[HN Gopher] Vegetable stock: my secret lover (2011)
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Vegetable stock: my secret lover (2011)
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 80 points
Date : 2024-03-10 13:15 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.andymatuschak.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.andymatuschak.org)
| mberning wrote:
| Knorr stock concentrate is pretty good in a pinch. Cheap,
| plentiful, and fast.
| mckn1ght wrote:
| Whenever I make stock I make a lot and then freeze it in ice
| cube trays. Pop out into a gallon ziplock and keep in the
| freezer. Same convenience at time of use, for slightly more
| work to make it, but IMO it's a superior result (especially
| when you consider chicken/beef/veal stock vs concentrate) so
| i'm willing to go through with it.
| ramses0 wrote:
| Kitchen Accomplice is worth looking at.
| cogman10 wrote:
| I've been pretty happy with "better than bouillon"
| 23B1 wrote:
| LPT you can use all your vegetable trimmings to make stock so
| long as you have roughly the proper proportions. We just keep
| them in the freezer in a bag until ready to make stock, and we do
| it in our instantpot with a dash of AC vinegar.
|
| Onions: Provide a sweet and savory base flavor (can vary based on
| onion type eg yellow, white, red)
|
| Carrots: Add sweetness and earthiness.
|
| Celery: Adds a savory note and depth.
|
| Leek: Adds a mild, sweet onion flavor.
|
| Garlic: Adds a pungent, savory flavor.
|
| Bay leaf: Adds a subtle herbal note (lots of people think bay
| leaves add very little to most things but _fresh_ bay leaves
| really help)
|
| Parsley stems: Adds freshness and a herbaceous flavor.
| peterpost2 wrote:
| Paprika as well? For some reason I always have too much of
| those left.
| hendersonreed wrote:
| I assume you mean a fresh "bell pepper"? In American English
| paprika refers just to the dried spice, while the rotund and
| mild peppers are bell peppers.
|
| But you can definitely add either to a stock. The fresh
| pepper will add (if red) a sweetness and savory note. The
| green peppers will add more vegetal flavors, less sweetness.
| But I think leftover pepper is best eaten raw as a snack,
| salad dressing optional.
| Mo3 wrote:
| Weird. So ground up "bell peppers" are called Paprika
| instead of the "bell pepper" itself.
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| Except it's not made out of the same variety of peppers
| as what we call bell peppers, according to Wikipedia.
| dsr_ wrote:
| No, US paprika is ground dried sweet or hot peppers.
| Often imported from Hungary.
| bombela wrote:
| It's not unique to english. In french, paprika is also
| used for the powder. While poivron is for bell pepper.
| And piment for the spicy variety. And piment doux for the
| sweet version.
| empath-nirvana wrote:
| Also whole pepper corn and whatever herbs you might have
| around.
| retrac wrote:
| Slow-cooking to bring out a complex, deep, yet mild flavour is a
| crucial technique in general. I'm too impatient for it most of
| the time, but I discovered it while trying to be economical. Like
| with leftover stew, safe to eat but maybe the texture was off or
| whatever - pick out incompatible ingredients, mash, slow cook
| with lots of water for many hours until reduced to gravy. Add
| some of that to the next stew. Just wonderful. Indeed, almost any
| time you would add water or thickener, some stock or gravy is
| probably better.
| phyzome wrote:
| What I don't like about stock is that you end up throwing out
| food. (How much of that is indigestible fiber, and how much is
| nutritive? Not sure, but I suspect the latter is a large portion
| of the waste...)
| mckn1ght wrote:
| It's a great addition to the compost heap though!
|
| ETA: shouldn't use normally edible parts to make stock. Only
| like the tips and tails of carrots, celery root balls, onion
| peels... I keep a gallon ziplock in the freezer that
| accumulates these as I cook other things. When it's full I
| usually make chicken stock.
| gnicholas wrote:
| How do you get enough carrots if you're just using
| tips/tails? Or do you supplement that with whole carrots?
| mckn1ght wrote:
| Nope I just use whatever is in the bag, I don't care too
| much about the ratio. But we try to eat lots of
| carrot/celery sticks for snacks, and I regularly cook
| things with mirepoix so there's not exactly a dearth of
| them.
