So how do you make stock?

[foodnearsnellville]

I bought some lamb steaks at Assi Plaza recently, craving the flavor of lamb, and found after cooking one that the
meat was really really tough. So, I thought it could be something I could turn into fajitas (lamb fajitas sound pretty cool)
but better, perhaps a stew. So I found this recipe:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222618

And compared to Mark Bittman's soupy dal recipe, about all that happens is..

1. mirepoix and meat sauteed together.
2. tomatoes added
3. carrots added later, along with spinach.

Cooking time is about the same, spices about the same. So, the essence of the recipe is nothing more than lentil soup plus meat.

So I'm chopping my meat into cubes and look at all these bones and think, "Sad to waste these," so I throw them into a simmering pot of water.
I throw in a couple pieces of chicken too (with the idea I fetch them later, shred them and use for a salad or something), garlic, and any vegetable
wastes I'm generating while I'm prepping for the soup.

Now to some extent this is needless, as lentil soups can generate their own broth, but thought the idea of soup plus stock might not be bad on a
long afternoon when time isn't really a factor.

This is an ongoing process. I have no idea how it might turn out.

FnS.

[Loundry]

Making stock has been a burning, searing question in my mind recently.  Some really pompous foodies say, "Making stock is so easy that the only reason you don't make it is because you are retarded."  I think they say that because they are aping snobby chefs who use their $15,000 tilt skillets to make stock.

In fact, I find making stock to be very difficult.  More like "total pain in the ass".  These are the problems:

1. It takes a LONG time, and if you mess up, then congratulations!  You have broth, not stock.  Hence, it's eight hours of anxious hovering.
2. Because of 1, I want to make a LARGE quantity of stock.  Who wants to spend eight hours tending something that will yield one measly gallon of stock?
3. Because of 2, cooling and straining a huge amount of hot liquid with big chunks is difficult and dangerous.
4. Also because of 2, that makes storing the stock really difficult because you have to fill numerous, numerous little containers.

So this is how I am planning to tackle these problems:

For simmering, I intend to use this device:

http://www.amazon.com/Rival-RO-230-C-22qt-Roaster/dp/B000MB1QVY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1261594015&sr=8-4

It's really just a great big slow cooker -- a way to maintain an even simmer for extended periods of time without relying on the oven.  I would use this device strictly for making stock.  I would never use this device to roast a turkey.  (That's what the Primo is for, if I ever decided to roast a big bland turkey for some weird reason.)  One question: does it go as low as 180 degrees Fahrenheit? (And is that the proper simmer temperature for stock-making?)

For moving the stock from one vessel to another safely (or from moving from one big vessel to lots of small ones), I intend to rely on the auto-siphon that I used during my beer-brewing days.

For the container issue, I'm going to buy plastic square 1-pint containers and stop relying on the stupid, messy plastic bag solution.

For cooling and straining, I do not yet have a good solution.  I can use the spider to fish out big chunks of bone and depleted vegetable matter, but I expect that tiny fragments of meat and vegetable matter might clog the auto-siphon.  I'm not sure how to handle that yet.

[A_Russian_Cook]

I started making vegetable stock after reading about how much sodium store-bought stock has. It is a long process, but I learned it from my mom and it's quick and easy. The vegetable stock that I found a recipe for is quiet simple to make. Just chop onions, celery, and carrots. Cover with water, add bay leaf, boil for one hour and whola!

Then I can make any kind of soups from it. This way I get to control the quality of the ingredients and the amount of salt

[bettylouski]

After browning the bones, I use a pressure cooker when I'm in a hurry, which I usually am.   It's a great way to extract the flavor in a relatively short period of time.  Then I use the half-pint or quart size plastic containers to store in the freezer.

[totm]

I started making vegetable stock after reading about how much sodium store-bought stock has. It is a long process, but I learned it from my mom and it's quick and easy. The vegetable stock that I found a recipe for is quiet simple to make. Just chop onions, celery, and carrots. Cover with water, add bay leaf, boil for one hour and whola!

Roast those vegetables with some olive oil for a while and you'll have (IMO) even better stock.  And they don't really need to be chopped much, either.

[HaagenDazs]

I usually make stock and then use much of it immediately like for soup or beans, etc.  With the rest I like to reduce into a glace and store in the fridge.  It keeps a while and it really quite useful to boost the flavor of almost anything.

