Chicken stock question - can I make it in two or more sessions?

Cafe Society
1

I purchased a whole chicken on Friday and roasted it up on Saturday, and it was very tasty. I’m not a very good cook in a lot of ways, though I’m getting better, but roasted chicken is something I almost have down pat. I’m kind of stunned at myself.*

Part of the reason I splurged, though was because I wanted to make stock from the carcass. Until my roommate said she’d make us a soup from the carcass instead, which I decided to concede on. She did that last night, but decided not to use the whole carcass, but just a good amount of the meat off of it. There’s still plenty of meat left for sandwiches and such. And lots of yummy soup.

However, I’m looking at my time all of the sudden, and I realize that I forgot to purchase a few things for the stock when I was out on Friday and so will need to go buy it today. Between that, and going out with my roommate tonight, I may not have a solid block of 8-12 hours to baby-sit stock until Thursday afternoon and evening. Maybe tomorrow night, but I’m not sure. I’d have to stay up kind of late, most likely. The last time I did that, though, I came a little too close for comfort to burning the place down (I was really lucky I was making stock, let’s put it that way).

So what I’m wondering is if I can make stock in two sessions. It doesn’t seem like a logical thing to be able to do, but I’m hopeful.

Also, in a related set of questions, would breaking the bones apart make the stock cook up more quickly? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process without sacrificing too much quality? Can someone give me a good “basic” stock recipe?

*I’m really decent at this point at roasting a chicken, but my stock making skills are very so-so. To answer a question I think I’ve seen twice on these boards recently, no, they don’t teach home-ec anymore. Or if they did at my HS, it was an elective I recall nothing about and most emphatically did not take. So now I’m cobbling it together as I go.

2

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23730,00.html

3

I make my stock in 3-4 hours as a rule. I challenge anyone to tell the difference.

I believe that was the recommendation in one of my bobby flay books.

I just don’t know how much more stuff you’d be getting from the bones after that much time.

4

I used to make stock over many hours until I read an article that suggested only leaving it for two hours. I have since tried this and it works just fine, producing very good stock.

5

Thanks! I think that’s one I’ve used and liked before.

ETA: That was to Contrapunctual, I hadn’t seen the other posts at the time of posting.

I used to make stock in about 2-4 hours, and then came here the day I nearly burned the place down and was told I’d been doing it all wrong the whole time UNTIL I nearly burned the place down. Now I’m lost again.

6

If I understand correctly, most of the ‘work’ is done in the first hour or two, and you get rapidly diminishing returns the longer you cook it.

7

Small hijack - has anybody done stock in a pressure cooker? Mine came with instructions for it in the little booklet, and it seems like an awesome idea, you know, great stock in less than an hour. But is it any good?

8

I’ve always suspected this myself.

Anyhow, the one advantage of cooking for a long time is simply evaporation and concentrating the stock. That said, you can pull the stock and reduce it at a later date if you wish.

What I generally do when I make stock is to make about 4 quarts at a time. three quarts I freeze, and one quart (maybe a little more) I reduce to a super-concentrated stock called “glace de viande.” You basically just take that quart of stock and cook it until it coats the back of a spoon. From a quart or so of stock, I might get 1/2 cup of super-concentrated glace (it depends on how much gelatin content is in the stock. You definitely want to make sure you’ve used plenty of bones in your stock when making this).

This stuff is awesome. You can simply reconstitute it with water to make stock. You can add it sauces and gravies to strengthen the flavor. I sometimes combine it with my undiluted stock if the undiluted stock is a little weak for the particular recipe. It’s like having your own homemade chicken bouillon. It’s a little discouraging at first, when you see all this undiluted stock evaporate away, but what you’re left with is chicken gold.

9

Man, that would be brilliant! Alas, I forgot my pressure cooker at a friend’s house across the country when I moved…

pulykamell, I may try something like that. I never know exactly how much stock I’m going to end up with out of one carcass, though. As I said, my stock making skills are very “meh”.

10

I got taught to make chicken stock at the Raymond Blanc cookery school (no, really!). Here’s how we did it:

Cut the chicken bones down, put in a roasting pan and heat on the stove, turning, until there’s a healthy brown color. Takes about 30 minutes. Then throw in sprigs of thyme, chopped mushrooms, and a mushed-up clove of garlic, and roast for about an hour. Throw the whole lot into a pan, cover in water (or if you have any old chicken stock, use that), bring to a simmer, skim, simmer for 30 minutes, then season, then filter. No need for further reduction.

