How To Make Stock
from Italian Traditional Food

Advice on how to make stock

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Here is some useful advice on how to make stock. As every good cook knows, the best casseroles, stews, braises and sauces owe their fine flavour to the original stock.

Poor stock can turn a promising dish into a dull and tasteless mixture. If a recipe calls for good stock and you don't have any to hand (nor feel like making some), then change your choice of dish. Trying to compromise can lead to failure in making a special dish.

Stock is simple to make

Stock is easy to make once you know how, and its ingredients are not expensive. Most larders have something - vegetables, carcass bones and so on - which can be turned into a small quantity of stock for a gravy or a simple sauce. If you want more, a few beef bones from the butcher will make enough stock for a week for the average family needs. Bones, on their own, will make a stronger stock than if you use mixed vegetables and bits of meat (mixed stock). Raw mutton bones and turnips are best left out of stocks unless you are making a Scotch broth; both have a strong flavour and could well spoil the dish for which the stock is intended. The liquid in a stockpot should be reduced in quantity (by simmering) by about a quarter, or even more, before the stock is ready for straining.

In an emergency a bouillon cube can be used for certain things, but it can never replace properly made stock because it will lack the characteristic jellied quality. Bouillon cubes are salty and there is always the danger of overdoing the seasoning.

If you use cubes too often as the basis of your stock, your dishes will not only have a monotonous flavour but the bouillon cube taste will give you away.

Brown Bone Stock

3 lb beef bones
2 onions (quartered)
2 carrots (quartered)
1 stick of celery
bouquet garni
6 peppercorns
4 quarts of water
salt
large heavy saucepan

Wipe bones but do not wash unless unavoidable. Put into a very large pan. Set on gentle heat and leave for 20 minutes. Enough fat will come out from the marrow so do not add ant to pan unless bones are very dry.

After 10 minutes add the vegetables, having sliced the celery into 3-4 pieces.

When bones and vegetables are just coloured, add bouquet garni, peppercorns and the water, which should come up two-thirds above level of ingredients.

Bring slowly to the boil, skimming occasionally, then half cover pan to allow reduction to take place and simmer 4-5 hours, or until stock tastes strong and good.

Strain off and use bones again for a second boiling. Although this second stock will not be so strong as the first, it is good for soups and gravies.

Use the first stock for brown sauces, sautes, casseroles, or where a jellied stock is required.

For a strong beef broth, add 1 lb shin of beef to the pot halfway through the cooking.

White Bone Stock

This stock forms a basis for cream sauces, white stews, etc.

It is made in the same way as brown bone stock, except that bones and vegetables are not browned before the water is added, and, and veal bones are used. Do not add the vegetables until the bones have come to the boil and the fat has been skimmed off the liquid.

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