Stock.
It's one of those vastly underrated and marginalized kitchen skills.
And yet it's the key to some truly awesome cooking, and it is an incredibly studly thing to be able to make.
And since I've got a batch simmering right now, I reckon it's a good time to write about it.
For those raised on stock cubes, stock is just another flavoring for meat, or it's gravy.
But once you've discovered the joy and power of real stock, you'll see what an extraordinary thing it is.
When we cook, we use a whole bunch of different additives, of varying artificiality - salt and pepper, bay leaves, vinegar, 5-spice - to alter and enhance the flavor of our dishes.
Each has it's own characteristics of sweetness, saltiness, aroma, sharpness, and so on.
But stock is like the condensed essence of a whole load of beautiful flavors, all in a compact little package (an ice cube, if like me you freeze it).
So when you make a great stew and then throw in one of your stock cubes to boost it a little, it's like you just added the best of a dozen ingredients in one go.
That's why it's exciting.
The key to great stock is the Three Holy Vegetables - celery, carrots and onion.
Carrots for sweet veggieness, onion for that magical combination of sweetness, sharpness and aroma, and celery for magic - those of you who think of celery as a boring salad vegetable might like to know that it contains large amounts of a natural flavor enhancer very similar to monosodium glutamate.
All the amounts here are rough, you can play around with them to your heart's content and experiment with additional flavor enhancements and adjustments.
Vegetable Stock (what I'm making today)
Then sling everything into a big stockpot (they're surprisingly cheap - I think mine was a fiver), add enough water to cover and let them simmer for 2-3 hours.
It's important that you don't let them boil - the heat should be enough that the occasional bubble rises to the surface, but no more.
Fast boiling leaches things out of the veggies that you don't want and eventually shreds them into the liquid as a pulp, which can cause a muddy or sulfurous taste.
After the time's up strain all the solid things out of the stock with something like a sieve, and ideally strain again through muslin or an equivalent.
Then boil the liquid hard (it's okay now there are no solids in it) until it reduces down to a thick rich fluid.
There should be about enough to fill one and a half ice-cube trays, or a little less.
The reduction concentrates all the flavors, and the taste should be dynamite! WARNING: Don't add salt until your stock is fully reduced.
If you add it earlier, it will be unbearably salty once it's reduced.
Vegetable stock can go into practically anything.
I recommend adding it to bolognaise and other pasta sauces, soups, stews, anything with a complex rich flavor can benefit.
The exciting thing about stock, if you're learning about food, is that it teaches your palate.
A common characteristic of real quality food versus cheap processed stuff is that the flavors are more subtle, but more complex.
A McDonalds burger or a supermarket breaded chicken wing leap on your tastebuds with the full force of artificial flavors and flavor enhancers, and that can seem pleasurable, but it's a crude taste experience.
Food made with real stock is milder, but the flavors gradually emerge as you move it around your mouth - you can really taste all the ingredients concentrated down into the food, but they're subtle and don't all emerge at once.
Cooking with stock has helped me no end in developing my own palate, and it's a really fun way to expand your cooking repertoire.
It's one of those vastly underrated and marginalized kitchen skills.
And yet it's the key to some truly awesome cooking, and it is an incredibly studly thing to be able to make.
And since I've got a batch simmering right now, I reckon it's a good time to write about it.
For those raised on stock cubes, stock is just another flavoring for meat, or it's gravy.
But once you've discovered the joy and power of real stock, you'll see what an extraordinary thing it is.
When we cook, we use a whole bunch of different additives, of varying artificiality - salt and pepper, bay leaves, vinegar, 5-spice - to alter and enhance the flavor of our dishes.
Each has it's own characteristics of sweetness, saltiness, aroma, sharpness, and so on.
But stock is like the condensed essence of a whole load of beautiful flavors, all in a compact little package (an ice cube, if like me you freeze it).
So when you make a great stew and then throw in one of your stock cubes to boost it a little, it's like you just added the best of a dozen ingredients in one go.
That's why it's exciting.
The key to great stock is the Three Holy Vegetables - celery, carrots and onion.
Carrots for sweet veggieness, onion for that magical combination of sweetness, sharpness and aroma, and celery for magic - those of you who think of celery as a boring salad vegetable might like to know that it contains large amounts of a natural flavor enhancer very similar to monosodium glutamate.
All the amounts here are rough, you can play around with them to your heart's content and experiment with additional flavor enhancements and adjustments.
Vegetable Stock (what I'm making today)
- 8 carrots (all about 6-8 inches long), peeled and with the top and bottom cut off
- 2 large onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- A bunch of celery (about 10 stalks), washed and roughly chopped
- Most of a head of garlic, peeled and flattened with the side of a knife
- A couple of tablespoons of tomato paste - not essential but it all helps boost the flavour
- 2 bay leaves
- 12 black peppercorns
- A handful of fresh thyme and one of basil (my windowsill herbs were looking a bit uppity so I trimmed them a bit and threw these in, they're not essential but everything adds to the flavour)
Then sling everything into a big stockpot (they're surprisingly cheap - I think mine was a fiver), add enough water to cover and let them simmer for 2-3 hours.
It's important that you don't let them boil - the heat should be enough that the occasional bubble rises to the surface, but no more.
Fast boiling leaches things out of the veggies that you don't want and eventually shreds them into the liquid as a pulp, which can cause a muddy or sulfurous taste.
After the time's up strain all the solid things out of the stock with something like a sieve, and ideally strain again through muslin or an equivalent.
Then boil the liquid hard (it's okay now there are no solids in it) until it reduces down to a thick rich fluid.
There should be about enough to fill one and a half ice-cube trays, or a little less.
The reduction concentrates all the flavors, and the taste should be dynamite! WARNING: Don't add salt until your stock is fully reduced.
If you add it earlier, it will be unbearably salty once it's reduced.
Vegetable stock can go into practically anything.
I recommend adding it to bolognaise and other pasta sauces, soups, stews, anything with a complex rich flavor can benefit.
The exciting thing about stock, if you're learning about food, is that it teaches your palate.
A common characteristic of real quality food versus cheap processed stuff is that the flavors are more subtle, but more complex.
A McDonalds burger or a supermarket breaded chicken wing leap on your tastebuds with the full force of artificial flavors and flavor enhancers, and that can seem pleasurable, but it's a crude taste experience.
Food made with real stock is milder, but the flavors gradually emerge as you move it around your mouth - you can really taste all the ingredients concentrated down into the food, but they're subtle and don't all emerge at once.
Cooking with stock has helped me no end in developing my own palate, and it's a really fun way to expand your cooking repertoire.
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