These recipes are adapted from the Art Institute’s: On Cooking Textbook. These are from my notes and I will be revising the information as I do more research.

Stocks people, that what makes your food taste great when you go to a restaurant. Not bouillon cubes or canned stocks or broths. If you want to make great food then you need to start from scratch. Yes, it’s easy to just pop something in the microwave (click) but at the end of the day it will make you feel empty or hungry or whatever term you want to use for food not being great, ha.

Back on track I go! There are 6 stocks you can make:

White-

which consists of Beef, Chicken, Fish, and Veal. This is a 2-4 hour process. This is a delicate almost clear stock that has a nice golden color, think Chicken Soup. The way you keep the stock nice and pale is by blanching the bones, I will explain this in the recipe. (CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE)

Brown-

which consists of Beef, Veal, and Poultry. This is a 6-8 hour process. The goal here is to achieve a caramelization with the vegetables you will be using, this will give you all those tasty bits that will later help develop the ultimate taste for your stock.  (CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE)

Neutral-

Chicken Stock, this is most the most commonly used stock in restaurants because of its ease of use. It’s the middle point between a white and brown so you don’t have to walk a fine line with it. (I will post more information about this once I read a little more into it). We will not be preparing this at the time

Vegetable-

Made by simmering vegetables. It can be a specific type of stock like a mushroom stock  or it can be mixed vegetables or it can be used for a Court Bouillon (I will post more information about this once I read a little more into it).  We will not be preparing this at this time.

Fish/Seafood-

which consists of white fish, specific types of fish like a monk fish head or fish heads, or shrimp and crab stocks. I’ve made these before with shrimp and crab stocks. Commonly,  what you would do is take the shells from the shrimp and cook them with water then add them to a roux for something like gumbo, etouffe, or cajun cooking.

Each one of these stocks consists of these things in order for them to be called a stock:

Bones(unless it’s a vegetable stock)

Vegetables (mirepoix click here)

Mirepoix consists of 2 parts onions to 1 part celery and 1 part carrot

The Mirepoix is used in a 8:1 ratio in a stock. 8 pounds of bones to each pound of mirepoix.

Aromatics-

These are my favorite part, I’m a spice freak after all. This is where the herbs, spices, and peppercorns come into play. They are adding during the last hour of cooking. In order to create a clean stock use a Bouquet Garni, Sachet D’Epice or a tea infuser (like I have used in the past).

Cooking Liquid-

You have to start this with something, use water for now!

Now you know a little thing or two about stocks, so let’s make a couple of them!

Eric