You know, you don’t need the instant broth if you use a raw chicken, bones and all, instead of a precooked one. You make your own broth.
If you can’t find whole chickens small enough, use chicken thighs instead.
Mirepoix does not mean veg stock. Mirepoix is simply the combination of 1 part carrots, 1 part celery, and 2 parts onion. By weight i think, if you want to be even more technical.
Adding a bay leaf or two wouldn’t hurt with any kind of stock as well.
If you want to make vegetable stock, you want to have the veg in the pot with cold water, then turn the burner on high, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat so its at a low simmer for about an hour. If you’re making chicken or beef stock, simmer overnight.
Source: am a professional cook.
This sh*ts what-up
And i do the same with barley instead of noodles
The bees knees, i can’t make soup with out it; mulligatawny, squash, water-crest, etc
whoops, thought you said immersion blender
2 Likes
I have one of those too. I am an appliance whore.
But yest stick blenders/immersion blenders are the shiz-nite as well.
Also Better than Bouillon is my jam. Goes in my rice, and anything that needs to be savory.
Some advice:
In the future, roast your veggies and meat before making the stock. Recommend roasting for at least an hour in a roasting pan. This is usually done to deepen the flavor of a stock or broth.
For beef, it’s a great idea to use a tablespoon or two of tomato paste and mix that in with the veggies before putting them into the pan and roasting. You could do this with chicken as well. The tomato adds a lot of color and a bit of richness to the stock.
I highly recommend using chicken wings for making a chicken stock, as they have a high amount of connective tissue which contains collagen. Collagen when it breaks down under prolonged heat, becomes gelatin. This results in a nice, silky mouth feel when you reduce just the liquid into a sauce.
ALSO, and this is extremely important for ANY kind of stock. You bring your stock up to a boil, then back it down ASAP to a simmer. This is extremely important if you are using meat that has bones in it. You never want a stock to boil for long periods of time as this will leach calcium from the bones, and result in a “gritty” stock.
And believe me, you should want to use meat that contains bones. Bones means connective tissue, and connective tissue means a silky, smooth, extremely rich mouth feel.
Finally, when you are done cooking. And you cool your stock, do not skim the fat off the top. Refrigerate, and then when the fat has solidified on the top, remove that and clean off anything that isn’t fat from the underside. Save this fat in wax paper and freeze it. You can use this later to make a Roux for making absolutely delectable gravy, instead of butter (or in addition to butter) with your previously made stock.
Also, a traditional mirepoix contains carrots, celery, and onions. Oh and make absolutely sure to deglaze the pan after roasting your meats and veg.
Sorry for the necro, just thought I would add in the knowledge I have gained from watching a hell of a lot of Good Eats by Alton Brown. Which is an amazing series because he delves into the science of cooking and explains why certain processes work the way they do.
I find that understanding the science behind cooking, and what’s actually going on, on a chemical/molecular level has helped me tweak my own recipes to make them better.
If only I could find a way to produce and bottle fond on an industrial scale, I would be exceedingly wealthy.
1 Like