one uses
blanched celery (bleekselderie), other times leaf celery, occasionally both
together, or even celeriac.
The vegetables that were used in the
stock can't be re-used (contrary to the meat). They have lost all flavour and texture. If you want to
serve vegetables in your soup, it is best to add fresh vegetables after straining the
stock, and cook them with the soup until they are done to your taste.
Straining
Stock:
To strain the stock it is best you use two sieves that fit together, with a
moistened cheese cloth or an old, clean towel (washed without conditioner)
between them. Pour
the stock through these sieves. The bones and vegetables and everything large
will remain in the top sieve, most small particles will be catched by the cloth.
If you don't use the top sieve, the cloth will be clogged up very quickly, and
cleaning it will be more laborious. It is also easy to pick out the meat from
the top sieve. This meat is very tasty, you can use it not only by adding it
again to your strained stock, but also to prepare some delicious dishes. I have
added some recipes for re-using soup meat to the list
below. As stated above, best throw away the vegetables, as they have become
absolutely tasteless.
A tip for cleaning the straining cloth: First rinse it under the tap, then put
it in a pan with water, a little salt and a dash of vinegar. Let boil for 15
minutes, stirring now and then. Rinse it several times with warm water, and hang
out to dry.
To
degrease stock:
A small amount of fat makes a tasty broth. In Holland we say: "a good soup
has eyes", the eyes being the small drops of fat that float on
the surface of the stock. But sometimes stock has to be completely
degreased, for example when making meat jelly.
Because fat floats on water, removing it is not difficult. The easiest way is to
to let the strained stock stand for a few minutes until the fat has surfaced.
Then you drop a sheet of (good quality) kitchen paper on the surface of the stock. It will soak
up the fat. Gently remove the sheet, and repeat with another sheet, until the
surface is nearly fatfree. The very last droplets you can pick up by using a
coffee filter.
If there is enough time, you can also first refrigerate the stock. The fat on
meat stock will solidify, you can scoop it off easily. Chickenfat will remain
softer, for chicken stock the method with the paper towels works best.
You have now strained and degreased
your stock, but it still isn't clear. You'll have to clarify it. How to do that
can be read in the description of making meat jelly.
Reducing
stock:
The taste of stock is concentrated by evaporation of a portion of the water
in it. If you want to make a broth for soup, the stock has to be reduced after
straining by one third. If you are making concentrated stock or fumet, the stock
has to be reduced by two thirds or even three quarters. This means that out of
five litres (1.5 gallon) stock you can make either 3.5 litres (1 gallon) soup, or 1.25 to 1.75 litres
(3 to 3.75 US pints)
concentrated stock.
How
to freeze stock:
It is very important that concentrated stock cools down quickly before it is
frozen. The quickest way: Fill the sink halfway with cold water. place the pan
with the stock in it. Put a metal spoon in the stock (metal conduces heat,
therefore helps with the cooling). Stir the stock, and also stir the water
in the sink around the pan. Check the water temperature. If the water has warmed up, pull
the plug, and fill the sink up again with cold water. If you do this you'll have
your stock ready to be stored in the freezer or the refrigerator in ten minutes,
even with a 20 litres/5 gallon pan.
Use small containers if you want to keep the stock in the freezer. If the stock
is meant for soup, a quarter to half a litre (half to one pint) are good quantities. But very
concentrated stock is often used one tablespoon at a time. Then you use ice cube
holders and small containers (1 decilitre or 3 ounces).
Don't EVER forget to put labels on all containers, because once frozen all stock
looks alike.
Jelly:
When the stock is cooled to room temperature or has been refrigerated for some
time it can have turned into a sludgy mass. Do not be afraid your stock has gone
off, it just means you have made a good, concentrated stock. When you reheat the
stock, it will return to its liquid form. More on this in the recipe for
meat jelly.
List
of
recipes for all kinds of stock, and some recipes for leftover soup meat.
