TL;DR Throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and add water. Part of a series of simple and classic dishes designed to help teach those who are intimidated by the actual thought of cooking.
There is a real tragedy happening right now, and it's that the people of the world do not know how to make the perfect stock. The simplest of simple dishes, stock is the cornerstone of cooking. It also happens to be a great way to hone some kitchen skills for new learners. Plus, what's more comforting than a nice soup made with homemade stock?
First, Get Thee Thy Ingredients, Young Chef!
Stock is, at its essence, just water + vegetables + meat bones. Obviously omit the meat if you just want to make veggie stock. If you're making a meat-based stock, chicken is a great place to start. Get a whole chicken, they're pretty cheap, and a bone-in beef cut. The store I went to today only had neck bones, so that's what I grabbed. If you're a person who likes to get rotisserie chicken from the store, once you eat that sucker up just hold onto the bones and you can use that!
You can make stock from just bones and water and vegetables, but I'm feeling feisty so I went full-on-chicken. The beef bones add some additional dimension and flavor but can be omitted.
Honestly, you can omit or add anything you want to this and generally you're going to end up with a baller-ass final product no matter what.
Justine Bienkowski
Here are the BASIC ingredients you need. Again, do not feel tied to any one of these--feel free to add or subtract as is to your taste.
MEAT
- Leftover bones from chicken carcass, steak, ham, etc.
- Alternatively, you can get chicken parts or a full chicken. Generally you won't want to make stock from a nice piece of beef--though cheap bone-in cuts are fine.
VEGGIETABLES
- 1 large onion or 2 small onions, cut in half with skins on
- A couple of carrots, peeled and cut into thick slices
- A couple of sticks of celery cut into large chunks
Optionals
- A shallot
- Leeks
- Turnip
- A few parsnips
- Garlic (I didn't use this below though I LOVE garlic--some find it too intense, so use what you're comfortable with)
- A cabbage leaf
HERBS
- Parsley
- Dill
- Lovage
- Fennel
- A bay leaf
SPICE UP YOUR LIFE
- Salt 1 tsp-1tbl
- Whole peppercorns
- Whole allspice
- Whole cloves
Don't You Know, Veg It Up. You Got To Veg It Up.
The only things that you really need are carrots, celery and onions. Anything else is up to you--I highly recommend turnips, parsnips and LEEKS (LEEKS ARE SOUP GODS). Adding a leaf of savoy cabbage is really fun as well. Wash everything, then peel and roughly chop the root vegetables.
One note about leeks--you want to use both the white AND green parts. Each brings its own rumble to the table. Just make sure to thoroughly wash the leeks, they collect a lot of dirt in the leaves.
Stock is always a great excuse to clean out your fridge if you have a bunch of vegetables leftover. You could probably throw anything in and you'll be okay, though I've never tried anything like peppers. So maybe everything but peppers. And eggplant. But root vegetables are way solid. They are your bros.
Justine Bienkowski
