Stock is a great estimate of someone's cooking skills

That's why it says optional

If you know how to make stock that's a good sign, but making stock in a home setting on the reg is a bit of a ball ache let's be honest. Especially if you're not the sole/primary user of the kitchen

I try to avoid stock because I see it as a crutch, but occasionally I'll make some myself like if I'm sick.

you'd have to be a fucking idiot to buy vegetable stock.. i kinda agree with you on stock made with bones unless you happen to have a chicken carcass/fish bones you have leftover from buying a whole animal (or whatever animal i guess, just saying the common ones).

you can easily make a gallon or two of restaurant quality veg stock with two onions, 4 carrots, half a thing of celery, garlic, corriander/black pepper/bay leaf.

the vegetables combined cost less than a dollar.
yeah i get that the herbs are add a bit to the cost, but you buy them once you have herbs for years.

It's not a good estimate of cooking skill at all. What the fuck are you on about? It's more a matter of knowledge. If you know how to simmer fucking water you can make stock you ass.

Sockity stock stock

I've made dark chicken stock, light chicken stock, mixed bone stock, chinese stock, chinese chicken and pork stock, meat stock, bone stock, ham stock, fish stock All sorts.

In the beginning I used to add too many veggies. Adding too much carrot and onion can make your stock overly sweet.

Making stock is fun.

I play the stock market

there is no such thing as a good commercial beefstock unless you pay big bucks.
This is true for almost all stocks, with chicken being slightly less fake.

I think making broths and stocks is so easy and fast that i really dont get how anybody would skip it, also dont get why people treat it as a wastedisposal/byproduct.
Sure you dont get enough beefbones in a normal household to make stock out of it on a regular basis, but is buying a chickencarcass and vegetables for 2$ really so bad an investment for 3-4l of great broth?

A lot of home-made stock is garbage.

If isn't a loose jell-o consistency at room temperature and a solid mass when chilled, you did a bad job.

>but you buy them once you have herbs for years.

What magic is this?

>I think making broths and stocks is so easy and fast that i really dont get how anybody would skip it

until it takes five minutes and the ingredients are sold prepped and assembled in bags, the average person is not gonna make their own stock.

what is wrong with all of you
my stock consists of two ingredients: bones and water
shoving herbs and vegetables into your stock will fuck you up if you're making something that doesn't call for those flavors. I make stocks for all kinds of Korean and Chinese hot pots, sometimes noodles, and I want the stock itself to have an uninvasive flavor beyond the meat that went into making it. Once you make the stock, you can reboil it with whatever additions you want, but before you use a stock for anything it should have no flavors added. Keep all the fancy shit for a mono-use stock.

heh

Would drink desu senpai.

>will fuck you up if you're
a chink/weeb

this is a cooking board though, and not the "average" person, one could suspect.
also, it literally takes 5 min active time to do a elaborate chickenbroth for me:
>roughly cut onion,leek,carrot,celeryroot
>sear in oil, add carcass and water
>add parsley, kelp, dried mushrooms,peppercorn

thats literally it, its faster than making a nice sandwich, you dont need to do anything once its on the stove

>he doesn't enjoy any soup from Korea or Southeast Asia
literal pleb

i will make stock myself when i'm cooking for others. but it's not the most pleasant way to spend your time for non-hobbyists. it's smelly, straining and storing the stock can be a ballache, and it spends a lot of time on the stove.

Hello from Veeky Forums, heard you talking about stocks.

>being this autistic
It's not about being able to, it's about the people who actually do it and the people who don't.
Everyone can change brake pads on their car, there's still a big difference between the people who do and the people who don't retard

i make stock and can it in pints and occasionally quarts

is super handy when i don't have a lot of time to cook

I never made stock until I got an electric pressure cooker. Now I just save my bones and scraps and cook them in it for an hour or so.

Consomme > Stock/Broth

you act like consomme isn't made from stock

Since it's cold today and we'll have a fire going in the wood burning stove, I just put a pot full of a bunch of scraps on it and let it go all day. I like to can it too when we build up enough of it.

Is there a recipe behind that photo?

