On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 07:05:54 -0800, LurfysMa >
wrote:

>I have a couple more questions about chicken stock and chicken soup.
>
>1. About how many cups of soup can (should) be made from 1 cup of
>stock? The online recipes vary wildly, but it seems that a rough rule
>of thumb might be something like 1 cup of water for 1 cup of stock. Is
>that a reasonakle place to start and then adjust to taste and feel?

Unless you have dramatically reduced your stock (thick rubbery glaze
or very strong stock) don't add extra water when making soup. You will
water down the flavour

>
>2. What is the advantage of making the stock first and then making the
>soup as opposed to making the soup directly? One advantage is time and
>the ability to do them at different times. But if I have the time to
>do it all at once, is there any reason to do it in two steps?

The biggest advantage in doing it in two steps is you can let the fat
set in the fridge so you can discard it. There can be a large amount
of fat in homemade chicken stock, especially if you use a whole
chicken to make it. If you spoon off as much of the fat as you can
when you make the stock, by all means, carry on to make your soup
straight away.