Making your own stock is not only easy, but makes everything you cook using this golden herbed liquid taste better. It really does. For those of you already making your own stock you know what I mean. For those that want to but just haven't gotten into the stock groove yet...well once you get the routine down...it be easy!
There are so many good reasons to make your own stock starting with how much money you will save. One reason I began making my own stock years back was that I found everything that tasted really good off the grocery store shelves also was really good because of the MSG in the ingredients...and not just an ingredient, but almost always, nearly the first ingredient! OH and did I mention that those products are always expensive! ;-)
The routine I have gotten into makes it easy to make the stock. I either make a huge batch once a month or smaller batches twice a month. SO.....next time you make a roast chicken or purchase one of those pre-made rotisserie birds don't throw out the carcass. Just chop it up a bit and throw the pieces into a freezer ziploc bag and label it "for stock" and put it into your freezer. Oh and lets say your cutting up a bird for a recipe and your about to throw out the wings or the weird mysterious looking chicken parts you find sometimes in a pre-cut up whole chicken package...toss those into the ziplocs too. In no time you will have a good collection of chicken pieces.
The beauty of the process is that you don't even need to thaw out the pieces to make stock. Just toss them all into a big dutch oven or french oven or a deep stock pot, fill with water to just about an inch from the top. Next add two large onions quartered...technically you don't even need to peel the onions...but I do anyhow. Add about 5 cloves of fresh garlic, three stalks of celery with leaves...and your just about set.
But the magic to making the stock flavor pop lies in the herbs you wrap in cheese cloth (bouquet garni). I use two sprigs of rosemary - fresh or dried, 3 big bay leaves, a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns, 4 large dried sage leaves, 5 sprigs of thyme - fresh or dried...now roll up the cloth and tie up the ends with cotton twine, leaving one of the twine ends longer so you can easily pull it out of the pot when it's time.
Easy or what?! Just cook all the ingredients over medium heat for about four hours. Strain the ingredients thru a metal sieve into a large vessel. Now here is what I do to make the process even simpler. You know those large yoghurt containers... Save them and their lids. Just about to the top yields four cups. I fill them up, put on the lids and place them into the fridge. Next day, remove and skim off the fat from each container and freeze them. All you do when you need one is to thaw it out on the counter top or in the microwave...although I was told that it's not necessarily a good thing to thaw foods in plastic containers using a microwave...either way...that's all there is to it. Generally I don't add salt to the stock till I am using it for whichever dish I am preparing...then I add salt as needed...otherwise, you might end up with a salty finished project...and who wants that.....just sayin....
Stock it to em!
robert
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