Stock Tips - Not the Money Kind (& Soups too!)

I plan to keep my stock tips rather short...

Stocks vs. Broths*
Stocks: uses bones to obtain flavor through the marrow and cartilage and has a gelatin like texture.
Broths: uses meat to flavor the liquid through boiling or poaching the meat.

*Some people have different definitions of the two, so I chose the definitions I've heard most often.



In order to make a stock, you start by roasting the meat or poultry bones in a roasting pan in the oven for two to two and a half hours. Here is the suggested method for creating a stock:

• Prep ingredients - bones, mirepoix (celery, onion, carrots) plus any additional ingredients like garlic and herbs.
  
• Roast bones for 15 to 30 minutes on each side.
• Pull bones and paint tomato paste (adds flavor and color to stock) on every bone with a basting brush and roast for 15 to 30 minutes; flip bones, paint and repeat roasting.
• Pull bones from oven and add mirepoix and continue roasting for another half hour to one hour.
• Pull bones and mirepoix and other ingredients, place in stock pot and add liquid (if using water, always use cold water from the faucet b/c hot water sits in a tank and can obtain a metallic taste).
• Simmer (don't boil - just have some small bubbles around the edges) for a minimum of two hours (recommended to simmer for a longer period of time).
• Viola! You have just made a stock.
  

Soup Tips
We made six soups in class: Manhattan Clam Chowder, New England Clam Chowder, Split Pea Soup, Shrimp Bisque, French Onion Soup and a Corn and Chicken Chowder. Outside of the French Onion soup, most soups have a similar process in creating the dish. My favorites were the French onion or the corn and chicken chowder. My least favorite was the shrimp bisque - I prefer crab or lobster bisque.

French Onion Soup before toppings

The key tip to take away from making soups is that almost every soup has a similar process from start to finish. An exception is French onion. Here is the process most commonly used for making soups:

• Mise en place (layman's terms: organize and prep ingredients).
• Saute/Sweat vegetables (typically your mirepoix) in clarified butter and poach meat if needed; our chef recommends always sweating vegetables before adding to a soup and adding dried herbs to rehydrate them and release the flavor.
  
• Add stock, broth and/or liquid to stock pot - never bring a soup with milk to a boil because the milk might curdle - ewwww! Heavy whipping cream won't break initially if it boils, but in general it's recommended not to boil cream soups.
  
• Add roux to thicken soup - many recipes recommended adding roux early in the process, but Chef recommends adding it towards the end.
  
• Bring soup to 170 to 180 degrees F and serve. Yum!!!

Crostini for French onion soup

The photos shown here are of French onion soup that Go Blue dad and I made at home. If you have not tried French onion soup, it has carmelized onions in a beef based broth topped with a crostini and melted guyere cheese.

Crostini in soup before adding cheese

We read a great tip for carmelizing onions at home... put four or five pounds of sliced onions into a dutch oven and roast in the oven for about three hours on 350 degrees. You'll be amazed at how much the the onions reduce. After the three hours, the onions reduce to about a third of the size and you can easily carmelize them on the stove top. I mention this trick b/c most people don't have a four foot wide griddle surface to carmelize onions at home (this is what we used in class).

Go Blue dad adding Guyere cheese

Another idea for French onion soup is to add some demi glace into the broth for an intensely rich, meaty flavor that compliments the carmelized onion flavor and adds great color. We didn't have beef stock in our class, so the chef pulled out the demi glace and the French onion soup tasted delicious!!

Finished French onion soup
Bon Apetite!