About Stock

Good stock is indispensable for good cooking.  It is the basis of classical French cuisine; the French word for stock is fond,
which means foundation.  Good stock cannot be purchased.  Prepared broth sold in the soup aisle of supermarkets is a very
weak substitute for the real thing.  If you will make your own stock the food you serve will improve significantly and it
need not be too much trouble.  If you can't take the time, look here.   Good stock has a mild, clean, definite flavor which is
neither sour, nor metallic, nor dirty.  It will gel when cooled in the refrigerator - this is an indication of its protein (gelatin!)
content, which gives it body.  When making stock never try to use ingredients that are tainted, scorched or spoiled - these
defects will be apparent in the stock made from them.  Stock is made from bones, connective tissues (such as tendons,
ligaments, and cartilage), meat, vegetables, and a small amount of added seasoning.  Stock became the foundation of French
and continental cooking because it used to be inexpensive as it was made from things that were considered scraps or waste.
Things have changed.  You can't get bones for next to nothing at the market any more and the tough, stringy, flavorful cuts of
beef that are only good for soup or stock are no longer cheap.  So what's to be done?  Chicken stock is still not very costly
if you plan ahead to make it.  Beef stock is unavoidably expensive but isn't needed for most dishes: chicken stock will almost
always do.  Bearing all this in mind, here are some ways of making good stock, starting with the easiest.

Stock from a Roasted Chicken

Whenever I roast a chicken I make stock afterward.  Try this: make a roast chicken using a recipe you like.  When cleaning
up later, remove and put away most of the meat remaining on the carcass, then break the remains up well enough to get them
into a 3 quart saucepan.  Put everything from the cavity - the celery, onion, herbs, whatever - into the saucepan too.  Fill the
roasting pan about one quarter inch deep with water and scrape whatever you can free from its bottom and sides.  Add the
water and scrapings to the saucepan.  Repeat this.  Those little bits of brown stuff clinging to the roasting pan have a surprising
amount of flavor and you don't want to throw them away.  What you have just done is called deglazing and the loosened bits
are called fond.  Cut up an unpeeled onion (the onion's peel contributes color to the stock) and a carrot and add these to the
stock pot.  Fill the saucepan with water up to about one inch from the top, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover so that the
stock simmers very slowly.   There should be bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pot, but they should be few and far between.
Don't add any salt.   Never add salt to stock; when you use the stock you may well want to concentrate its flavor by boiling away
water until it becomes as salty as can be pleasant.  If you salt your stock, you won't be able to concentrate it as much.  Simmer
the stock for at least four hours, the longer the better.  I know my stove and my stockpot well, and I can let stock simmer all night
without any problems.  Don't try this until you are sure of your equipment but it makes it easier to let it go until morning and
the stock is better for having simmered longer.  Turn off the heat and let the stock cool - this will take a few hours.  When it is
cool enough to handle, ladle the stock through a strainer into a large bowl, pouring the last of the stock through the strainer
directly from the pan.  The remaining solids are spent and may be discarded - I feed them to my dogs.  Freeze the stock in plastic
containers.  It will keep for months if frozen, but only for a few days in the refrigerator - stock is an ideal medium for the growth
of bacteria.   So: from materials often discarded, with only a few minutes of actual work, you have made about two quarts of pretty
good stock.
Was that so hard?  What you have made is stock, not soup and it may seem pretty thin.  However it will improve the
recipes you cook more than you may expect.  When you want to use some stock, microwave the plastic container for a few minutes
until it is easy to break loose chunks of the still semi-frozen stock with a fork.  Take what you need and refreeze the remainder.
Use this stuff!  It is kitchen gold!  Find an appealing recipe that calls for stock and try it.  You'll like it.

The next step: Chicken Stock From Scratch

Stock made from a roasted chicken carcass has two shortcomings: much of the flavor has already been cooked out of the
leftovers and it may be on the salty side, limiting how far it can be reduced.  This recipe is a remedy for both of these problems.

Ingredients:
Bones and attached meat from twelve chicken half-breasts
(If you buy smaller packages of chicken breasts freeze the bones in ziplocs until you have enough.)
Chicken necks and feet if you have them - adding more meat is always a good thing
One unpeeled onion about three inches in diameter, chopped
One stalk celery, sliced
One small turnip, diced
Two carrots, sliced
A bay leaf
One quarter teaspoon (2 ml) dried thyme leaves
Five peppercorns

Put all the above in an 8 quart stock pot and fill to within an inch of the top with water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat,
cover and simmer for eight to twelve hours.  Finish this stock just as in the recipe above.
This time you did a little more work and you got better results.  Have you used your stock in a few recipes? Can you
tell the difference in them? Isn't it nice having stock ready to use when you want it? Congratulations on the big step
forward you have made in your cooking!

Beef Stock

I don't know how to make beef stock without spending some money, so I make it only when I really want it.   For most dishes
chicken stock works well.  For a few recipes, such as French onion soup, beef stock is needed.   Use the same ingredients
as for Chicken Stock From Scratch above, but use only half as many chicken bones and add two pounds of beef soup bones.
The knuckle bones are best if you can find them.  Add one to two pounds (500 to 1000 g) of beef shanks or beef suitable for
braising, the tougher the better.  Cut the meat into pieces about 1&1/2 inches (4 cm) on a side.  Put the cut meat with the bones
onto on a cookie sheet and brown in the oven at 400F (200C).  After thirty minutes turn the bones and beef over with tongs
and brown for twenty more minutes.  Remove from the oven and transfer the bones and meat to the stock pot with tongs or a
slotted spoon.  Let the cookie sheet and everything in it cool until the fat hardens.  Add all the other ingredients listed above
(for chicken stock from scratch) to the stockpot and continue as in the above recipe.  When the cookie sheet is fully cooled the
fat that cooked out of the beef will have hardened.  Remove and discard this fat (there will be plenty more fat later) then scrape
everything else into the cooking stock.   Ladle some making stock from the stock pot into the cookie sheet and scrape again,
getting everything you can loose from the pan.  This is called swashing and scraping.   Add the scrapings and liquid to the
stockpot, bring to a simmer and continue cooking for twelve hours or more.
This stock will have lots of fat on it and will have to be strained while warm.  The fat can be removed when the stock is cold.
I like to use this fat to grease the pan for Yorkshire pudding.  After removing the fat you may want to strain the stock through
muslin.  It's a nice touch.