Never have but don’t see a reason not to, if i needed it. But thinner beef stock gets used in chili or others where it doesn’t matter so much.
I have, but IMO it doesn’t have exactly the same mouthfeel as a stock made with collagen-rich parts (chicken feet are the cheapest thing I have found for this purpose). Still, it works in a pinch, and it’s a valuable trick for adding body to sauces if you avoid carbs (as I do).
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That thought never even entered my head.
I dont use it.
Don’t intend to.
Mostly because I rarely if ever have gelatin in my pantey and going to the store to ameliorate a quick soup just seems counterproductive.
You keep it to hand and want to use it? Knock yourself out…you dont need anybody else’s approval or permission.
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Several folks have mentioned chicken feet. Does your regular grocer carry, or do you find them in, e.g., Asian food markets or specialty markets? Shopping around here is kind of hum-drum, but I do sometimes hit an H-Mart a ways away, but don’t think I’ve seen chicken feet there either. Maybe just didn’t look in the right spot, though.
Heaven Forfend!
A.K.A. sometimes a typo really hits my funny bone just right!
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Ok, I didn’t have any plain gelatin stashed away as a staple, either. But I do now.
I’ve never had the luxury of having easy access to chicken feet. Or trotters or veal bones. When I can get them, I use them, but hey…
If gelatin-enriched stocks and soups taste “off”, I’d understand better why some Onions rule out of hand.
This pattern raises a completely different question: Exactly how content (nee, complacent) are we about our own or usually-purchased stocks? What is “good enough”, and what degree of betterment would it take to step outside our personal comfort zone? For easy things like adding gelatin, why not? Absent some disadvantage, the implication of stock perfection looms large…
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I keep frozen, reduced poultry stock as ice cubes, in my freezer, whenever I can, but these little packets are my least expensive helper, with a tiny footprint, and might be the biggest bang for the buck I have in my little tool box!
I can get chicken feet, and I always say I will use them next time I plan a stock project, but usually I’m just using bones I save from boning breasts.
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OK, try this one on… Wahine had a coworker who had to speak at a sales conference about market trends, and who predicted aloud that a certain class of products would “soon go the way of the dildo”.
Extended silence, nervous laughter, “Next!”
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To me the big challenge in using gelatin is, if using it for demi, getting the amount right. You need to anticipate, solely by feeling, the way it will reduce. You don’t want a demi that sets up like a panna cotta! You don’t even want a panna cotta to be overly thick. I’d rather have a demi that is still liquid than gelatinous. In my opinion people need to come to grips with sauces that are thinner than we get in restaurants. So the sauce was thin. Tear off a piece of baguette and mop it up. When I make a rare flank or hanger steak with a red wine reduction, it is ok if it puddles in the soup plate. Spear a French fry, dip it in mayonnaise, and drag it through the reduction. I find the attention to plating not to be useful. Messy things, enjambed for maximum pleasure, rock! If a tiny amount of gelatin enhances the obscenely delicious taste, use it!
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When I lived in Queens, chicken feet (and pig trotters, for that matter), were available at my regular grocery stores. Now that I live in the burbs, they are harder to find, but still available at Hmart or grocery stores in neighborhoods with large Latinx or Asian populations.
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re chicken feet: not always available at my regular supermarket, so i pick up a package when i see them and stash them in the freezer for when i need them — next month because my thanksgiving hosts send me home with the carcass.
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Butcher.
Whole Foods have them readily.
My local Vons / Albertsons has them on request.
Any ethnic market will have them
My local Asian markets always have them.
Im happy with my food. I’m a great cook.
I wouldn’t hesitate to serve any of my dishes to anyone (and I feed others regularly). I am not only asked to feed others regularly (my latest was baked pasta for 225 who needed a hot meal after the hurricane) and am always complimented on my food.
One more time. I dont feel the need to add gelatin to my cooking in my kitchen destined for me and mine. I dont need your approval or permission any more than you need mine.
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All of this is good. Even better if you’re fully self-actualized.
I posted recently here about nachos, specifically cheese for them. There were many useful suggestions, including using evaporated milk. Would you rather make something else than try that?
The irony.
Perhaps a bit of self-awareness and humility before posting.
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The only thing that is decipherable about that post is your continuing drive to belittle me because I dont want to put gelatin in my stock.
Do you really need to die on that hill?
I feel the same. Good product, adds a nice texture when I want it, but I don’t use it too often because of lack of experience. Super useful, though, IMHO.
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(post deleted by author)
I haven’t used gelatin because I don’t usually have a need for it — I use chicken legs with the skin mostly, and the stock gels up just fine.
When I have the bones and skin from a breast, that’s when the body is not as good and I e thought about it, also from reading similar to what already posted above.
Chicken feet are not easily available at stores near me (WF, TJ, and local) — I’d have to go to a weekly farmers market where specific purveyors stock them, or then Chinatown. Easier to use legs, which are cheap and easily sourced. Wings used to be a good option, but no longer given the pricing.
That’s a pretty false equivalence
[/quote]
And that’s even further.
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