Stock Essentials

BY ERIC GUIDO | JUNE 19, 2020

It took me far too long into my culinary career to finally invest in a stock pot and start down the path of creating my own chicken, beef and mushroom stocks. My experience with stock in professional kitchens started in school, where we learned the fundamentals; yet after that, it was always the late night or early morning crews who would tend to the massive stock pots. It seemed like such a parochial and repetitive task, as my selections of stocks were refilled before my shift, and I would arrive at my station to use them without prejudice in the many preparations, sauces and risottos that I would make on a day-to-day basis. The fact is, I took them all for granted.

I began to respect the importance of a good stock when I left restaurants and began cooking in my own home. Suddenly a recipe that called for two to four cups of stock translated into forking up $5-$7 dollars at a time, and forget about the colder months when soup season began. Before I knew it, I was buying, on average, a gallon of organic stock each weekend. The ironic part is that, as a family of four, we were also roasting a whole chicken at least once a week and tossing away the bones. To add to my frustration, I also became intrigued by the trend of drinking bone stock, researching intermittent fasting, and discovering the health benefits that only a slowly simmered stock could offer. I had officially fallen down the rabbit hole and was spending more money reloading my liquid pantry than most people do on their weekly bill at a trendy coffee shop. 

That was when it dawned on me, that I could save countless dollars by investing in just a few simple tools and taking a little time out of my life every two to three weeks. I could make my own stock.

So what is it about stock that’s so special?

It’s as simple as this: stock is a slowly simmered, heavily reduced broth, fortified with collagen (gelatin), as well as a myriad of other amino acids, vitamins and minerals that you can only get from the bones of animals. Meanwhile, a simple broth is made from a combination of meat, vegetables and aromatic herbs (no bones), and it can be made over a much shorter period of time. Both have their own health benefits and bring a lot of flavor to anything they’re added to, but only bone broth (or stock) adds that palatable richness to your preparations.

So why don’t more people make it?

First things first, it’s a time commitment, but one that’s worth the extra effort. It’s as easy as being able to remember to hold on to all of the bones that the average family produces and usually throws away. I have also found myself asking my hosts, when eating out, if they had any plans for the bones after we finished our meal. Just like the bones from my own home, they would be added to a large Ziplock bag and kept in the freezer until I had saved up enough to make my next stock. If you don’t want to go through all of this, a quality butcher will often be willing to sell bones at a very low price. 

The second problem that most people have is the time it takes to make stock, but I have a simple answer for that. The average stock needs to simmer for at least twelve hours (mine goes for sixteen hours), and it’s difficult to imagine simmering a pot on your stovetop for such a long amount of time while maintaining that simmer. However, there is a simple answer; simmer it in your oven. By using your oven, you now have a controlled environment that maintains a relatively steady temperature. What’s more, you can let your stock simmer overnight while you sleep. Suddenly, it is not so inconvenient to dedicate sixteen hours to stock.

In the end, I could go on and on as to why you should be making your own stock, but the best way to understand the benefits is to try it.