Stretch Your Food Dollar: Making Your Own Stock
Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is starting to recover from the frenzy of eating leftovers. Two weeks ago I mentioned that you could save your turkey bones to make stock, so I thought this would be an excellent topic for this week’s edition of Stretch Your Food Dollar.
Quality stock is the basis of all classical cuisine. By utilizing bones to make stock, you are maximizing your food dollar by making sure that you use every part of the animal. You can of course make chicken and beef stock by saving your bones, but did you know you can also make shrimp, fish, and lobster stock by saving the shells and bones? Most of us probably don’t have the freezer space at home to make all of the different stocks that can be used in the kitchen, but having your own chicken or vegetable stock on hand can be a real money saver. And with a few tools and some simple ingredients, you can start saving money on stock today.
Before we get into the specifics of making stock, I should probably clarify that there is a difference between stock and broth. Broth is made by simmering meat, while stock is made by simmering bones. On Saturday I made broth by simmering a whole turkey. I picked the meat off the bones and bagged that up for future use, and then I saved the bones for making a batch of stock when I run out of my broth. If you use bone-in cuts of meat (which end up being cheaper), you can store your bones in the freezer for several months until you have enough to make your stock. Or you could talk to your butcher to see if they’re willing to sell or give you their discarded bones.
The first thing you will need for stock is a good stockpot. I have a 10 gallon stock pot that I bought at the thrift store for just a few dollars. Another other tool you will need is a metal colander, along with some cheesecloth. You’ll want a nice ladle for skimming any fat or impurities off the top of the stock. And you’ll need quart-size jars or freezer bags for storing your stock.
Whether you are making meat or vegetable stock, the method is the same. And your ingredients for stock never vary, no matter what type of stock you’re making (chicken, beef, vegetable), or how much you’re making. The only difference between chicken and beef stock is that with beef stock, you want to roast the bones in the oven first so that your stock picks up a nice, brown color. After the bones are nice and brown, deglaze your roasting pan with some red wine. Plan to use 1 ounce of wine for every pound of bones.
For all stocks, the general rule of thumb is that you use 1 pound of mirepoix for every 5 pounds of bones. Mirepoix is a mixture of onions, carrots, and celery. The ratio is always the same. You use 50% onions, 25% celery, and 25% carrots. If you don’t have 5 pounds of bones, just adjust your ratio ‘“ it’s always 1:5, no matter how much you are making.
The next component of stock is the sachet d’spices. In French, this literally means ‘œbag of spices.’ A sachet includes 1 bay leaf, 2-3 garlic cloves, 8 peppercorns, 6-8 parsley stems, 4-6 whole cloves, and several sprigs of thyme. You can vary your amounts depending on the quantity of stock you are making. Take a piece of cheesecloth and put your spices in the middle of the cloth. Bring the four corners to the middle and tie a piece of butcher’s twine around the top to seal off your bag. Tie the twine to the handle of your stockpot so the sachet can be easily removed. Salt is never used when making stock, because the flavor of the salt tends to get concentrated the longer the stock is on the stove. Furthermore, stock is the foundation for other recipes. If you have salt in your stock, it’s harder to control the flavor of other recipes down the road.
Now that you have your ingredients assembled, you’re ready to make stock. Start by rinsing your bones in cold water to remove any blood or impurities that will make the stock cloudy. Next, place the bones in your stockpot and cover them completely with cold water. I like to use bottled water so that I know my stock is free of any impurities. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Skim off any scum that rises to the top with your ladle. Add the mirepoix and sachet. Do not let the stock boil, always keep it at a simmer. Boiling will result in cloudy stock because the proteins begin to coagulate. Skim the surface as needed to remove any impurities as possible. Make sure the water level always covers the bones. Add more water if you need to. Simmer your bones for the recommended amount of time.
Beef = 6-8 hours
Chicken = 3-4 hours
Fish = 30-45 minutes
When your stock is done cooking, it’s time to drain the stock through the colander that you’ve double-lined with cheesecloth. I strain my stock into 2 smaller soup pots that are resting in the sink filled with ice. After the stock is drained into the smaller pots, I fill the sink with water until the water level is ¾ of the way up the side of the pot. You need to bring the temperature of the stock down rapidly so that you can get it into the freezer as soon as possible. This reduces the possibility of food borne illness. When the stock is 40 ° or less, put it in storage containers and stick it in the fridge or freezer. Stock will keep for several months in the freezer and for 2-3 days in the fridge. Be sure to label the stock with the name and the date it was made so that you can easily identify it in the future.
