Making Stock

The Recycled Cook

By Adrian Sleeman

Making Stock

I have already touched on this but the cornerstone of any recycled cooking has to be the stock pot. Whether it is meat or fish, nothing tastes as good  as home made stock. It might seem a strange thing to do when stock is readily available in cubes, jars and tubes but the  effort is worth it. Some supermarkets now actually sell fresh stock too at a premium price.

There is no comparison between shop bought stock and home made and you have the added benefit of knowing precisely what has gone into your home made variety.

The Stock Pot
If you have a large enough cooker you could do what the professionals do, have a large pot available to put any trimmings from meat or vegetables into as you cook. Obviously this is not always a practical situation in a domestic kitchen but regardless, making your own stock will transform the flavour of your food and minimise wastage.


Making stock

Obviously you can't mix fish and meat but apart from that pretty much anything   can go into your stockpot. There is no set recipe for making stock, just make sure that you add sufficient cold water to cover the ingredients  and simmer for long enough to extract the maximum amount of flavour.

Stock is not something you can really over-cook. If you think it is getting too reduced simply add some more water but I like to reduce this dow so that when it is cooled it has an almost jelly like texture to it. 

Once I am happy with the flavour of my stock, I will strain it through a fine conical sieve (A Chinoise) and then reduce it down further. The idea being that reducing the stock not only intensifies the flavour but will take up less space in your freezer. 

Frozen stock cubes

Frozen Stock Cubes


You can even reduce your stock down further and pour into ice cube trays, creating instant, freshly made stock cubes from the freezer to use any time you like. No more lumps of undissolved powder floating around in your food.

One thing to be careful about is seasoning, by all means add pepper and any herbs you like but be careful with adding salt as the stock will become more concentrated as it reduces and could become too salty. 

 

Disclaimer: The suggestions and tips on these blog pages are meant to be used in conjunction with common sense. Keeping your family healthy is the priority. Do not use food that is unfit for human consumption and always follow sensible food hygiene guidelines. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/homehygiene/Pages/food-leftovers-safety.aspx

 

  

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