Techniques › Sauces and stocks
Making stock
Intermediate Sauces and stocks
Slowly simmering bones or vegetables with aromatics in water to make a flavorful base for soups and sauces.
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How do you do it?
- Cover bones or vegetable scraps with cold water by about 2 inches; add onion, carrot, celery and herbs.
- Bring just to a simmer and skim off any foam that rises.
- Keep it at a lazy simmer: chicken 3 to 4 hours, beef longer, vegetables about 1 hour.
- Strain, cool quickly, and refrigerate within 2 hours.
Why does it work?
Long, gentle heat pulls flavor and gelatin out of bones, which gives stock its body. A hard boil churns fat and particles into the liquid and makes it cloudy and greasy.
What are the common mistakes?
- Boiling hard — cloudy, greasy stock.
- Cooling a big pot slowly on the counter — it lingers in the danger zone.
Still stuck? Watch someone do it on YouTube.
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