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RIDGE & ROOT RECIPES: TECHNIQUES - STOCK

Updated: Jul 21




LET'S TALK STOCK

Awesome soup starts with awesome stock, something most people probably aren't doing in their home kitchens these days. The process, though, is both simple and rewarding, same as most good kitchen habits. Simply save the bones and scraps from whatever meat and vegetables you're processing in your kitchen. Keep them in a cool, dark place, preferably your fridge, and keep the container uncovered. Cover a stock bucket, and it will mold fast enough to make your head spin.

The quantity of scraps determines the quantity of stock, so you've got a nice self-regulating system here. Cooking a lot means you'll naturally have the means to make a lot. The stock bucket also holds for a relatively long time in most refrigerators, so you can keep saving up toward a bigger batch if you want.



Once you're ready to make stock, the process itself is simple. You've got your vegetable scraps and your bones, fat, and skin from whatever meat base you're using. If you're using chicken or beef, roast the scraps first on a sheet pan in a 350°F oven for about an hour, until they're nice and brown. If you're going vegetable-only, skip that step entirely.

Combine all your stock bases in a pot with cold water. Starting cold matters. Start with hot water and your stock comes out cloudy. It won't hurt the taste, but presentation is part of the process, and we want the food to look as good as it tastes.

Bring the pot to a strong boil on high heat. Once it's there, you can simmer it the rest of the way, and so can you.


If you're making vegetable stock, think of it like steeping a strong tea. Let the scraps simmer until they develop good color and a pleasing aroma. The scraps themselves will brighten up too. If you're making a meat-based stock, bring it to a boil, drop it to a simmer, and let it go for several hours, preferably overnight.

Never cover your stock. Covered in the fridge, it molds, which costs you both a stinky refrigerator and all your scraps. Worse, if it's covered on the stove and it boils over while you're not there to catch it, well, let's just say you'll wish it had only molded. You're not going to sit and watch a pot of stock for six hours straight. You'll be off with the kids, checking your phone, watching the game, or sitting on the porch with a cheap, tasty beer. A watched stock never boils anyway. Leave the lid off, and you won't come back to a disaster on the stovetop.

Once you're satisfied the stock is ready, pull it from the heat and move it to a container to cool. Depending on the volume, pour, ladle, or use a pitcher to transfer it out of the hot pot. It'll be very, very hot, so choose your container accordingly, and don't stick your hand in it.

Once it's in its new home, you can cool it with an ice wand and move it straight to the fridge, or set the container in your sink, surrounded by cold water and ice, until it's cooled down.

A quick note on temperature: the range from 40°F to 140°F is what USDA calls the Danger Zone, and it's a highway you don't want to get stuck on. Bacteria multiply fast in that range. Decent kitchen thermometers are cheap and everywhere these days. Do yourself and everyone you cook for a favor and get one.


So when you're cooling stock, or anything else, move it through the Danger Zone as fast as you can, in either direction. And when you reheat food, bring it all the way up to 165°F to kill anything that might be hanging around. 140°F is fine for holding food hot once it's already safe; it's not hot enough to make unsafe food safe again.


Once your stock is cool, store it until you need it. Or skip a step entirely: hold it just under a simmer on the stove and pour it straight into your soup. Ideally you'll cool the finished soup the same careful way before storing it. More ideally still, there won't be any leftovers to cool, just happy people who can't believe how good your soup was.


Short version: collect food and meat scraps, keep them in an uncovered container in the fridge, roast the meat scraps, combine everything in a stockpot with cold water, bring it to a boil, simmer, transfer, cool. Rock out.



-- Chef Matt

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