"Omelet" > wrote in message
news
> While I've always used bones and meat scraps for stock, I'd always used
> fresh veggies in the past. Whole sliced carrots, fresh peeled onions,
> whole stalks of celery etc.
>
> After a post on one of the cooking lists (this one I think) from a woman
> in Belgium that could not understand why we here in America tended to
> waste veggie trimmings, I started saving them just for grins in the
> freezer. Carrot tops, onion peels and tops etc. that I used to toss.
> Cabbage hearts too. I've always saved or used celery tops with leaves
> for stock.
>
> I made a pot of stock out of that stuff a couple of months ago and have
> saved it ever since! I swear it was some of the most richly flavored
> stock I've ever made. ;-d It really was good.
>
> I'm thinking that onion and carrot TOPS (and onion trimmings) are more
> intense in flavor than the "meat" of the veggie itself. Granted, it gets
> strained off and tossed when I'm done but still...
>
> The only drawback is is that that stuff takes up space and adds up
> quick. <g> I'm going on a frozen stock making binge this week.
>
> Another thing that makes wonderful stock is shrimp shells. I'm a bit
> leery of crab shells. They are intensely fishy smelling.
>
> The pot of stock I just finished smells incredibly good. Roasted rib
> bones, shrimp shells, carrot, celery and onion tops with garlic and salt
> free lemon pepper. Pressure cooked for one hour. Soon's it cools, I'll
> strain it off, defat and freeze it. Bones will go to the dogs and the
> now used veggie scraps will go into the compost.
> --
> Peace! Om
It occurred to me that making stock for a specific purpose is a recent
thing. IIRC a stock pot simply sat on the stove most of the time and the
trimmings you spoke of were routinely just thrown into the pot. Occasionally
the resulting broth was strained and used as the basis for soups which for
many centuries was the meal. Hence peas porridge hot peas porridge cold
peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
I'm not sure how many it killed but that's another story.
Dimitri
Dimitri