On Oct 12, 8:08�pm, "Dimitri" > wrote:
> "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

That pot left on the kitchen stove for poor folks plate scrapings was
a soup pot (ye original soup du jour), not a stock pot... many
nefarious eateries still salvage patron's plate scrapings. I know
many of you do this at home, I know when you say you make soup from
the carcass your family already gnawed those bones, don't lie, many do
the same. But that's not stock.

Making a *specific* stock has been done for centuries and still... but
*specific* fresh wholesome ingredients are used... not all manner of
saved up garbage.

Very, VERY few fine restaurants make their own specific stocks anymore
(NONE make stock from saved up garbage, the health inspector finds
that shit they get cited and eventually shut down), modern day
restaurants can't be spending time on making stock anyway. If
preparing say a veal stock in a posh restaurant they use fresh veal
bones carefully roasted for that specific purpose along with fresh
whole roasted vegetables, NOT gonna waste time, effort, and expensive
veal bones by adding garbage... but very VERY few restaurants do that
anymore. Nowadays most all fancy schmancy eateries use *specific*
stock bases they purchase in large volume from their wholesaler...
they must have consistancy, they can't be making up stock willy nilly
each batch... and by law they must have wholesomeness... using old
poultry parts (and *saved* skanky onion trimmings) is just looking for
trouble, especially fowl spines, blech! Even during the great
depression my grandparents purchased poultry from the live market
(there was no other way), as hard as times were they discarded the
spines... they coveted the feet but the spines were tossed out with
the feathers and guts... yoose call them back but they're spinal
columns tha tcontain the cord adn fluid. My grandparents operated
their own very successful restaurant for some forty years, that's
where I learned to cook from as soon as I could walk, not from the
navy... truth is I taught the navy more about cooking than they taught
me. I make my own *specific* stocks at home quite often, really for
enjoyment of preparation... I take no shortcuts whatsoever and would
never consider adding even a speck any kind of trash (I go so far as
examining each and every peppercorn for damage but mostly to make
certain they are actually peppercorns and not some roach body). From
reading this thread I know none of you make real stock... I don't
think any of yoose even own a real stockpot... and wouldn't know what
to do with one. Stock is not a method for using up kitchen trash,
stock is a way to demonstrate a chef's best efforts in using only the
finest ingredients... preparing a fine stock is the most difficult of
the culinary arts there is. Yoose kitchen kretins only think you're
making stock, what you're making is swill only fit to slop hogs.