Use Your Vegetable Scraps for Stock
In January, we focus on fundamentals.
Making your own stock is as easy as throwing some veggies and water on the stove.
Remember when “bone broth” was bigger than sliced bread? This trend was funny because it caused a frenzy over one of the simplest building blocks of cooking: stock.
If you are a novice home cook, you may be asking yourself: what is stock? Stock is a liquid that results from simmering vegetables and sometimes meat scraps and bones for long periods of time. It is the basis of most soups, stews, and sauces in many different culinary traditions. It differs itself from a store-bought “broth” in that it hasn’t been seasoned with salt yet, which is great because you can boil it down for a much more concentrated flavor.
Why have people caught on to stock’s greatness?
Stock is scrappy: you can use all of the odds and ends of vegetables that would end up in your trash can or compost.
Stock is nutritious: all of the vitamins, minerals, and protein from the ingredients end up in that rich end product. It is an easy way to care about the food that you ingest without a lot of fuss or effort.
Stock is intuitive: you don’t need a recipe to be able to make a delicious stock! You can use what you already have in your kitchen and make a simple stock in about 30 minutes.
Ready to get started? Here we go!
The Basics:
Stocks are generally comprised of carrots, celery, and onion (the trio is also known as mirepoix), chopped into large chunks. Herbs and spices such as black peppercorns can also be thrown into the pot. If you are making a meat-based stock, you may also add in bones or meat scraps for extra flavor. How long your stock simmers depends on what is in your stock. If you are making vegetable stock or fish stock, then you can simmer it for about 30 minutes and have a great product. With larger animal bones like beef and pork bones, you will want to simmer it much longer— even overnight or longer, if you can. Chicken stock is right in the middle! I usually simmer mine for about an hour, but longer works as well.
No matter which type of stock you pick, make sure you do the following two things:
1) Check your water level: as stock simmers, the liquid will evaporate and your “juice” will reduce. You can add more water as it simmers so that your ingredients remain covered.
2) Keep the bubbles gentle: a full-blown boil will lead to a cloudy stock with muddled flavors.
-Get Yourself a Scrap Bag:
The easiest way to regularly get in the habit of making stock is to save the scraps of your vegetables in a bag in your refrigerator. This keeps the odds and ends out of your trash can and compost bin while making a useful product for yourself. When the bag gets a little full or looks a little peaky, then cover the scraps with water in a pot, simmer on the stove for 30 minutes, then strain.
If you are afraid that your scraps will go bad in the fridge, have no fear! You can also freeze your scraps. If you go this route, then the freezer has already contributed to breaking the scraps down. As a result, I would cut the simmering time on the stove down to 10-15 minutes.
Bonus Boosts:
So you’ve made stock before, and none of the above is new information for you. How do you take your bog-standard stock to the next level?
Char: roasting your leftover bones or getting a nice dark sear on some onions will help you to get a richer, deeper flavor on your stock.
Ingredients: some underrated ingredients for stock include daikon radish, mushroom scraps or dehydrated mushrooms, ginger, or lemongrass.
Boost: don’t be afraid to use a little bouillon or mushroom powder to improve the flavor of your stock.
Infuse: to get the flavor of some more delicate fresh herbs in your stock like basil or cilantro, steep the herbs in the stock like a tea for about 30 seconds. You’ll be surprised at how much flavor you impart in there when you drain it!
Burnt onions can be a source of extra depth in your stock.
Have you made your own vegetable stock at home? Let me know in the comment section!
