Stock, the magic elixir

There is a rule in my kitchen that no bone goes into the trash until it has taken a turn through the stockpot. Today, that stockpot is usually my Instant Pot(R) but the rule holds. Most serious cooks make chicken stock and perhaps beef stock but one can, in fact, use any bone for the purpose. When my wife was alive, we would host family holiday dinners. One Fourth of July I made spareribs and set out a large pot for the used bones. My mother-in-law was horrified that I intended to use them for stock after the assembled company had gnawed on them but I figured that no germ was likely to survive a 240°F pressure cooker. The resulting stock made excellent beans and soup.

An aside: Stock is made with bones that provide gelatin. Broths are made with meat and/or vegetables and lack gelatin. “Bone broth” is meaningless marketing jargon.

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Agreed.

Not all bones are good for stock, however.

Really need things like neck, wings (chicken of course), knuckles, etc. Thing with gelatin. A big beef rib bone, while majestic to look at, makes stock about as insipid as dishwater.

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True. Actually, beef stock is the only one I buy–Kitchen Basics unsalted–because I never buy bone-in beef and beef bones are too expensive. Pork bones, to be honest, are probably better for the bits of meat on them. Besides ribs I like to make stock from ham bones.

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Since it’s almost Dungeness crab season.

Back later!

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My local Chinese supermarket will basically “give” me a bag of beef bones. $1 for about 10 lbs. Not the best or “cleanest” bones, but they are dem’ beef bones.

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Technically, not stock should be boiled but rather simmered just below boiling for hours. That results in a clear stock which historically has been the most desirable. Personally, don’t care if my stock is cloudy so I make it in my Instant Pot.

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Generally agree, but lately have stopped with pork bones. I have more pork broth than I need now[1] in the freezer and it’s getting in the way, and I don’t make bean soup often enough. Maybe I will now that it’s getting colder out.

[1] As prices have gone up I’ve shifted toward pork and beef subprimals (generally boneless) which are less expensive than bone-in beef cuts, so I’ve ended up with more than enough pork. For that matter, I’ve got too much of all kinds of stock - pushing 40 quart bags. I really need to hit the soups hard this winter.

Stocks and broths are my number 1 use for the instant pot and I love the ease of it. I’m not attentive enough to the stovetop and too often ended up clouding a stock or broth due to letting it boil, then had to do the egg white raft method to clarify. To me the IP gets the same quality with no chance of emulsification clouding. [Edit - I see you posted just ahead of me and mentioned clouding - the stuff I get from my IP is always nice and clear. I always let it depressurize fully before trying to open it, so it won’t boil.]

Question for you - do you add any salt when making a bone stock? I’ve stopped salting it in the pot. I sometimes salt it after I concentrate it on the stove. But I’ve wondered if the salt present in the pot somehow helps with extraction of… not sure - some element that I’d want to have extracted from the bones.

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Wow! I’ll have to check that out here. We don’t have a Chinese supermarket but there are a couple small Chinese markets. I should also ask the local halal butcher about lamb bones.

yeah, you’d be surprised what butchers have to toss.

I mean the good stuff, like neck and knuckles and marrow bones, they sell, but big beef ribs are basically just food to feed the trash bag.

they charge e $1, just because the cashier needs something to ring up.

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No salt for me.

If you want to speed up extraction, a splash of white vinegar does the trick (or Vodka, but that’s expensive and there are better uses. :slight_smile: )

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No, I never add salt to stock. The main reason is that many times I like to boil it down and any salt could get too concentrated.

Like you, I mostly buy pork boneless subprimals, loins, tenderloins, sirloin, and shoulder with the occasional slab of belly to make bacon. I get enough fat trim to make lard. Pork bones are a rare treat.

What do you freeze your stock it? I use Ziplock quart screwtop jars. When I need some I take off the lid and microwave it for a few minutes to get what I need then put it back into the freezer.

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I freeze mine in ZipLoc quart freezer bags and generally ink on there a comment about strength or what dilution ratio I think is about right.

I will almost always need at least 1 quart for whatever the recipe is, and if not, warming and sipping any excess with a bit of salt is a fun “Cook’s Tariff”. I have a couple of those “magic thaw” plates that I bought before learning an inverted cast iron pan thaws just fine. I use them to sandwich the bag while freezing, so I get a nice flat pack out of it. In a hurry I can slice the sides of the bag and toss the iceberg into the soup pot, but usually I just lay it out on the granite to thaw while prepping other stuff.

How do you fill the bags without making a mess? I like the idea of their packing flat.

I often used two cast iron pans to thaw things, one inverted and one on top.

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I find the tops of these bags (as opposed to Aldi brand bags, which aren’t good) are stiff enough that I can pour from a large Pyrex measuring cup just hanging onto the top/collar of the bag without mess (usually).

The other thing that helps is to note that a “quart” ZipLoc will actually hold about 5.5 cups, whereas I’m usually scanting the quart, shooting for about 3.5 cups or less, and will continue concentrating if I have more than 4 cups. So it’s not as perilous as it sounds like it should be.

I’m afraid I am rather anal about it. I ladle the stock into quart-sized Ziplock jars through a reusable coffee filter. Then I weigh them all using an empty jar to tare the scale and equalize the amount in each. Then I top them up with water to 32 oz.

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There’s often a pot of stock simmering away on the back burner. I almost always buy whole chickens because they’re the most economical, and butcher them for whatever I need to make. I regard the carcass as “free” because I would have to spend more on skinless/boneless chicken breasts than what I’ve paid for the whole bird. Thighs get used in a separate dish, either bone in or out. I’ve done this for years, and though it took a long time to butcher a bird when I started out, it goes quickly now, and is worth the effort. Even more worth the effort when it’s a duck. The fat alone costs half as much as a whole bird, the breasts, more than a whole duck, the legs (either braised or confit) the cost of the whole bird, and the carcass is, again, free. A little time and prep saves a lot of cash and makes things taste a whole lot better.

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Unfortunately, here whole chickens cost about the same as boneless, skinless thighs. I do buy one now and then specifically to make stock. Last spring I bought a case of five ducks online. I break them down, cook the breasts for a meal, confit the legs, render the fat, and make stock. One duck yields two cups of duck fat and four quarts of stock. The rest is like freebies.

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While I want gelatin in a stock for chicken or beef soup, I don’t feel it’s necessary for bean or pea soup, since they naturally thicken themselves.
If I don’t have a ham bone, I dice 8 oz or so of kielbasa, sear in the stockpot, then add all the vegetables and legumes. Sometimes a dollop of Better Than Bouillon toward the end of cooking, if more flavor is needed. That’s for 3 quarts if soup, using a pound of dried legumes.

Yeah, I skipped a couple of steps. I do not filter using coffee filters but rather linen cheesecloth about 8X thick. I have tried coffee filters and for me it’s just too slow. I had to change them out about 8 times for one quart of filtrate. But your stuff must be like crystal clear!

Well, as a person of French Canadian descent I can only recoil in horror at the idea of kielbasa in pea soup! Smoked ham hocks are the only legitimate meat is such soup. However, I do agree that bean soups do not need gelatin, but I do like the ham flavor in them. Actually, I usually make pea soup with a meaty ham bone.