You would probably be shocked by the level of precision that goes into a stock specifically meant to be reduced for sauce-making.
In no case, is the stock pot a garbage bin for this and that. Good stock is one of the most expensive preparations in the kitchen.
Home Cooks and other people on a budget are going to use their roast carcasses, and scraps for stock.
Some people save their shrimp and lobster shells, asparagus scraps, and other odd and ends in the freezer for stock making later.
I would not expect an upscale French restaurant or some other fancy restaurantâs kitchen to do this. If I am paying $19 plus for a bowl of French Onion Soup, I hope they are making a quality stock rather than taking short cuts.
I only made chicken stock and turkey stock from leftover roasts until this year when I have made some broth and soups with fresh chickens for the purpose of making a really good soup.
With family restaurants and diners, the stock making and soup making sometimes is made with the odds and ends to help economize.
It depends on the type of restaurant.
Historically, soup has been a way to stretch food and feed more people on a tight budget. Maybe not all soups, but the type involving a big vat.
Itâs some sort of paradox if stock has become one of the most expensive things to make in a restaurant kitchen.
Iâm quite aware, and rather surprised at your assumption I thought a stock pot is a garbage bin.
There is a difference between making a demi-glace for sauces and a pot of stock made at home to be used for soup or general cooking. Iâm pretty sure most of the posters here are aware of this.
The stock pot for a home cook is hardly a âgarbage binâ but rather a good and economical use of bones and veggie trimmings that might otherwise be wasted.
And yes, Iâve made a demi-glace with veal bones once, and understand just how labor intensive it is. That is something Iâll happily purchase pre-made at a gourmet shop or save for the restaurant to use in a $20 bowl of soup or a sauce on a $75 steak.
I have started adding more precision to my technique, watching the temp, not stirring up the bones, skimming the scum, following ricepadâs tips I think, even with my leftover bones from roasts, and I have been amazed with the results, paying more attention to the method.
That said, I donât measure the meat, bones or water too precisely, yet. Maybe some day. haha
I am the opposite of a recipe follower. I would be fired if I was kitchen staff.
Have you ever tried the Cecilia Chiang recipe for chicken broth? I posted it here before from her autobiography The Seventh Daughter (fantastic!) thatâs now out of print. She had a beautiful restaurant in SF called The Mandarin. She died a few years ago at about age 101.
Anyway, you take a good quality whole chicken (and I always add a couple of lbs of wings) add to a pot of cold water to cover, bring to a boil then discard that water and rinse off chicken well. Fill the cleaned pot with cold water, add the chicken, salt and a few thin slices of ginger.
Bring to a boil then turn way down to a simmer. You can skim some but using this method thereâs very little to skim. If too much water evaporates you can add more cold water. After about an hour I remove the breast meat and use it for chicken salad.
You continue simmering for at least another hour.
I have not tried that one yet. Thank you!
Sorry, but itâs the last place you want to use scraps.
Why should there be a difference, or much of one? The stock IS THE SOUP.
You folks pick some mighty odd spots to all of a sudden be frugal. You probably prepped and cooked the meal with several hundred dollars worth of knives and ECI cookware, but throw stuff a day or two away from being garbage in the pot and then feed it to your family. Makes zero sense to me.
LOL
Wow
I make soup from scraps once a week.
https://www.seriouseats.com/save-your-vegetable-scraps-make-stock
ham scraps:
You sure make a lot of interesting assumptions about your fellow HOs.
Assumptions? Iâm responding to what was written.
If you want to make asparagus soup I can wholeheartedly suggest simply buying some really good asparagus and making it with that, instead of waiting until you have ends.
âDad, I want some of your delicious asparagus soup.â âSweetheart, youâll have to wait until I have enough woody trim to make it.â
Please.
And then in another thread gloat about a new $400 Japanese chefâs knife, or $800 vintage French copper saute pan.
And conflating. Hilarious.
The interesting thing, is even a Classical French restaurant, in France, historically,would make use of its scraps.
A pampered approach of making soup with the very best of ingredients sounds like something someone born into North American wealth, after 1979, dreamed up.
Well, not really. Trim goes into the mulch/compost pile or simply the garbage. If you think itâs going into the stockpot, you couldnât be more wrong.
I like Christian Delouvrierâs book where he writes about hotel owners complaining about how much money he spent making stock. Thatâs closer to reality than anything else.
For the home cook â a few quarts, maybe a gallon or so at a time? Why would you skimp? Not only does it not make sense from a culinary perspective, it really doesnât make much sense economically, either.
To that I would add that the scraps were not used when they were almost ready for the compost bin. They were simply ends and bits youâd rather not use in things like salads and other vegetable heavy dishes along with carcasses from recently eaten animals.
Yeah, it seems someone is being purposely obtuse in suggesting we throw garbage/compost into our stock pots for getting the most out of food we paid for â a chicken carcass, bits and bobs from veggies that are not fit for being tweezered upon the dinner plate. Using up an animal in its entirety is not only thrifty, but respectful to it having given its life 
And we all apparently own $$$$ knives and kitchen equipment. Who knew?
Obviously, there is a difference between scraps for soup and scraps for compost / pig slop.
Super. Why donât you articulate those differences for us.
Why would you make a soup from scraps in the first place?
I think you are confusing leftovers with scraps. If all the food you serve for dinner is not eaten, by all means eat it the next day or POSSIBLY repurpose it into another dish. It of course would never go into a stockpot but there are other uses.
If you bone out a chicken to make a galantine then plan on making stock the same night or next day and most definitely use the fresh carcase. Remember, you donât need to make a huge amount of stock to have some on-hand for your regular pan reductions. Donât feel like you have to stuff an 8 qt++ pot full before you can make stock. Make a little and use it for a pan sauce the next night, or dinner that night. Get out of the huge stockpot mentality. There are plenty of ârecipesâ that have you bone out a bird and make stock for a sauce to be served with that bird, at that nightâs dinner. This is how you should be thinking. Everything is fresh â the bird, the stock, and the sauce. No cruddy ingredients because you donât need that many in the first place. No carcases that are freezer burned or on the verge of it. No vegetables well on their way to going off.
If thereâs one, best âprofessionalâ secret to elevate your cuisine, I just gave it to you. You can trot out cookbook authors until the cows come home. What Iâm telling you is how itâs done â fresh, and small. Everything matters - the correct size mirepoix cuts, vegetable proportions, bouquet garni size and composition, everything. You arenât just throwing a bunch of stuff into a pot and hoping for the best.
