I’ve seldom made a stock from pork, but I saw a bunch of well priced pork-neck chunks, some a bit meaty, but I might add more meat. I wonder if anyone has favorite uses of pork stock, and maybe thoughts about the degree of reduction.
I’m torn between utterly neutral approaches (say, just some peppercorns) or Mediterranean or Asian approaches (which differ greatly, obviously, like whether to use star anise or not). Or maybe I can just touch up a basic stock later to purpose.
When I hear pork stock I always think ramen but it can be great in Italian/pasta sauces too. It has been a while since I’ve made it myself, so I don’t have a lot of recommendations about recipes off the top of my head.
As far as reduction goes - for storage purposes I would reduce it once it is done (not on the bones the whole time), I don’t find it suffers at all from being thinned back out later.
Same with flavors - I would go for traditional if you don’t have a set purpose in mind already. Most flavor components don’t need hours to infuse their flavor, so you can easily season to purpose later on IMHO.
If you don’t make it often, the trickiest part will be salt - if you’re reducing it you don’t want to add too much salt or it gets super salty and thinning it out back to the right concentration months later is sometimes tricky - or you may decide you want to use it more like a demi-glace so you may want to use it slightly on the thick side, so too much salt will prevent that. Likewise, if you don’t put any salt into it (not recommending that, just saying) it can be hard to tell if you “did it right” before you reduce it since it can taste very bland. I don’t have a “do it this way and it will work” answer for this, just something to be conscious of. You can always pull out a 1/4 cup of the stock - add salt to that to make sure it tastes right - if so, reduce the remaining without additional salt addition to give you the most flexibility later on . . . .
Let us know how it goes.
Thanks, Thimes! I’ll think about your salt remarks. In general I use no salt at the initial stage of any stock. Mostly what makes me conclude that a stock is “done” is if it goes to gelatin after a day or two in the fridge (after strained, of course). But I will report back on how I purpose this. I might make my first go at Chinese Xiao Long Bao!
I make a soup in the cooler months with pork. I pressure cook pork bones to get a stock, then remove those. In a stockpot, I saute fresh ginger slices and chopped garlic, pureed red chiilies or samabl chilli paste and sometimes some chopped onion too. Then add in pork ribs - I get them from the Asian market and have them cut them crosswise into thirds for small pieces. Saute for a minute, then add some sesame oil, soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Add your strained stock, cover and simmer for about 30-40 minutes. Then add in veggies - i do some or all of cabbage, baby bok choy, carrots, potato, corn on the cob. Simmer until the veggies are soft, then adjust your salt and add some white pepper. Serve over white rice.
Sometimes I add star anise and/or black peppercorns while the ribs are simmering, but sometimes not. Just depends.
