BVC Eats: Frugality with Basic Stock

It’s autumn, time to think about stock. Soup stock is a foundation of many dishes for a reason. It’s yummy, of course, and increases yummitude (if that’s a word) in many dishes. More importantly, it’s thrifty. You get the maximal value out of that expensive meat, squeezing another couple meals out of it. And finally, there’s nothing to it. It is very nearly labor-free, calling for no artifice at all. Neanderthals in caves made stock. It’s easy!

You’ll notice this recipe has a lot of elbow room. Four onions instead of one? Fine. No carrot? Ignore it. You can make it vegetarian by omitting the animal products entirely. Make a fish stock with fish heads and bones, but only simmer it for a couple hours. Do what you want with what you have, it’s that kind of recipe.

Ingredients

Bones and meat, either a mixture or of one kind: beef, chicken, veal, pork, bison, duck, whatever. These can be cooked, like from a rotisserie chicken, or raw. Hoard bones from previous meals in a bag in the freezer until you have a lot.

Onion, at least one, peeled

Celery, at least a couple stalks, washed and cut into chunks

Carrot, at least one, peeled and chunked

A dozen peppercorns

One or two cloves, if you have any

One or two bay leaves

Herbs, fresh or dried: parsley, rosemary, thyme

Other things to add if you have them around: The tough stalks from leafy green vegetables like kale or spinach. Shallots or leeks. Turnip tops, carrot greets, essentially anything that’s even dimly edible. The only thing I’d omit is strongly flavored vegetables like broccoli or turnips or garlic. Save those for the soup or stew.

You can omit this step if you want, but it deepens flavor a lot. Put all the bones and root veg into a large roasting pan and roast them, at 450 degrees, until everything gets a little brown. Turn things over and brown the other side.

Dump everything into a large stockpot and run water into it until everything’s an inch under. Put the lid on, bring it up to a boil and then lower the heat. You want it to bubble very slowly, just a slow bloop.  Set the lid askew a crack, and let it cook for at least 12 hours, maybe even 24. You can stir it if you want, but there’s little else to do. When you get up in the morning have a look to see if the fluid level is getting low — add some water if it’s low tide. Your entire kitchen will smell great.

When you think it’s done, take the stockpot off the heat. Use a slotted spoon or tongs or whatever to haul out the bigger bones and chunks. Then pour everything through a colander or strainer. Hungry children or spouses will sometimes pick out the carrots and eat them, but mostly what you have left in the strainer is slush that can be tossed.

If you want the stock to be clear — if you’re making a jellied consommé, for instance — you can line your strainer with muslin and pour it through again. It’ll surprise you, how much particulate is still in there. But mostly this isn’t necessary, if you’ll be using the stock in stew or beans. If there’s a big volume of it, you can boil it down to concentrate it some more. Then chill it to bring the fat to the top. You can save the fat for other uses (using it to brown the meat for that stew would be traditional) or put it out for birds. Freeze the stock if you’re not going to use it anytime soon, in portions that are convenient for you.

So now you have this glorious stock! What should you do with it? Next blog post!