Stock

Who stock here?
Started some beef stock last night.
Beef bones in pan with parchment to roast.

prepped while bones were roasting

mirepoix, approx 1/4 carrot, 1/4 celery, 1/2 onion ratio

had some tomatoes that were going limpdick, so used them instead of paste

why parchment???

saute onion, carrots, tomatoes, celery

I like more browning, but was impatient

aluminum pan can make things nasty, and aids in clean up

I'd prefer to deglaze the pan with some wine, but I'm too lazy, and my only large roaster is aluminum, which I don't like to deglaze in.

clean as you go

added wine to veg when celery was tender

Time to pop in with a question. I hate the taste and smell of celery, does it somehow "change" when you combine it with other vegetables and cook it, no longer tasting like celery?

bones looked good not too long after saute was done and another glass of wine was finished, so into the pot and adding water

It's usually very mild in stock. You could make it strong if you wanted, but it's a relatively small amount for the end product and cooking it so long makes the flavor meld with everything else. The idea of stock in general is to have a nice base of a neutral flavor so it's versatile, but you could change it up if making it for specific uses.

mmm, I'd eat that as soup

is bone good for you if you could grind it up?

after bringing just to a boil and immediately reducing to a simmer for a while, scum rises

time to skim a bit

I don't know about grinding it up. That would be some heavy duty machinery to pull it off and it'd probably smell awful, though. I do know there's lots of minerals, vitamins, and protein in the bone, connective tissue, and marrow which cooks into the stock to some extent - more the longer and hotter it cooks, and with more acidity, but too hot and too much acid isn't usually ideal for a stock, so I go with more time.

I'm not sure about bone, but I know chicken cartilage is pretty good. Weird texture, but a really good taste.

skimmed more and starting to look like stock already

aromatics prepped, into pot, lid on wonky to let steam escape and condensation drip back into the pot

whole house smells like beef soup atm, not a bad way to fall asleep

will let this go before straining and cooling until at least tomorrow night, maybe longer

This is turning out really nice OP.
How bout' herbs?

yeah there's some thyme, parsley stems, peppercorn, bay leaf, and garlic

Here's an updated picture from a couple minutes ago. It doesn't look spectacular, but it's smelling good and it's getting a nice beefy flavor. I'm starting to get more fat rising to the surface, so I'm guessing it might be extracting from marrow now. If I have a good fat cap tomorrow morning I'll know. If so, it'll probably be ready to cool tomorrow night, but I'll wait to see if it keeps rising.

How long does it take to make these?

It depends on the kind of stock, your preferences, and methods. Fish stock is usually pretty quick at 1/2-1 hour, chicken stock could be anywhere from a few hours to a day, maybe even two, beef or veal stock is usually best with a few days of cooking. You can get flavor out of chicken and beef stock pretty quickly, but you can get quite a bit more out of them with more time.

How many litres?

You leaving it in the oven to cook for the remainder of the time?

4 gallon pot, about 11 liters. I roasted the bones in the oven, but everything else is taking place in the pot on the stove top.
If you're concerned about the safety of your stove top burner or find it more convenient to do entirely in the oven, I don't see why it would hurt. It would be better in that less (and more even) convection effect would occur, but probably less convenient for the periodic skimming.

Nice. Are you reducing it to the point where it's like a jelly?

I hope I get enough gelatin out of it for that without reducing. I used a lot of bones for this batch, so I would think it will set up pretty firm. If it doesn't solidify after cooling, then I'll probably reduce it more, but I think it'll do well. I usually reduce some of the batch a lot for sauce bases anyway.

I was thinking about making some really rich onion soup, or just sticking with some short ribs for the majority of this batch. If it comes out nice and rich, though, I won't have to compromise and I can freeze some to do all of that, maybe with some left over.

Just saw one of these in action the other night, but it was grinding chaga.

Looking good OP.

That advertisement seriously triggered me with all its misogynist microaggressions. I'm so glad it's not the 19th century.

Hey OP, question for you, if you're making chicken stock or even fish stock, how much do you change up your spices/veggies/aromatics compared to when making beef stock? I know it depends on how you want it to taste, but I'm just curious about the approach you tend to take. The stock looks very nice, and thank you for sharing it with us

yes, I /stock/, but i'll let you in on a little secret

for 90% of applications, a quick, light stock works just as well as a full-on, slow-cooked stock.

bones, water, boil with some aromatics, 1 hour, strain, done.

this gives me a stock that's much better than water as an ingredient for other dishes with a minimum of fuss. really simple.

