Homemade Stock and Bouillon
Ronnie's Notes
It’s somewhat time-consuming to make your own homemade stock and bouillon, but it’s worth it. Stock is the basis for many soups and sauces, and bouillon comes in handy for a multitude of recipes. When you make your own, you control the level of salt, fat, and flavor. You can freeze stock in small containers to use as needed. You can also freeze bouillon in a container or as cubes.
Tips: Kitchen Clue You can make beef or veal stock and bouillon the same way, using 5 lbs. of bones and meat instead of chicken. To make brown (dark) meat stock, roast the bones and meat first for about 20 minutes in a preheated 450°F oven.
Difficulty: Challenging
Instructions
To make the stock, place the hen in a soup pot and add enough water to cover it by about 1”.
Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat, and for the next several minutes, remove any scum that rises to the surface.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Be sure there is enough liquid to cover all ingredients, adding more water if necessary.
Cook the ingredients, partially covered, for 21/2–.
Pour the stock through a strainer or colander into a large bowl or second pot.
Remove the fat from the surface of the liquid with a spoon or fat-skimming tool or by patting paper towels on the surface.
For best results, refrigerate the strained stock; when it is cold, the fat will rise to the surface and harden and you can scoop it off.
Discard the vegetables.
You can use the chicken for chicken salad.
(c)Salads Salads are among the more refreshing foods you can make.
They are handy, too, because you can prepare them ahead.
There are scads of different types; green salads, potato salad, and macaroni salad are familiar to most of us, but there are also interesting salads you can make from grains, starches, and legumes such as barley, beans, and rice.
Here’s a hint to bear in mind: Salads always taste better at room temperature or slightly chilled, but not cold.