Do you use stock?
Posted by kathryn in Labels & advertising
Choice have put together a report on chicken stock, asking are packaged stocks anything like the real deal? It’s an interesting report, showing most are made of reconstituted ingredients, full of sodium and nowhere near the real deal. This is true of the seemingly better and more expensive brands, which come in liquid tetra packs.
Where’s the chicken?
I’m pretty cynical about food products, but even I was surprised at how little chicken they actually contain:
CHOICE’s hunt for chicken as an ingredient in stock proved elusive. This may seem strange given the labels say “chicken stock”, but only 16 of the 25 stocks we looked at contain animal products. Generally, if the product name has the word “style” or “flavour”, it’s made using flavours rather than actual chicken.
They also point out the cost effectiveness of making your own chicken stock, with their estimate being it costs 37c/250ml and they include a recipe which takes a couple of minutes of prep and 2 hours of cooking.
Do you actually need stock?
Loads of recipes include stock in the ingredients list. Soups, stews, risottos, in fact almost anything where there’s a liquid base. It seems that unless you’re pre-prepared with tubs of home-made stock in the freezer; or are able to wait 2 hours for your stock to cook, before you even start making dinner, then supermarket bought stock is the only option.
However to be honest, I rarely use stock. I’ve tried many of the commercial brands and I don’t like them. They contain too much salt, too much rubbish. Plus most of them have a harsh, obvious flavour which I find ends up dominating the food I’m cooking. So most of the time I just add water. If I do end up adding a pre-made stock I’ll use it at half, even quarter strength – which gives a gentler, more subtle flavour.
What I do
Instead of adding stock, I try to let the flavour of the ingredients shine through.
- I start my cooking with a longer, slower saute. Rather than quickly frying up onions and garlic and then adding a packet of stock, I take things a bit more slowly. I’ll turn the heat down, add a pinch of salt and then put the lid back on the saucepan. This allows the vegetables to gently sweat, releasing their juices. And because you’ve put the lid on those juices stay in the pan. Cook your vegies this way for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and you’ll have a fantastic flavour base for your food.
- You do need salt. If you’re not adding stock, then the meal will benefit from a pinch of salt. I usually add this at the beginning, during the saute stage, as it helps pull the juices out of the vegies.
- I usually just add water. Most of the time I use water in my cooking, even if the recipe says to use stock.
- The main exception is when making a risotto. I find these can taste a bit thin and lack the robustness of flavour, if you just use water. So when making a risotto I’ll do the long, slow saute and then add some watered down stock.
- Finish up with some extra flavours. Rather than using stock I’ll often add some bits and pieces towards the end of cooking, to balance and draw out the flavours. This takes some experimenting, but is a really effective way of deepening the flavour of your meal. For example, I often add a splash of red wine vinegar and shoyu to a lentil or tomato soup. I find Chinese cooking wine, mirin and rice vinegar invaluable – the Wonton & shiitakes in an Asian broth from the winter edition of An Honest Kitchen is a good example of this. You can also use preserved lemons, lemon juice, fresh herbs, other vinegars and mustard to add and enhance flavours at the end of cooking. Remember to continually taste as you add, especially at the beginning, while you’re finding out what works.
- If I do want to make a stock, I follow Wendy’s excellent instructions from this post. It’s a simple method, although it still takes time and you end up with a good quantity of stock for the freezer.
What about you, do you use stock?
13 October, 2009
Comments
I can’t remember the last time I used a packet stock. I always make my own. They taste so much better!
I’ve used both, and of course prefer homemade to packet. Though if I’m going to use packet I go to a deli or gourmet grocer and find the best one I can. the difference is enormous.
I agree Reem, the difference between good and bad bought-stock is enormous.
The Choice report includes Maggie Beer’s chicken stock, which comes out the best in all the tests. But as they point out, that’s $6 per 250ml serve – which is pretty exy.
And sorry, I’ve just realised I put Choice’s home-made stock cost estimate as 37c per litre, when it’s 37c per 250ml. I’ve just changed it in the text above.
I have Massel stock cubes in the pantry which until today I’ve used with gay abandon whenever a recipe calls for stock. Now that I’ve read your excellent article plus links to Choice analysis I need to start thinking about home-made. Thanks too for your cooking tips!