| aftoprokrustes wrote:
| I cook for a 5 persons household, and I fill 4 to 5 1L
| Ziplock bags with vegetable peels, tips/tails and other
| "garbage", which I then turn into 1 to 2L of stock. We also
| eat a lot of pasta, and I make sure to keep the "skin" of
| parmeggiano or grana padano we eat, and throw it in there
| as well.
|
| If you try it, you will likely be surprised by how mich
| usually gets thrown away.
| Glench wrote:
| > What I don't like about stock is that you end up throwing out
| food.
|
| I have the perfect solution for this. Keep a container in the
| freezer. Whenever you have an extra unusable vegetable bit from
| chopping, chuck it in the container. Once the container is
| full, simmer a big pot with all the bits for 30-45 minutes then
| strain all the solids.
|
| Good veggie bits to use: onion skins and butts, garlic bits,
| broccoli stems, carrot greens or butts, celery leaves or those
| hard bottoms, kale stems, chard stems (although they can really
| color the stock), asparagus stems, fennel bits, the green leek
| leaves,
|
| Bad veggie bits, don't use (adds weird/too much flavor): any
| nightshade bits (bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant etc), green
| bean or peadpod tops, squashes, cucumber, zucchini.
|
| Haven't tried other veggies.
| masfuerte wrote:
| For many recipes there's no need to strain. You can just leave
| the veg in. For example, with tomatoes and herbs it makes a
| delicious pasta sauce. Related:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirepoix
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_trinity_(cooking)
| empath-nirvana wrote:
| It's actually the opposite of that. You use bits of stuff you
| have left over -- ends from vegetables, chicken carcasses,
| etc... Throw all that stuff in the freezer instead of throwing
| it away and use it for stock later.
| plussed_reader wrote:
| A one gal plastic bag in my freezer fully stuffed with
| vegetable odds and ends will yield about 2-3 quarts stock
| when processed with my 6L pressure cooker. I will add
| seasoning and fill the water to the max line, then strain
| while it's hot after the cook.
| barbazoo wrote:
| US units are fun :)
| majjam wrote:
| How do people strain their stock? I use a seive with a muslin in
| which I then squeeze to get all the juices, but its unweildy and
| messy.
| mckn1ght wrote:
| I just use a fine mesh strainer. If you really want clarified
| stock, you can simmer it with some egg whites and/or shells,
| the proteins will agglomerate all the remaining sediment.
| Strain again and done.
| cogman10 wrote:
| I'd assume with the muslin and squeezing they aren't going
| after clarified stock.
| Optimal_Persona wrote:
| First through colander and then 1 or 2x through fine mesh
| strainer.
| cogman10 wrote:
| Like you are trying to pull the juices from the plant matter?
|
| The stock should be flavorful enough as is. You shouldn't need
| to also squeeze the vegetables to get more flavor (just cook
| longer if you want that).
|
| I use a mesh sieve and nothing else.
| empath-nirvana wrote:
| i use a mesh sieve, but i also give the vegetables a press as
| i'm doing it.
| mathgradthrow wrote:
| one round through the sieve without the cheesecloth, discsrd
| large solids, and then one round with the cheese cloth, no
| squeezing. I don't typically add vegetables to my stock
| thought, as it seems to me to make more sense to me to add them
| later, so that the flavors don't evaporate off.
| pvg wrote:
| This sounds like a job for a centrifuge so I wonder whether the
| sort of people who home engineered their way to dishwasher sous
| vide have come up with washing machine stock straining.
| empath-nirvana wrote:
| There are two things a good meat stock provides, one is flavor,
| and the other is _gelatin_. Vegetable provides the first but not
| the second, and store bought meat stock has the first, but not
| the second. A really good homemade meat stock will gel _solid_ if
| you refrigerate it. I've never found a brand of store bought meat
| stock that has an appreciable amount of gelatin.
|
| One way to level up your pan sauces at home is to dissolve a
| packet of clear unflavored gelatin per cup of stock before using
| it -- give it about 10 minutes to bloom first and then stir it.
| It'll make it much thicker and richer as it reduces -- and this
| works for basically any recipe that needs stock.
