Stock v. Writer’s Block

Stock Novice called me out on one of my posts last week.  The one about onion soup where I was all, “Go grab yourself some homemade beef stock out of your freezer, which you surely keep jam-packed full of hand-crafted broths in well-marked, dated containers arranged alphabetically by animal.”  As if everyone pees homemade stock. 

Her question was a good one: How do you incorporate stock-making into your daily life?  I would follow that up with: And why?  And if we’re going that far, we might as well define stock, which is just broth made with bones and vegetables.  Why bones?  Because they have a lot of flavor (but you can make “stock” out of vegetables alone and nobody’s going to sue you).  I cook with stock for the same reason that I tend to favor fresh, local produce: because my cooking comes out so much better that way.  You get a high rate of return for a minimal investment, at least by my calculations.

The best time to embark on stock-making is in the fall, winter, or early spring when it’s cold and you want to be warm.  It will make your house toasty and delicious-smelling.  I make and use a lot of stock in the winter for soups, and the remainder gets put away for the summer.  Making stock is quite simple.  It is time-consuming, but the bulk of that time is completely unsupervised.  So, I might put a pot on after breakfast and let it go while I vacuum (meaning check my e-mail), clean the bathroom (meaning check Twitter), break up some squabbles (meaning yell from the other room and hope for the best), and do some laundry (meaning read blogs while actually doing laundry because I haven’t figured out how to get out of that, yet). 

In other words, if you’re at all homebody-ish and/or computer-oriented, then stock is a good way to justify your time.  Or, as a completely hypothetical example, to get out of an unwanted social engagement:

Friend: Hey, think you can help me move this weekend?

You: Didn’t you just move?

Friend: Yeah.

You: Oh, man, I totally wish I could, but I have the whole weekend blocked out to make stock.

Friend: Dude, that sounds so hard. 

You: It’s crazy hard.

Friend: Why don’t you let loose for a few hours?  Maybe grab one end of a pool table for me…

You: I can’t, man.  Fire hazard.  Talk to the stock.  When the stock’s a-rocking, don’t come a-knocking.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about a fringe benefit of stock I like to call “edible composting,” as well as how to make four different kinds of stock.  And then, what the hell to use them for.  Perhaps I can drag this topic out for a whole year!  Stay tuned.

Comments

[April in CT]

You had me at "peeing stock".

I've got a chicken carcass (man, that sounds tasty! *sarcasm*) in the freezer for my first ever attempt at making stock. May the broth be with me and I hope I don't screw it up.

[Melissa]

I have three rather small carcasses (carcasses sounds weird... carcasses? carci?) waiting to be stockicized this weekend. Man, I am a language BUTCHER.

But drag the topic out as long as you'd like. I love this subject. I haven't made beef yet, though I attempted it once. I threw it out because I thought it smelled horrible... and then I found out that it's supposed to smell like that. *Face-palm*

[adele]

I have definitely used stock as an excuse to avoid social engagements. Now I just have to make sure the people to whom I made those excuses never learn to cook.

[VegYear]

I was surprised to find (in Joy of Cooking - should've looked sooner) that the key to a successful vegetable stock is potatoes. Yes, potatoes. They don't seem flavorful enough to matter, but something about them (texture, maybe?) is really important. Now if I boil potatoes for something, I'm likely to save the broth as a stock-starter.

[giovanna]

Yeah! Can't wait. While I have no problem with chicken stock beef has me stumped. I went to the butchers last week and got 2 bags of beef bones with the intent of making beef broth. Between looking at all my cookbooks and google I got totally confused. Do I roast my bones or not, does the stock go on top of the stove or in the oven. Sheesh! Needless to say the bones are still in the freezer.

[andrea]

Yum, can't wait for stock part II. I've been making a good bit of stock lately and have some chicken, veggie, and beef stock comments I'll save up for the next installment. If you keep this going for a whole year, though, I'm afraid I'll be completely out of things to say (hard to believe!)

[katie]

Luckily this is of no use to me because I pee homemade stock. You should come to my house for dinner instead.

[Tammy]

katie: Now that, my friend, is the most tempting offer I've gotten all day. So you can imagine my day.

andrea: Don't worry, there'll probably only be one more stock post or I'll lose my whole readership. I'll be looking forward to your stock comments, though.

giovanna: You can make beef stock with roasted bones or unroasted bones. Your choice. For the latter, just add the bones to the pot on the stovetop. However, I prefer a richer, deeper flavor, so I roast them in the oven (375F for about 45 min.). Then, I dump the roasted bones into the pot, add water, and simmer on the stove.

VegYear: Potatoes? I had no idea--thanks for the tip. Maybe all the starch gives it good body. Also, I read somewhere that winter squash in veggie stock is good. I don't know about that.

adele: This is the problem with free exchange of information over the Internet. Our secret stock society is going to be found out.

Melissa: I think you've just created a whole new language. Carci. I like it! Is beef stock supposed to smell horrible? I like that, too. Then again, I love the smell of gasoline and lawnmowers.

April in CT: Good luck with your first-ever stock-making adventure. I'm so proud!

[Sarah]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Sarah

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