Okay, so I bought some beef barrow to make stock, but I can’t figure out how to do it. On cooking shows they say to “reduce it”, but reduce from what? Am I supposed to stick the bones in a pot full of water and simmer until little is left? If that’s the case, I won’t have much left. How does one make chicken or beef stock?
While we’re out it, how do I know I have stock and not broth? Stock is thicker, right?
Stock, IME, tends to be stronger and more reduced. Basically, in the way I make soups and stocks, it works like this…
Get your bones (beef bones, chicken carcass or fish bones/heads/prawn shells) and if you want roast 'em off briefly (best for beef bones, deepens the flavour). Throw the bones, some veggies like carrots, onion, garlic, celery, fennel or whatever you’ve got, and a few other spices like peppercorns or herbs into a large pot, then cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until it tastes like… Well, whatever you’re cooking with. That’s where I go for soups/broths. Then if you want to have a stock, keep simmering on a slightly higher heat until the liquid reduces to about half or a third (depending how strong you want it). Strain it all off, and you’ve got your stock or broth or whathaveyou.
Just don’t forget about the pot and leave it to boil dry…
Like we did…
Twice…
In one day…
:smack:
Grim
[sup]I really need to look into household insurance.[/sup]
Hie yourself over to the eGullet Tutorial on Stocks & Sauces. It’s the most complete reference on stocks I’ve found on the web.
Chicken stock is supposed to be made with whole pieces of chicken (such as wings, or whole carcasses of ‘old boilers’ - hens that have lived out their lives in egg production), but at home, it is most commonly made with the bones left over from a roast.
I do it like this:
When preparing a roast dinner, most of the vegetable trimmings are put into a large pan; this includes carrot and parsnip peelings and tops/tails, broccoli stalks (chopped up a bit), onion skins and tops/tails, bean trimmings and a few pea pods if the peas are home grown. To this, I add a sprig of rosemary, a bay leaf and a clove of garlic, cut in half. Potatoes are not included, as they will make the stock cloudy.
Any vegetables that have been boiled (except, again, the potatoes; this water is used for gravy) are drained directly over the stock pot. After the meal, the chicken carcass is picked and anything that isn’t meat is broken up a bit and put into the stock pot. This is brought to boil and simmered for several hours, then drained into a jug, covered immediately with film, cooled and placed in the fridge. If it has been made correctly it will have set into a firm jelly by the morning.
Monday following a Sunday roast is nearly always ‘risotto day’ - cooking some carnanoli rice in the stock and adding vegetables and some of the leftover chicken meat.
So, that eGullet link was pretty good.
I have a question about this statement though. . .
What’s this supposed to mean? Isn’t “evaporating” the water the whole point? He’s reducing the water and then just adding it back?
Also, is “stock” supposed to be that gelatinous stuff you get? Is is supposed to be liquid? Or is it supposed to be something in between? I’ve made it before and had the gelatin sitting atop the liquid.
[cue Underdog theme]
Never fear, Alton Brown is here.
Stock recipe and transcript.
Broth recipe and transcript.
Basically, stock is water + bones; broth is water + bones + meat.
The gelatin comes from the collagen in connective tissues (cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and the thin net of stuff around muscles called fascia.) That’s how slow cooking turns tough meat tender; you cook the gristle into gelatin.
Slight Hi-jack and amusing story. One of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen a chef do with this cooking technique was take several pounds of ground poppyseeds and water and make a classical 20 times reduced glace’ from the poppyseed stock.
No, I don’t know whether it worked or not.
I like to cook the veggies in butter first. I love the smoky taste of carmelized onions – and it helps darken the broth as well. I also throw some flour on the veggies and then add the water and stock carcasses. Makes it just a bit thicker and still strains well.
You want the bones covered with water at all times. Otherwise, they aren’t leeching out thier gelatin. Personally, I just add a bit more water than usual and forget about the topping up bit. You wan’t to reduce it after you’ve strained the bones out.
I don’t know how you can get gelatin sitting on top of water, gelatin is perfectly soluble in water. I’ve never encountered that problem.
After you make the stock, you should end up with 3 components, solids, water based liquids and oil based liquids. The water based liquids is your stock, the oil based liquids can be discarded for those who fear saturated fats or can be used for cooking to punch up the flavour.
:smack: RETARD!!! That was supposed to say beef marrow bones. You guys are real mensches for not asking me WTF is “beef barrow”!! 
Thanks for the answers and links! I’m going to have to buy a really large pot.
maybe I’m misremembering.
I haven’t tried to make stock in years, so followup question: what is the consistency of stock supposed to be after it has been sitting in my fridge?
Is is just liquid like you buy in the grocery store, or is it supposed to be gelatinous goo?
So how do you make vegetable stock?
Gelatinous goo. At least in my experience.
Sorry if I repeat thing, but I felt like weighing in.
First, a stock is a flavourful liquid made from bones and vegetables, a broth is a flavourful liquid made from meat and vegetables. The distinction really isn’t important since the two words are often interchangeable, the point is usually that a broth is the flavourful liquid that results from cooking something, like say a potroast.
To clarify something Rainbowthief kept asking, the stock isn’t neccessarily reduced. Reduced means to simmer a liquid until there is less of it, thereby concentrating it. When making a stock, you’ll want to simmer your bones in enough water to cover them, which often means adding more. Once it has been strained, you are free to reduce it as much as you like.
The basics of stock making, without getting too complicated are as follows:
SIMMER bones in water, with some vegetables, and some seasonings (never salt), strain then reduce as desired.
As a general rule, you’ll want twice as much water as bones by weight (where a pound of water equals a pint). So if you’ve got a pound of bones, use 2 pints of water, and top it off as needed.
For vegetables, the rule is usually to use twice as much onion, as there is celery and carrots. Those are the three main ones, keeping in mind that carrot can make things kind of yellowy orange and leaks are tasty. The rule for veggies that you want about 10% (by weight) veggies to water. If you are using 2 pounds of water (2 pints) use about 4 ounces of veggies, which would be 2 ounces of onion, 1 ounce cellery, 1 ounce carrot. (this would be a very very small stock).
Beef stock is usually simmered 6-8 hours, chicken stock is simmered 3-4 hours, vegetable stock and fish stock are simmered for 30-45min.
Vegetable stock is made by simmering a lot of vegetables in water for about 30-45 min, many people will sautee or sweat their veggies before adding the water. The exact veggies used aren’t that important, but becareful using really strong veggies like broccoli that will dominate.
Beef stocks are usually made with browned bowns, that is bones that have been roasted in a very hot oven until then get really dark. The onions are also usually browned , the celery and carrots are usually sauteed, and many people will add tomato paste.
Chicken stock can be made with roasted bones, but it doesn’t need to be. For a while there I was buying bone-in chicken breasts and freezing the bone part. When I had a bunch of them I’d make stock. My mother would always use the whole carcus after she had made a big dinner.
Please don’t use cooked veggies that would completely defeat the point. Some good seasonings to add are: bay leaf, pepper corn, sprig of thyme, parsley stems, cloves. But go easy on the seasoning, its something you can do afterwards. Stock is meant to be the building blocks of soups and sauces, so you want to go easy on their flavour until you use them.
Hope this helps.
A given amount of bones only has a certain amount of flavour and gelling power. If you don’t reduce it at all, it will be thin and wobbly. If you reduce it a lot, it should bounce like rubber. Either way, theres still roughly the same amount of gelatin and flavour. The stuff they sell in the grocery store probably has more water added so they can sell more.