| zwieback wrote:
| Discovered by accident that really low end pork from the
| supermarket, which I throw in the slow cooker for various uses,
| yields a great nearly solid stock. I was going to just use the
| lard swimming on the top but when I tasted the stuff that
| solidifies underneath it was delicious.
| giantg2 wrote:
| There's a technical name for that stuff. That's one on the
| main ingredients of Spam.
| plufz wrote:
| As someone who has been a vegetarian for over 25 years I've
| never heard of this. Why would you want your stock to have a
| thickener? Isn't it easier to just add a thickener to the food
| you make so you can control how thick or thin the result is?
| papercrane wrote:
| A more viscous sauce will adhere to the food it's on better
| and feels different in your mouth. Most people would describe
| it as "richer".
| Klonoar wrote:
| You've never heard of using cornstach slurries (sp) to
| thicken soups? I feel like that's a pretty well known trick
| for getting the mouth-feel right.
| plufz wrote:
| Sorry if I was vague. My question was why you would want
| your meat stock to have a thickener. I mean I don't premix
| all my cornstarch with spices and salt since I want to be
| able to pick the right amount of aromas and taste
| separately from how thick I make my soup.
| ska wrote:
| They were pointing out that with meat stocks it depends
| what went into the pot - a good home made (or restaurant)
| one typically already has enough to make it "gel" in the
| fridge. The box types you mostly get in a store didn't
| have this, so might want to add if your recipe assumes
| it.
| ska wrote:
| A similar effect for vegetarian dishes would be to add agar -
| changed the mouth feel.
|
| Typically you'd do this while making the dish, not add it to
| the stock ahead of time .
| tptacek wrote:
| This is a post about vegetable stock, not about meat stock.
| rolivercoffee wrote:
| James Hoffmann had an interesting take on making vegetable stock.
| TL;DW: He used a juicer
|
| https://youtu.be/VV68NiRulEk
| manishsharan wrote:
| My experience with stock boils down how much effort is required
| to create the stock vs how much and how long can it stay in the
| fridge.
|
| It takes hours to make good chicken stock and I want to make and
| store a whole lot of stock so that it is available to me for at
| least a week or longer. However, I don't have a lot of space in
| my fridge.
|
| Boiling your stock down to a fraction of the original volume is
| not a solution .. the carrots and celery and especially the
| aromatics do not do well when frozen for over a week. edit: typo
| Loughla wrote:
| We freeze our stock in 1 cup portions. Makes it very easy to
| keep tabs on what you have, and you just throw the ice in when
| you need stock. I find that it does not lose any flavor, really
| at all.
|
| In the freezer it lasts, essentially, forever.
| mardef wrote:
| Stock should just be the liquid. You're not going to get good
| flavor or texture out of the veg that's simmered for hours.
|
| Make the stock, strain it, put in a freezer bag and freeze
| flat. Keeps a long time and takes little space.
|
| Then when you want to make soup, thaw the stock, add veg and
| cook until the right texture.
| sowbug wrote:
| Related: if you ever get a $5 Costco rotisserie chicken, don't
| throw it away when you're done with it! Put the rest in a small
| pot with some water and let it barely simmer for a long time
| (6-12 hours). Taste it every few hours, adding salt and stirring.
| Strain out the bones and other gunk, and you'll end up with
| delicious mostly-homemade chicken broth.
| xiaomai wrote:
| I do this in my instant pot (35 minutes at high pressure). I
| don't salt until I'm using it in a recipe.
| cal85 wrote:
| What's the logic in tasting and salting throughout? If you salt
| it to taste then it will end up getting too salty as it
| reduces, forcing you to top it up with more water (reducing the
| flavour from the meat). Why not just make the stock without
| salt, then use it to make something, and then taste and salt
| that other thing perfectly?
| hardwaregeek wrote:
| Fish stock is an underrated one too. I've been getting into
| making sushi from whole fish and inevitably you end up with some
| bits and pieces from the fish, like the pin bones or the leftover
| spine. Boil it with some ginger and you'll get a tasty stock with
| a deep umami. Add in the fish head if you want some gelatin. You
| can even buy fish bones for very very cheap if you want to skip a
| step. Shrimp shells are another easy source for a savory broth.
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