Stock is a flavored liquid preparation. It forms the basis of many dishes, particularly soups and sauces. Making stocks involves simmering animal bones or meat, seafood, or vegetables in water or wine, adding mirepoix or other aromatics for more flavor.
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Preparation
Traditionally, stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water. A newer approach is to use a pressure cooker. The ingredients may include some or all of the following:
Today, ready-made stock and stock cubes consisting of dried, compressed stock ingredients are readily available. These are commonly known as bouillon cubes, as cooking base in the US, or as Oxo cubes in Britain, after a common brand of stock cube sold there.
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Stock versus broth
The difference between broth and stock is one of both cultural and colloquial terminology but certain definitions prevail.Stock is the liquid produced by simmering raw ingredients: solids are removed, leaving a highly flavored liquid. This yields classic stock as made from beef, veal, chicken, fish and vegetables.
Broth differs in that it is a basic soup where the solid pieces of flavoring meat or fish, along with some vegetables, remain. It is often made more substantial by adding starches such as rice, barley or pulses.
Traditionally, broth contained some form of meat or fish; however, nowadays it is acceptable to refer to a strictly vegetable soup as a broth.
Many cooks and food writers use the terms broth and stock interchangeably, and even when distinctions are made, they often vary from person to person. In 1974, James Beard wrote more emphatically that "they're all the same thing".
However, a traditional distinction between stock and broth is that stocks are made primarily from animal bones, as opposed to meat, and therefore contain more gelatin, giving them a thicker texture. Another distinction that is sometimes made is that stock is cooked longer than broth and therefore has a more intense flavor. A third possible distinction is that stock is left unseasoned for use in other recipes, while broth is salted and otherwise seasoned and can be eaten alone.
Bouillon is the French word for "broth", and is usually used as a synonym for it.
Types
- Chicken stock is usually cooked for several hours.
- Fish stock is made with fish bones and finely chopped mirepoix. Fish stock should be cooked for 20-25 minutes--cooking any longer spoils the flavour. Concentrated fish stock is called "fish fumet." In Japanese cooking, a fish and kelp stock called dashi is made by briefly (a few minutes) cooking skipjack tuna (bonito) flakes called katsuobushi in nearly boiling water.
- Fond blanc, or white stock, is made by using raw bones and white mirepoix. Chicken bones are the most common for fond blanc.
- Fond brun, or brown stock. The brown color is achieved by roasting the bones and mirepoix. This also adds a rich, full flavour. Veal bones are the most common type used in a fond brun. Tomato paste is often added (sometimes thinned tomato paste is painted onto the roasting bones). The acid in the paste helps break down the connective tissue helping accelerating the formation of gelatin, as well as giving color to the stock.
- Glace viande is stock made from bones, usually from veal, that is highly concentrated by reduction.
- Ham stock, common in Cajun cooking, is made from ham hocks.
- Jus is a rich, lightly reduced stock used as a sauce for roasted meats. Many of these are started by deglazing the roasting pan, then reducing to achieve the rich flavour desired.
- Lamb stock is cooked for several hours. To make a lamb jus, start with a chicken stock and roasted lamb necks and bones.
- Master stock is a special Chinese stock used primarily for poaching meats, flavoured with soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic, and other aromatics.
- Prawn stock is made from boiling prawn shells. It is used in Southeast Asian dishes such as laksa.
- Veal stock is usually cooked for several hours.
- Vegetable stock is made only of vegetables.
- Remouillage is a second stock made from the same set of bones.
Preparation
A few basic rules are commonly prescribed for preparing stock:
- The stock ingredients are simmered starting with cold water. The collagen from connective tissue and skin is denatured into gelatin through gentle, long simmering, thickening the stock somewhat.
- Stocks are simmered gently, with bubbles just breaking the surface, and not boiled. If a stock is boiled, it will be cloudy.
- Salt is usually not added or only minimally added to the stock, since most stocks are reduced to make soups and sauces, and excessive salt will make the final dish too salty.
- Meat is added to a stock before vegetables, and the "scum" that rises to the surface is skimmed off before further ingredients are added.
- If the cook wants to remove the fat, after the stock is finished it is cooled and the fat, which floats, separates and solidifies into globs within the stock, which can be removed with ease.
- Stocks can be frozen and kept indefinitely but are better fresh.
- The refrigerator shelf life of a stock is three to four days, but the stock can be boiled at the end of this period and the life extended another three to four days. Stock can be kept for extended periods in this manner.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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