I'm not OP but there is certainly a standard recipe for it that's the same as you'll find in pretty much any cookbook:

1 lb mirepoix
8 lbs bones & meaty scraps
1 gallon water

...cook at a very gentle simmer, skim off the fat, strain.

Cooking times are usually 1 hour for fish, 3 hours for poultry, 9+ hours for beef, veal, etc.

Optional: if you want a "Brown" stock rather than a "White" stock then you brown the meat/bones in the oven before making the stock.

Also optional: Add a bundle of herbs (bouquet garni) to the stock while it's simmering.

SKIM IT FAGGOT

Calm down, spergemeister, I did after it reached a simmer.

>tfw my mom never used stock for cooking
>tfw never used it myself
>tfw found out about cooking with stock for the first time on Veeky Forums
I never knew food could be so flavorful

>butcher hookup
literally just walk into your nearest butcher and politely ask for some bones, it's not difficult.

LOL

>but most of us will take a week or more clearing out a quart

How so? A quart of stock isn't much. If you're making a batch of soup or stew then you're probably going to be using at least one quart, perhaps a lot more depending on how many servings you are making.

If I'm making a sauce based on a stock reduction then a single batch uses a quart easily.

>Never mind the long (if albeit passive) process necessary to make stock.

Since it's passive the time is irrelevant. Have the stock going while you are doing other things.

>Since it's passive the time is irrelevant. Have the stock going while you are doing other things.
Like playing stock market

General question re: stocks

can you freeze it and re-thaw it whenever you need it to cook? Or do you have to find a way to use a few liters of stock in under a week or so?

>can you freeze it and re-thaw it whenever you need it to cook?

Absolutely. That's very common. Make a big batch of stock then divide it up and freeze it in ready-to-use smaller portions.

Its easy. I have five different gallon Ziploc bags in my freezer at any time.

1. Leftover veggie scraps.
2. Chicken carcasses (save the necks for bait while crabbing).
3. Pork Shoulder bones.
4. Beef bones
5. Crustacean shells/fish heads when I buy whole.

When one gets full I wait until the weekend, throw it in a stock pot with 8-10 quarts of cold water depending on how many scraps I have and boil, reduce to a simmer and after scraping scum off the top for a bit, leave it. Literally walk away for 8-12 hours. Check on it every 2 hours or so if needed. Some people say to top it off with water, I don't think it is needed. Strain it out into mason jars and freeze.

I love mushrooms, so I always throw a handful of mushrooms into the pot as well. If you want to "roast" the bones that can add flavor. I tend to not use herbs or spices, my recipes are spiced enough. The fish stock can be a bit bland if not enough remains are used or if the water isn't reduced enough.

Its not just for cooking, when my fiance or I get sick its great as just a standalone warming drink or for a light soup.

You can absolutely freeze it.
An alternative is to boil/simmer it until it's VERY thick, like creamed honey the less water content the longer it will last. You will need to remove the "solid" ingredients before it gets too thick though, otherwise it will just stick to it.

...

...user I fucked up stock. It was my first attempt and I'm gonna try again this weekend.
I think I roasted the bones too long?
The stock smelled great and looked good, but when I tasted it the flavour was weak, and there was a metallic after-taste.

get outta here ya fruit bowl

>when I tasted it the flavour was weak

Probably too much water / not enough bones and meat.

Standard ratio is 8 lbs bones yields 4 quarts of finished stock.

A weak flavor can be fixed though, just boil it down to concentrate it.

But would that explain the revolting greasy metallic after-taste?

No, it wouldn't. I didn't comment on that because it's so hard to describe flavors without actually trying them.

Greasy could mean that you didn't skim the fat off your stock before you tried it.

Metallic? That's hard to picture. I suppose if you were using large bones that had a lot of blood in the marrow it might create a metallic taste but I've never experienced that myself.

Do I use stock for things other than soup? Like pour it over stir fry and what not? I make my own stock for soup, I make a lot of soup, but maybe I should start using it elsewhere?

You have probably used too much water. Just use enough water to make sure everything is covered plus a bit extra to account for evaporation. If you want to make sure not to use too much, then just have everything covered in the beginning and add water back in sporadically when too much evaporates.

