Tastebud Chicago

Buying stock off of the shelves is easy, inexpensive, and a quick way to get a good soup going. Like most cooking though, it’s always better if you do it yourself. Not only for the taste, but for the honor of saying, “I made this.” Like a lot of cooking, stock is one of those things that’s sort of tapered off nowadays. It’s pretty rare to find someone that still makes their own stock. Which is odd, given how easy it really is.

So, you remembered to save your turkey bones from Christmas, right? No? Well, don’t forget next time. When you’re done with the meal, take all the bits you’d normally throw away (seriously, all the bits) and put them in a plastic bag. Throw the bag in the freezer until you’re ready to make stock. Let it thaw overnight and you’re ready to go.

This also goes for leftover vegetables, or all the cuttings from preparing vegetables. Just about anything with flavor that you’d normally throw away should go in a bag in your freezer. When it’s time for stock (when is it not time?) pull the bags out, let them thaw, and make some stock.

Our post Christmas stock.

The actual stock making process we pulled from The Joy of Cooking, one of our favorite cookbooks. Although the book provides a lot of detail, there’s really not much too it. The J of C recommends blanching the meat ingredients first to release flavors. We didn’t do that, and were a-ok, so it’s really up to you.

Our process was to break up the meat and bones a bit, put them in our big stock pot to brown them up a little, then fill the stock pot with water until it covers the “stuff”. Bring it to a boil. While it’s heating up, rough chop whatever veggies you want to add. We added some celery and carrots. Don’t worry about peeling the carrots, as long as they’re clean they’re a-ok. Once it’s boiling, bring the heat down to a simmer, wait about ten minutes, then add the veggies. Maybe rough chop some herbs and throw those in too. Like nearly all our recommendations, we want you to try your own stuff. Whatever sounds good to you, give it a shot.

Let the stock simmer for around three hours uncovered, or until reduced by half. Turn off the heat and let it cool. When you can handle it without burning yourself, pour it through a strainer into another bowl. There will be a lot of junk floating in the stock. If you want to remove it, do a second pour through a strainer lined with cheesecloth. We chose to keep the junk. That’s yummy stuff floating around in there!

As the strained stock cools, fat will rise to the top. You can either skim it off now and make a soup, or let it sit, cover it, and put it in the fridge for later. If you’re going to refrigerate, don’t skim the fat now. The fat provides a layer of protection against germs. You could also separate the stock into smaller containers and freeze it. That’s what we did this year.

We made our first soup from our stock last week, it was an improvised chicken rice soup. We chopped some leftover roasted chicken, carrots, celery and parsley. Brought a pot of stock to a boil, added a cup or so of brown rice, the chicken and other ingredients, and let it all simmer for about an hour and a half. We added some pepper and salt, and ate. It turned out great. You can really tell the difference between home made stock and store bought. Maybe it’s all in our heads, like the way a fresh washed car runs better. Who knows? Who cares? Whatever the reality, home made stock tastes great and will impress your friends.