I bought a rack of ribs this weekend and as I was eating my way through them I came upon a problem I hadn’t had in a while namely what to do with the bones/ Normally I’d just throw them to the dog but he’s not with me, so I decided to back some stock. I tossed in half a bag of some frozen vegetables i was going to eat for dinner, two of the bones and one rib the meet still on it. I let that simmer for 6-8 hours before shutting it off while I went to bed. The next day I finished off the ribs and added them to the stock and simmered it for another 3 hours. I knocked out the pieces with a colander and put the liquid into a pot with a lid in the fridge.
So far so good normally I don’t use as many bones, normally I’ll use a chicken carcass, but I’ll simmer it for closer to 16 hours. I just went home for lunch and decided to skim off the fat and ran into a problem, my stock has turned completely gelled. From what I can tell from googling this is a good thing but now I’m not sure what to do with it. Previously it would be partially gelled maybe 50% max and I would just use it like a liquid as the recipes called for it, 1 cup of water became 1 cup of stock.
I’m not sure what to do with it now. I was planning on taking a couple of scoops to make rice with tonight but I’m not sure if I need to heat it up first and then measure out for my rice or just add a spoon full to the water I’m using.
In the longer run I’m looking for suggestions on tasty things I can do with the beef stock. My cookbooks are back with my dog some 1000 miles away so I’m just cooking from memory. Something to keep in mind with recipe suggestions I’m only cooking for myself so it either need to keep well or be in small portions and I’m in a crappy apartment with an electric stove and a very basic setup as far as tools.
Good for you for making homemade stock. The gelled consistency is completely normal. Gelatin is, after all, made from bones. What you’ve got there is beefy Jell-O, made as it was from the time when there was no Jell-O on your grocer’s shelves.
Just use it as you would liquid stock; it will melt and give your dish a lot more body than if you’d used canned stock. You may need to dilute it since you didn’t prepare it to a specific formula and it may be really strong. Also, there’s absolutely no need to simmer any sort of stock more than 5 or 6 hours, unless you simply want to make something super-concentrated.
Next time, do a little reading on how the experts make stock and you’ll have an even better end product. For one, the bones should be browned in the oven first, the vegetables should be browned in the oven or sauteed. Etc. You’ll get a much deeper, more complex flavor.
Ok, that makes sense. Normally I just use it as the water for my rice or grits, the water for my ramen, or the liquid to cook my frozen vegetables. I don’t really eat soups or other liquid dishes, except chili. It’s good to know about the time I normally just throw the bones in the next morning and let them simmer all day I’ll probably make stock more often if I can just do it after work.
I guess I should let it heat up first so it gets liquid and then put my rice in it but keep the volume the same as I would normally use, slightly more then 2:1.
The gelled stock will melt into liquid almost immediately. I’ve never had to warm mine up first.
There is a richness to gelled stock that just can’t be obtained any other way that I know of. Possibly one could add an envelop of unflavored gelatin to liquid stock, but I’ve never tried it and I’m not sure it would do the trick. Gelled stock is the optimal outcome of making stock.
You can freeze stock in ice cube trays, and take out a cube or two as you need it. For instance, cooking rice in stock adds a lot of flavor to it, and it’s great to cook potatoes and other vegetables in. In the winter, I peel and cut up potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions, toss in some stock, and roast for a side dish.