[KoPP]

http://www.amazon.com/Glace-Poulet-Classic-Roasted-Chicken/dp/B000PGQSUU

[HaagenDazs]

http://www.amazon.com/Glace-Poulet-Classic-Roasted-Chicken/dp/B000PGQSUU

...and I save myself $5.50. 

[Loundry]

So it turns out that the key to successful stock is do not let it boil.

The way I managed this was to remove one rack from the oven and set the other one on the lowest setting.  I preheat the oven to 250 while I bring the stock to a simmer and skim off all the scum.  Once the bones have ceased giving up the nasty bits of proteins scum, I put the (3 gallon) stock pot into the oven and let it sit there all day long.  It will never come to a boil, even at 250 degrees.  So it stays under a bare simmer and extracts gobs and gobs of yummy gelatin.

I still like the idea of the turkey roaster.  I confirmed through rival that it can maintain a temperature of 200 degrees.  I think that might be more energy efficient than heating up the whole oven.

[mikeamor]

My successes have been when I am sure to include enough bone and waste meat to develop a good flavor and provide enough collagen.
That generally means keeping the water to about an inch over the other ingredients.
I keep the ingredients simple, a bit of a mirepoix, salt, pepper, maybe some bay leaf, thyme or juniper berry.
I have not yet seen a difference in a slow cook of several hours or with the pressure cooker for 45 minutes.  Both have yielded good results.
As mentioned earlier, roasting the veggies and meat provides a good improvement in the flavor.
To strain the finished product, after removing the bulk of the material with a spider I'll use a Pyrex measuring cup to scoop the unfiltered stock into a a colander lined with several layers of cheese cloth placed over a large pot or bowl.  For smaller batches, I just use a fine mesh strainer.
I'm still storing it in stupid, messy pint bags which are frozen flat for space efficiency.

[Jmolinari]

I make stock about once per year. I make about 20 quarts, cooking it overnight in the oven like Loundry.
I then reduce my 16-20 quarts of stock to about 3 quarts, by boiling it all day, and freeze it in 1 cup portions, which i then pop out of the container and put in a zip lock back. I hack chucks of this concentrate to add to stuff.
Makes storing it a lot easier.

[HaagenDazs]

Lately I've been making quick stocks to use as additions in dinners and other recipes.  For instance, yesterday I was prepping a chicken for grilling (a boned and rolled chicken; gotta get in the grilling before the rain hit) and grilled & braised leeks.  After I de-boned the chicken I just browned the bones quickly in a medium sized pot, added some of the green leek tops and off it went.  It only simmered for a couple/three hours but it was better than using canned stock and certainly better than just some water, wine and butter.

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

I bought some lamb steaks at Assi Plaza recently, craving the flavor of lamb, and found after cooking one that the
meat was really really tough. So, I thought it could be something I could turn into fajitas (lamb fajitas sound pretty cool)
but better, perhaps a stew. So I found this recipe:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222618

And compared to Mark Bittman's soupy dal recipe, about all that happens is..

1. mirepoix and meat sauteed together.
2. tomatoes added
3. carrots added later, along with spinach.

Cooking time is about the same, spices about the same. So, the essence of the recipe is nothing more than lentil soup plus meat.

So I'm chopping my meat into cubes and look at all these bones and think, "Sad to waste these," so I throw them into a simmering pot of water.
I throw in a couple pieces of chicken too (with the idea I fetch them later, shred them and use for a salad or something), garlic, and any vegetable
wastes I'm generating while I'm prepping for the soup.

Now to some extent this is needless, as lentil soups can generate their own broth, but thought the idea of soup plus stock might not be bad on a
long afternoon when time isn't really a factor.

This is an ongoing process. I have no idea how it might turn out.

FnS.

I made Chix stock today in the pressure cooker (it is still rockin).   A good way to shorten up a long process IMO

...........

[mikeamor]

One huge old roasting hen, salt, peppercorns, half an onion, some celery tops, couple of bay leaves and juniper berries all thrown into a pressure cooker for about 45-60 minutes.  Let cooker cool naturally.  Result, about a  gallon of incredible stock and a load of tender, moist, shredded chicken that can be used for all kinds meals during the week.  Bonus: if you separate the fat from the stock (and you should) you get a good portion of schmaltz to use for other cooking!  We'll portion the stock into freezer bags and freeze for later use.  Sometimes freeze the schmaltz into cubes using an ice tray.