Chinese stocks are done this way. so's Dashi.

are you supposed to remove all the fat from stock?

>making some really rich onion soup
mmm, that sounds good

yeah, to think that for millenia men have been holdin down da white wimmins, makin em have da white babies n shit, maken em continue da race, how ebil

I would like to know this too

>Chinese stocks are done this way. so's Dashi
except with doge

Hi OP, I've always used thyme and parsley and simmered for a long time, but always had a bitter taste after reduction. I asked about it on Veeky Forums and they said the long simmer of the herbs) or perhaps even the veg) was what was making it bitter. It made sense that some grassy herbs may impart some bitter tones; do you not find this happens in yours?

Could you not just put it all in a pressure cooker?

I learned making stocks from one of Thomas Keller's books and I have taken on his perfectionist quirks when making stocks. He rarely uses celery in stocks, substituting in leek. I've always liked this better. If you don't like the celery taste, this is a very appropriate substitution.

For chicken stock I don't use tomato, generally use little to no browning of vegetables, and would use white wine.
For fish stock I use white wine, no browning of vegetables, less celery and carrot, and no tomato.
I typically stick to similar aromatics for stocks, but I change up fish stock pretty often because I usually make a small batch for a specific use. I end up using tarragon, fennel, red pepper, lemon juice, basil, mint, things like that.
I find the prominence of bitter notes depends on the type of herbs, how much are used, and if they are fresh or dried. If using dried, the general rule is about 1/4 the amount of fresh. Thyme can get bitter if a lot is used, but not as much as some herbs like oregano or marjoram. I don't think I've ever used so much parsley that it has come close to bitter tones, but I always avoid using the leaves. Maybe if you were to make a parsley stem tea or something of that strength it would get bitter easily.
High heat can change the aromatic compounds as well, increasing bitter notes more than longer cooking time alone.
You don't have to skim the fat. I don't always, but it can make skimming the scum easier if you are seeing it rise for longer periods, and it makes it easier to tell what the stock is doing in extraction. The fat can be useful in creating a protective layer for storage, but I usually use plastic wrap to contact the surface if I'm storing in a container for a long period.

I've done it a couple times in a pressure cooker. I get a little better body and less cloudiness without a pressure cooker, and there is a little more of that subtle off flavor that comes without skimming because of the pressure cooker, but some of that might be able to be improved with methods that I haven't struck on.

Got caught up in doing things today, sorry for the slow reply.
There was quite a bit of fat this morning, and not much more has been rising up over the past couple of hours. It's rich smelling and has that substantial feel when I taste it, so I'll strain and cool it tonight.

i /stock/

i do it in a pressure cooker and can it for later

I was just thinking about this a little more. I would think blanching the bones before roasting would eliminate most, if not all of any off flavors that might come from not skimming periodically.
Is that something that others do when using a pressure cooker? I could still see using a pressure cooker without many additional measures because it's so much faster, I just haven't played with it much since I haven't found the time to be a real issue.

Not necessarily. If you boil them long enough with some vinegar you can crush even the thickest bones with your fingers.

First stage of cooling after straining, brought to about 75f.

Yield was about 7qt, the ice wand in the picture makes it look like a lot more.

It's now divvied into smaller containers in the fridge, some reducing with some additional ingredients for a sauce.

2016 not using a non-venting pressure cooker to make stock. At least you added something acidic though, so you got that going for you.

Nice.

You could do it faster and better with a pressure cooker though.

>are you supposed to remove all the fat from stock?
Depends, sometimes you can get away with not removing any, other times it's just way too much. You gotta eyeball it and figure out.
What type of pressure cooker did you use? Which brand?
This. Especially with a pressure cooker, add something acidic, vinegar tomaties etc. and boil it up on high pressure and bones start to get really soft. You have to realize it's 15psi in there and the acidic is helping extract everything under that pressure and heat. Key thing is, you always need an acid when making broth, I try to stick to tomatoes as vinegar sometimes overpowers the flavor too much.