Taking Stock: Chicken and Shrimp Stock
Homemade stock has much to recommend it. First, you can control the ingredients, removing the fat and omitting the salt. Second, unlike canned or boxed stock, homemade stock has a lot of gelatin in it. This means as it reduces, it thickens naturally, without flour or cornstarch, into a smooth and flavorful sauce. The taste is incomparable. And, if you make it yourself, you can freeze it in small amounts, ready to be defrosted for that “cup of chicken stock” your recipe demands.
Winter is the best time for making stock. Keeping a stockpot simmering all day is something for colder months. Plus, at the end, when it comes time to cool the stock as quickly as possible, nothing beats a convenient snowbank. Believe me, I’ve made stock in the summer and it is a hot and sticky operation.
Making stock is one of those things that separates the timid from the adventurous. Like many tasks in the kitchen, it isn’t especially difficult, just a little time-consuming. Stock is made from bones — beef, veal, chicken or fish typically, often cooked with a few vegetables like carrots, celery and tomatoes. Broth is made from meat. The chicken soup your mother made is broth. Nothing wrong with it, but it lacks the gelatin of stock.
The process is pretty simple. If you are using beef or veal, you roast the bones in a hot (450-degree) oven until they are browned and flavorful. They go into a pot with water and the deglazed contents of the roasting pan. Some recipes call for adding the vegetables and tomato at this point; others wait. I prefer to wait. The ratio is important: 10 pounds of bones to 6 quarts of water makes 2 quarts of stock. Measure. Trust me. Most of my unsuccessful stock experiences involve trying to reduce a too-watery stock. For chicken or fish stock, you typically don’t roast the bones. A good vegetable stock uses mushrooms for a heartier flavor.
The key to a clear stock is to skim, skim, skim. As the stock comes to a boil, a grayish scum will rise to the top. As soon as you hit boil, turn down the heat to a simmer and skim the foam off. You will end up skimming a lot of the fat as well, which is a bonus. Keep skimming until the surface of the stock-to-be is clean. This is why I add the vegetables later in the process. Add them now and you’ll be skimming pieces of carrot or onion with the foam. Never salt a stock while you are cooking it. Since you’re going to reduce it, the salt will get more concentrated than you want.
Simmer the stock. A simmer means that lazy bubbles rise to the surface and break. It is not a boil, where the surface of the liquid is in motion, like the ocean breaking on a rock. Simmer beef and veal bones for up to 12 hours. Simmer chicken bones for four to six. Fish and shellfish stocks are done in under an hour. Add the chopped vegetables and tomato late in the cooking. Interestingly, I have seen recipes for a Chinese white stock that uses pork and chicken bones at a rolling boil. The stock gets white from the dissolved solids, which violates all the French rules.
I have made stock with a lobster pot, but I’d recommend a good heavy pot to avoid scorching the bottom. For straining, you can use a colander, but about 10 years ago, I got a chinois for a birthday present and I love it. A chinois is a metal strainer, shaped like a cone, with tiny holes. You can find one in any cooking store or restaurant supply house. The advantage is that it strains lots of particles, is sturdy and easy to clean, and comes with a stand that makes straining a breeze. They say you can use coffee filters and a colander to strain stock. In my experience, the filters clog after a couple of pints of stock and the process takes forever.
Once your stock is strained, cool it as quickly as possible. Either fill your sink with ice cubes and nestle the pot in the middle or find a convenient snowbank — a big one. Remember that the pot will melt through the snow, so don’t put it in a 3-foot deep bank. Pack some snow around it if necessary. Be careful. You have several quarts of really hot liquid in that pot.
When the stock is cool, it will be a jellied liquid. The fat will rise to the top and solidify. It is easy to remove the fat layer by sliding a knife under it and using a spoon to lift the pieces off. Now, if you are me or Escoffier, you will save the fat for use as a flavorful cooking fat. (Escoffier recommends browning the ingredients for tomorrow’s stock in the fat from today’s stock.) If you are my wife, you will dump the fat into the garbage as quickly as possible. Don’t dump the fat down the drain. It can clog your pipes or, if it makes it out to the street, it will clog the sewer pipes. Instead, put the fat into a container and into your garbage. Another advantage of winter: The stock will solidify in the container, making an accidental spill all that more unlikely.
You’ll probably want to freeze some or all of the stock. I freeze it in ½-cup and 1-cup portions. I typically use it for a sauce, which needs between ½ cup and 2 cups of stock. For years, I used clean muffin tins (the new Silpat plastic ones are great) or plastic cups to freeze the stock. Then, for ease of storage, I’d warm the tin slightly to loosen the frozen cubes, slide the stock out, and return it to the freezer in a zip-lock bag. However, juggling tins full of stock got to be too much. I’d end up spilling some before I got to the freezer and more when I tried to balance the tray on the frozen packages on the shelves. Now, I use small plastic bags, spooning a cup or ½ cup of the jellied stock into the baggie, squeezing as much air out as possible and twist-tying it. I hate the waste of the bags, but it is a cleaner process and you don’t get the freezer burn you get with the frozen stock pucks.
I keep the baggies in a zip-lock bag in my freezer and take out what I need when I am gathering ingredients for the dish. A minute in the microwave (remove that twist tie first) and they are ready.
What can you do with this jellied gold? Use it to make a sauce. It will reduce beautifully, adding a thickness and gloss you can only fake with starch. Cook green beans in chicken stock for a great flavor. A risotto made with chicken or fish stock and garnished with the appropriate protein is a revelation. If you are maniacal, you can reduce a quart of stock to less than a cup of glace. This is a heavily jellied stock that can be cut into cubes and frozen and used to add an intense flavor to any dish. Sort of like homemade bouillon cubes.
Reduce shrimp stock until it is thick, being careful not to scorch it. Whisk in a pat of butter if you like, and some herbs, and pour it over grilled shrimp. The flavor is amazing. Lobster stock can be used in lobster bisque, a cream and sherry-based soup that makes my wife shudder just at the mention of the ingredients. Fish stocks make great bases for a fish soup.
The recipes below are for chicken and shrimp stocks, which are simpler and take less time than a beef or veal stock. The sauce recipes are meant for thin-sliced pork or veal or chicken scallopini. To make chicken scallopini, slice a deboned chicken breast lengthwise into two slices. Place the pieces on a piece of waxed paper sprinkled with a few drops of water. Cover with another piece of waxed paper and pound briefly with a meat mallet or a heavy pot. Cook the scallopini for two minutes on one side over medium-high heat, then flip and cook another minute. Two chicken breast pieces make four scallopini, which is enough for two hearty eaters or four servings as part of a larger meal.
Recipes
Chicken Stock
Shrimp Stock
Marsala Sauce
Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, January 25, 2008.