That was it. And it is really, really lovely.

11

I don’t buy it. Sorry, y’all might be making a nice BROTH, but stock means simmered long enough to break down the connective tissue in the bones and joints and turn it to gelatin. That makes it rich and buttery tasting even after you skim off the fat. There’s no way to do that in under 4 hours that I know of. If your stock doesn’t turn into a delightfully disgusting wiggly block in the fridge after you’re done, than it didn’t simmer long enough.

But, yes, I’ve done it in 4 hours one day and 4 hours the next.

12

Yeah, I’m not sure one carcass is going to give you enough stock to make glace.

What I normally do when I make stock is go to the local grocery store. They have sacks of chicken thighs and legs they sell for something like 69 cents a pound (cheaper than chicken backs and necks). I buy an approximately five-pound sack, throw 'em all in the pot with veggies, and simmer away. The leg-thighs have plenty of bone and plenty of meat that they give me good flavor. I just use leg-thighs because they happen to be cheapest. If wings were cheaper, or backs, or necks, I’d use those. Just make sure to remove any solidified fat after cooling the stock down.

13

The Culinary Institute of America’s own professional stock recipe simmers for 4-5 hours.

14

WhyNot, my two-hour stock was a block of jelly. The trick is to split the meat, and cut through the bones (forgot to mention that) to expose the marrow to the liquids.

15

Ah, yes, splitting the bones might do it. I’ll have to try that!

16

I think like someone said above. . .it’s about “diminishing returns”. It’s not like you’re not breaking down that bone juice in the first 3:59 minutes, and then voila, it all breaks down at once.

I bet you get about 95% there in 4 hours, and then about 99% there in 8.

OP: keep in mind how you’re planning on cooling it down. A couple gallons of stock can warm your fridge up better than your fridge can cool it down.

I like to buy a couple bags of ice, dump it into my sink and then make an ice water bath for the pot I strain the stock into. (that’s if you can seal your sink up). You might add cold water or more ice if everything has warmed up too much.

Submersion like that is more effective than air-cooling too. You’ll get the temp down faster.

17

Wonderful. I had wondered if cutting into the carcass would help, it seemed likely, but I’m not “stock-savvy”.

I don’t need stock for anything right now, it’s just that I’d prefer to have stock or homemade broth on hand for when I do want it than have to go buy broth. I like mine better, that’s all. Heck, if I can find room in the freezer (or the outlet in the garage for the other freezer), I’m just going to freeze everything.

Since I don’t need stock, this isn’t as much about making stock as it is not wasting. I love roasted chicken, there’s just me and my roommate, and I’m unlikely to roast another chicken in a reasonable enough time to put this carcass in the freezer for when I’ve got more to put in. I don’t really want to buy new parts for a stock. I hope that makes sense. Right now, even a whole roasted chicken was a bit of a splurge, so it doesn’t make sense to make stock before it’s needed.

Now if I could get my roommate to engage in a “I’ll roast a chicken once a week if we swap off buying the chicken”, I’d be all sorts of thrilled. But that seems unlikely.

ETA: Trunk, I was planning to freeze some half or a bit more full water bottles and put them in the stock, while the pan was surrounded by ice in my cooler. Heck, I could probably just put it on the terrace overnight if I wait a couple of days or so.

18

Yep, that and the breaking open the bones thing. More surface area revealed should equal faster permeation and breakdown of the connective tissue. The recipe pulykamell linked to calls for “8 lb/3.6 chicken bones (meaty) cut to 3-inch/75mm lengths”, and that seems jjim’s culinary school taught to crack the bones as well. That must be their secret!

I like to make stock in the winter, so I can stick the pot in a snowdrift to cool. (I bungee the lid on so critters can’t drink from it.)

ETA: I also freeze carcasses until I have enough to make it worth my time: at least 3 or 4 of those little roasted chickens, and several raw (frozen) backs from chickens I cut up myself. That makes my biggest stock pot worth - I dunno, maybe 16 quarts? That gets about 4 quarts made into soup and the other eight frozen in freezer bags for later use - 6 in quarts and 8 in cups.

19

I see, WhyNot, that we are thinking the same thoughts about cooling the stock. Only I don’t have bungee cords and there are no snowdrifts right now.

20

Quick hint: Take some stock and put it in ice trays. That lets you grab a cup of stock in cubes when you need it.