Beef stock should be cooked for a pretty long time. People usually tell me they do between 4 - 8 hours of simmering. Pure vegetable stock only takes about 1 - 2 hours in comparison.

>there was a metallic after-taste.
What vegetables did you use? I've posted the usual ingredients here: On the top of my head I can only think of tomatoes producing a metallic taste sometimes.

You use it pretty much anywhere you add liquid.
Try boiling your rice in taht shit next time.

you gotta blanch that shit

>blanching stock ingredients

For what purpose

Neato, thanks. I'll make a bunch and freeze it then I guess.

I have onions, broccoli, peanut butter, cabbage, and bananas. Can I make stock?

>tasted it the flavour was weak
What are you expecting it to taste like? soup?
Stock should be near flavorless. Don't trust me? Ask Pepin in his book.

blanch the bones. it's supposed remove any dirt and shitty tastes etc. We make stock by the 22qt at my job and we always blanch the bones for the beef/chicken stock

Besides the obvious use case as base for soups and stews, it's also used in marinades, sauces, meat based puddings and purees. Another use is braising and deglazing meat.
People also often cook rice, lentils, barley, couscous and quinoa in stock to give it more flavor.

Only the onions are usable for making stock. Broccoli would give it a horrible bitter taste, same goes for cabbage though to a lesser degree. Not even going to address that other shit.

You've a terrible mom, tell her that she should be ashamed of herself.

Please try to make stock from peanut butter.

always blanch bones, ribs, bone-in chicken cuts, etc. before the long haul. this is 101 shit for every soup or braise recipe from China or Korea. In Japan they use special lids for skimming instead.

Choo choo, best stock comin' through.

I have bones simmering in hopes that they'll go to liquid. Anyone ever done this before?

Are kfc bones ok?

I'm a super beginner. What is stock used for?

Only soups and some sauces? Or are there any other common uses for it?

...

The leftover bits of breading will probably fuck it up.
Otherwise, I guess. You can pick the garbage at KFC and make a low-brow stock, sure.

>should be called wetter than bouillon

my parents have used it
you're going to skim it for fat and strain the solids out anyway (right?) so I guess it doesn't matter. the herbs from the breading and marinade are still there, but they shouldn't be overpowering. Better to use it all anyway than waste otherwise perfectly good bones.

t. just learned how to use stock

What is the best stock you can buy at the store?

none. There's no such thing.

I made this stock (1/2) it was a long process but pretty worth it

2/2

mirepoix(onion, celery, carrots) + bones/meat.

Anything else will add in flavors that will limit usage in recipes

This is what the culinary institute of America considers a standard stock.

Seafood stock for gumbo.

That looks like stock for pho or something.
what is?

the problem is, you are not the only person that is asking for it, so it costs money.

nice one friend :^)

Looks like you got a nice deep brown on your roux there, one of the most important aspect to gumbo. How long did you cook that roux to get that coloring?

probably like 4-6 hours on low heat

Stock using master race reporting in.

>4-6 hours

Just the flour and oil?

One was a stock. The other was a reduction. The roux came later. This is the left one. Reduction of basic stock plus Worcestershire, red wine, lemon, herbs and butter.

shiit, son

This is the roux after the Trinity went in. Took about 40 minutes to get the roux that color.

i didnt do one of those looooong slow roux. i treated it like i was going to make brown gravy. just a couple couples of flour and a cup and a half of oil. i wish i'd set some of that stock aside and made other stuff with it. i wont have crab again for a while or that much shrimp shell.

Why are they going with dices? Everyone I know just uses full or maybe halved vegetables. Doesn't seem to make much of a difference and it makes them easier to sieve in the end.

They are only in the stock for the last hour; so they don't get very mushy and are still easy to strain.

I just threw everything in a pot. Please tell me I did good.

40 minutes makes sense for the roux. I misunderstood.

I just roasted a duck a few days ago for the first time.

What can I use the bones/carcass for? How much stock would that make? Could I make some chicken soup with it? If I combined some chicken and duck stock, would the taste be off?