Turning leftover scraps and bones into stockYou can make stock out of virtually anything – even vegetables – but the richest, most flavorful stocks are carnivorous in nature; their preparation requires any kind of bone, or any kind of scrap of anything that used to be meat. I tend to eat a lot of poultry, so I often have a box or a bag full of discarded chicken bones in my freezer. This is a non-issue now that I live alone, but when I started making stock, I lived in a ramshackle apartment in San Francisco's Nob Hill with a revolving cast of art students and assorted miscreants. Until my boyfriend appended a note to the front of the freezer (I think it read something along the lines of "Leave Karina's Bones Alone"), my scraps were constantly disappearing to end up in someone's Keinholz-influenced assemblage. Later, I shared a tiny two bedroom in the East Village with a decidedly non-culinary professional type. One evening he had four or five people over, and everyone was drinking beer in the kitchen. I came in and opened up the freezer, and a clear tupperware full of chicken carcasses fell out. Conversation halted just long enough for a communal gasp. "It's .. they're ... chicken bones. For, um, making stock," I said. I started looking for a new place to live the next day. Nowadays, it's my apartment, my bones. But my living-alone-ness is a bit of a double edged sword: a bachelorette can only eat so many chickens, so I rarely have a huge pile of leftover bones. I totally intended to make a turkey this Thankgiving, but plans changed. This demo is based on the remnants of several chicken-based meals, but you could easily substitute your whole turkey carcass – as long as you can find a big enough pot. All stocks start with a similar base. Garlic, white or yellow onion, carrot and celery are all absolutely essential; some people also like to add white mushrooms are parsnips. You'll be discarding these vegetables at the end, so there's no need to chop them up fine and nice. I'll just smash my garlic with the back of a knife, and half or quarter everything else. Ordinarily you'd be using a giant stock pot for this, but as I'm only making a small amount today, a large saucepan is far less unweildy. Since you want to carmelize the vegetables, I'll use a small amount of olive oil (less than a tablespoon) and toss in the garlic, onions and carrots over semi-high heat. Stir every now and then to make sure nothing sticks, but don't get alarmed when the garlic, especially, starts to get dark brown – that's what you want. The celery will release water when it hits the heat (as will the bones if you've been keeping them in the freezer), so you want to wait until the carrots, onions and garlic are carmelized before you throw them in. Next add water, slowly at first, stirring to scrape up any bits that may have stuck to the pan. You'll want to eventually add enough water to cover the vegetabeles and bones by about 2-inches, and then bring the liquid to a boil. Cover, turn heat down to low, and go read a book or something – your presence won't be needed for awhile. After a about an hour, you want to give the stock a stir and check its color. I'll usually ladle a bit out into a clear glass receptacle, and hold it up to the light. In the end, you're going to want to see a near-opaque caramel color. If it looks like the sample at right, you've got another thirty minutes to go. When the stock is flavorful enough, it's time to strain. You want to pass the liquid at least once or twice through a colander, and then, depending on what you plan to use the stock for, potentially once through a cheesecloth. In this case, I knew I was going to use the stock that evening to make chicken noodle soup, so straining in until it went clear wasn't important to me. If you're going to freeze the stock for later use, it's a good idea to get it as clear as possible – you never know how you're going to use it. Back to the pan the stock goes. Once it begins to simmer, you want to add a little bit of white wine. For a huge stock pot, I might add up to half a bottle; for this kind of batch, a small glass sufficed. Let the alcohol simmer off, about twenty minutes, and then season to taste. I always add salt and pepper, and usually one green, dried herb. This time it was thyme. At this point, you'll want to take the stock off the heat and load it into storage containers, and then you have two choices. You can either refridgerate for about an hour, then take the stock out, skim the fat off the top, and procede to use or freeze; or, you can leave it the way it is, with the knowledge that leaving the fat in the stock will give you more flavor, but also (duh) more fat. In this case, I skimmed about half the fat, and stirred the rest in. Homemade stock is such a great thing to have around. I usually try to have on big batch in the freezer, as well as an ice tray full of stock cubes, which you can add to sauces, etc for the perfect little flavor kick. |
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