Taking Stock
One of my favorite stories happened when Melissa was visiting with two of her girlfriends. I wasn't there, so I'll have to paraphrase. They were all at Jean's apartment for dinner and Jean wanted to know when people wanted dessert. The others asked what dessert was and Jean said freshly baked cookies. Then she preceded to describe her "cookies on demand", little frozen balls of dough she keeps in the freezer so that she can just pop in one or two and have cookies moments later.
Oooh, they cooed, that sounds delightful. Then Lisa commented that with their tiny freezer, they probably didn't have room for that, but they did keep a bottle of vodka in the freezer so that her husband could make her martinis after a hard day.
Ooooh, they cooed. And then Melissa described our freezer full of goodies. "We have fish heads. I can't even get ice without seeing this head staring at me from its spot wedged between a bunch of old bones and carcasses." This was not said with the pleasure and joy one might imagine.
But she is the first to admit that she loves what happens to them in the long run. They get turned into stocks, which get put into all manner of things and form the basis of a number of sauces and soups. But this is a somewhat time-consuming activity, so every now and then I have "Stock Days" when the freezer gets cleaned out and replenished with liquid goodness.
After Thanksgiving, I had an abundance of frozen turkey carcasses, so the main effort for the weekend was to turn it into turkey stock. I cut up two batches of mirepoix and tossed them into the pot with the frozen turkey parts. Then I filled my stockpot with water, and turned the heat to very low. I try and keep my stock just below a simmer, bubbles rising to the surface at a languid pace. I have found that the lowest I can go on our apartment's burners is just right.
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| Turkey on the right (before the water was poured in) beef on the left. |
My two carcasses made a lot of stock. Even after I reduced it to where I wanted the flavor and concentration to be, I had 3 quarts of turkey stock. Normally something to be overjoyed about. But here's the thing. I had not properly accounted for the fact that one of those turkeys had been smoked. And so I now have 3 quarts of turkey stock that has a distinct smokiness to it. This makes it more challenging to use, since a) one doesn't always want a smoky component and b) it's only going to get more pronounced when I reduce the liquid for use in a sauce. The exercise was a good reminder of why you don't flavor your stock with anything other than the minimum of ingredients. Any extra flavor will come back to haunt you when you reduce the liquid.
I also made some beef stock using oxtails. Oxtail stock is neat because you make your first stock, which I left on the stove for 5 hours or so, then you can use the oxtails again to make a second stock. While this stock is weaker, you can reduce it to make a demi-glace or glace de viande, which is still quite potent. I reduced the stock to a demi-glace and chilled it overnight; the stock gelled well enough that I could (and did) cut it with a knife. The chunks got frozen into convenient sizes, and the first beef stock got frozen as well (I ended up with about a quart and a half, but I used half of that for dinner soon after).
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| Mmmm. Beef stock. |
And I should note that we too now keep a bottle of vodka in the freezer, and occasionally some cookie dough as well. Oooooh.
Finally an administrative note: Melissa has taken over art direction, so she is now usually the person responsible for the photos as well as cleaning them up. We are both inspired by Clotilde's always-charming photos.
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