For vegetable stock, the cooking process is much shorter. You only need to simmer the vegetables for 30-45 minutes. Use mirepoix and other mild-tasting vegetables. Avoid potatoes or other starchy vegetables, because this will cause the stock to be cloudy. Remember that a stockpot is not a garbage disposal. If you put garbage in your stockpot, you’ll end up with stock that belongs in the garbage.
Making your own stock is very easy and it’s a terrific way to watch your food costs. You can put the pot on the stove and go about your other household chores, because you rarely need to check on the stockpot while it’s cooking. And for those of us who are watching our waistlines, homemade stock is a great way to control our fat and salt intake because we know precisely what we’re putting on our plates. You can use stock to make soups, gravies, and sauces. And meat and vegetables cooked in stock become much more flavorful than those that are cooked only in water.
My last note for this week is a shout out to Chef Eid and Chef Schroeder at Scottsdale Culinary Institute. I hope this article is a credit to the quality of your instruction.
Happy cooking, and happy holidays everybody!
Interesting….One of my favorite stocks is called “Garbage Stock” from “The Vegetarian Epicure” by Anna Thomas…basicly its Potato Skins and the stock comes out a cloudy brown. The skins are simmered and then the stock is run through a sieve to remove the skins but leave the bits of potato.
Its a great way to use the skins from making mashed…you just save them in the freezer until you have enough.
She has another made from just Garlic and quite delicious.
Her two books are among my favorite cookbooks.
~ R
Great article. So thoughtful. My approach to stock (which according to your recipe would really be broth) is a toss it in approach. While I can’t vouch for the integrity of it stock vs broth or the exact proportion of spices, etc. it sure comes out tasting good & makes a boatload. We have more turkey soup than I know what to do with. I’d love it if you could explain more about the difference between stock and broth here or in future article.
Hey Paula, sure thing. You can use stock and broth pretty much interchangeably for soups. If you’re making sauces, though, you might want to stick with stock. Broth tends to have a higher fat content, sense it comes from simmering meat. And it also has a stronger flavor. White stocks, like fish stock and chicken stock, tend to be more subtle in flavor. So if you’re making one of the mother sauces, such as a veloute, you would want stock.
One thing that I didn’t mention about stock is that you can actually make a second batch of stock from the same bones if you really want to stretch your food dollar. This is called a remouillage. It will have a much milder flavor than stock, since most of the primary flavor has already been extracted by making the first batch. You could use remouillage in place of water when making a batch of fresh stock. Or you could use it when you’re cooking meat to impart more flavor.
Another way you could use stock or broth is to cook your rice. It really adds some flavor to do it this way. Let’s say you’re having mashed potatoes for dinner . . . if you’ve got stock on hand, all you need to do for gravy is thicken that stock with some corn starch that’s dissolved in water and then season with salt and pepper. Stock is really versatile. In fact, a quick search of Food Network turned up 4468 recipes for stock or that use stock.
Let me know if you have more questions, Paula. I really love to talk about this stuff!
Roland, that’s interesting. I would love to try making garlic stock. I’ll bet it’s awesome!
Serena: Jeanine made stock the day after that she used for turkey soup. I saw the neck floating in there at one point… so stock, right? That said, she was offended when I added a generous portion of salt and pepper at the dinner table… and said, “You don’t like my turkey soup!” Any suggestions?
Hi Nina, good question. Everyone has their own palate and prefers a different level of seasoning. In culinary school, I was always being encouraged to add more salt, no matter what recipe we were making. It always seemed like too much salt to my palate. But my general rule of thumb was if it tastes just right, add another pinch of salt. When we cook for others, it’s always an adjustment to figure out how much seasoning to add. And in your situation, it sounds like you and Jeanine are still learning to figure out each others food tastes. For my house, I am learning to cut down on spicy flavors, because my partner can’t handle spicy things. Just when I think I’ve really toned down a recipe, he’ll grab a glass of milk because it’s too hot. Oh well! We’ll eventually figure it out.