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Project 1: Making Stock

Why would you want to do this? Homemade stock is much healthier than the packaged product, and it’s very easy. Making stock is a great way to get more than one meal out of leftovers you’d otherwise throw out or compost.

Why wouldn’t you want to do this? I can’t think of a reason.

Is there an easier way? It’s hard to get much easier than making stock.

How is this different from the store-bought version? Your stock will taste fresher and be much lower in sodium. It may have a residue at the bottom, but that’s just the leftover bits of whatever you cooked. When refrigerated, meat stock can become gelatinous, but it will liquefy again when heated.

Cost comparison: There’s no additional cost for homemade stock because it’s made from ingredients that you’ve already purchased for meals.

Skills needed: Homemade stock is hard to mess up. If you can boil water, you should have no problem with this project.

Further refinements: You can experiment with many seasonings and flavors. Also, after the stock is strained, you can return it to the pot and cook it again, uncovered, to reduce it and make it more concentrated. You then freeze the concentrated liquid in ice-cube trays and use the frozen cubes similar to the way you’d use bouillon cubes.

Stock, a culinary staple made from ingredients that you already have on hand, is an easy project—one that creates a base for soup, stew, roux, jus, gravy, or anything else that calls for broth. You simply let the ingredients sit and simmer until the house smells good, and then strain the liquid. Once I saw how effortless the process was—and how much better the results were—I chided myself for having bought the commercially made version for so long. When you start making your own stock, you’ll resort to the store-bought variety only in emergencies (such as the imminent arrival of unexpected dinner guests!).

There are essentially two main varieties of stock: meat and vegetable. Although in our kitchen, we most often use chicken, beef, and vegetable stock, I’ve noticed more exotic versions—such as clam and mushroom—on grocery-store shelves. Stock is a simple cooked infusion of flavors that is used as a base for, or to enhance, other foods. You make stock with what is left over from meal preparation—what you otherwise would typically throw out.

Homemade stock is healthy. As you cook vegetable stock, the vitamins and nutrients from the leaves, peels, and ends of vegetables are drawn out into the broth. Likewise with meat stock—the extended cooking time releases the valuable nutrition in the bones and marrow, presenting the latter in a palatable form. My kids would never consent to eating marrow, but they like foods made with meat stock, and they get the benefits of the marrow’s high iron content while enjoying what they’re eating.

Our friends Jeff and Cindi taught us to put the vegetable trimmings from our daily meal preparation in a freezer container—I include meat bones in ours—until we’ve collected enough to make a batch of stock. If you use whole fresh vegetables, the cooked parts left after your stock is prepared can go directly into a soup.

Materials/Ingredients:

•Medium to large stockpot

•Colander or strainer

•Optional: Cheesecloth

•Optional: For freezing—canning jars or freezer containers; for refrigerating—sealable rigid containers

Vegetable Stock: Vegetables, whole or trimmed, any or all of the following:

•Carrots, including roots, ends, and peels

•Onions, including bulbs, skins, and peels

•Garlic, including cloves and skins

•Celery, entire stalks with leaves

•Potatoes, including tubers and peels

•Scallions (wash root ends if still attached)

•Shallots, including bulbs, skins, and peels

•Herbs (bay leaves, rosemary, sage, parsley, basil, oregano, thyme), fresh or dried, complete branches or leaves only

•Seasonings to taste

Meat Stock: Use the ingredients list for vegetable stock, plus anything remaining from the carcass, such as:

•Bones

•Skin (from poultry)

•Meat (cooked or raw)

Step 1: Put all of the ingredients except seasonings into the stockpot. Add enough water to cover everything (if you’ve steamed your vegetables, you can save the water and use that) and bring to a boil.

Step 2: Once the contents are boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and let the stock cook slowly, covered. While it is simmering, add salt and other seasonings to taste.

Step 3: Cook vegetable stock for at least an hour; cook meat stock longer, especially if you’re using raw scraps. Stock is one of the few dishes that I feel comfortable leaving on the stove for hours; it’s one of those rare dishes that cannot be overcooked. The longer it’s on the stove, the more the flavor is enhanced.

Step 4: Remove the stock from the heat. Strain it through a mesh strainer or colander to get rid of any bones or any big chunks of vegetables or meat, and reserve the liquid. For a clearer broth, strain the liquid a second time through cheesecloth.

Step 5: If the strained vegetable and meat pieces are usable, chop them up for soup; otherwise, compost or throw away the vegetable matter, and throw away the meat and bones.

Use or store the stock right away. You can refrigerate it in a glass jar or plastic storage container for up to a week. For longer storage, pressure-can the liquid in jars (refer to Project 10 in this section, Canning and Pickling) or freeze it, leaving room in the containers for expansion.

Voilà! You’ve just taken what would have otherwise been garbage and turned it into something delicious that can be used in many more meals.

Some trimmings, herbs, and water are essentially all you need for delicious homemade stock.