I tend to use water rather than those horridly salty premade stocks.
I have just been reading the following article which combines two of your recent topics – how to make your own vegie stock from your vegie offcuts and how to waste less food.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/ways-avoid-waste-food.html
After reading your post I checked my pantry and, yes, I confess to having a tetrapak of vegetarian stock on-hand. But I do like your suggested alternatives. Plus Wendy’s recipe/method sounds excellent.
Thanks for these tips! I can definitely recommend the longer, slower saute to start – this has worked wonders when I have the patience to do it.
I often use stock powder in my cooking and tend to treat it as a replacement for salt. However I have just begun a new habit of popping past-their-best veges and peelings into a bag in the freezer to make my own stock. I’ve successfully completed the first round of freezing, stock-making and cooking, enjoying a meal with beet-leaf-pink home-made stock last night. It remains to be seen how long I’m motivated to keep it up, and whether it reduces my use of powdered stock for seasoning.
I don’t use stock cubes but I’ll sometimes use a good quality store-bought fresh stock, if a recipe calls for it. I’ll make my own if I do a roast chicken but as my hubby is vegetarian, I won’t use this in general cooking.
I don’t bother making my own vegetable stock. If I do it with scraps, it’s not good stock, and if I do it the ‘proper’ way, it’s wasteful.
A chicken stock that doesn’t contain chicken is actually more tempting than it sounds, given that I am married to a vegetarian!
I’m a stock fiend. Freezer is always full of chicken, vegetable and Asian-flavoured stock and I feel it does make a big difference to the overall flavour of a dish. Love the smell of it bubbling gently away on the stove as I’m making it too. :)
For the times I don’t have any to hand or don’t have time to wait for it to defrost then it’s Marigold powder I reach for. The low-sodium stuff. Like you, I find the normal strength powders way too salty.
I can’t agree with you more Kathryn! I never use bought stock. If I run out of homemade then I just use water like you and add extra herbs or cook a soup with beans that flavour the soup.
My favourite thing to do is boil up the carcass of a home-roasted chicken – the flavour depth in the stock is fantastic! Then it’s frozen so it can be enjoyed later :)
I make freezer scraps stock like cindy – I have been making this for a few months now and the difference in taste is amazing even when sometimes the stock by itself doesn’t impress me that much. I use scraps of different vegies each time so it is never the same and now I rarely use bought stock – but as this is a recent change I do really notice the difference in some meals I am used to having bought stock in – you really taste the vegies in home made stock and I only cook my stock about 20 minutes and let it sit 30 minutes – I think Vegie stock is quicker than meat stock.
O nice tips… I too don’t use much stock and mostly add water. I wish I had more time to make my own stock. Anyway, while I’m here…
I’m a food science student conducting a research survey on the purchase of specialty food products. Feel free to help me fill out my short 8 min research survey. It’s completely voluntary.
Cheers,
foodieguy
i have a tin of Massell’s in my pantry, though we very rarely use it. mostly just for risotto. and sometimes soups. the one time that i attempted homemade stock, i didn’t really think it was worth it – there was not much flavour at all. i might’ve just been doing it wrong though! will have to try the recipe you linked to.
I like the idea of vegie scraps stock. Like you Caitlin I’ve often thought that making a true vegie stock was wasteful. I’m going to do some Googling and take a look at your link Madeleine. And Johanna I like the thought of cooking for 20 minutes and then just leaving it to stand – sounds like a good compromise.
Buuut, I imagine I’ll still carry on doing the longer slower saute and adding flavours at the end, for the majority of dishes.
Stock fiend, with freezer full of asian-style chicken and western style chicken stock in tubs and cubes of duck and beef stock because I use them much less often. Then there are bags of bones for the next round – never throw out a bone in our house (except lamb bones, as I dislike lamb stock). I cook a lot of Chinese food which uses quantities from a couple of tablespoons – 125 ml fairly regularly.
Kathryn if you have Deborah Madison’s Greens cookbook, she has a fantastic perspective on vegetarian stock usage and variety. It’s a book well worth having.
Zoe – I do have the Deborah Madison book and I know the section you mean. I’ve also enhanced my finish up with some extra flavours skills from both that book and Holly Davis’s Nourish.
Instead of stock, I use little packs of chopped-up dehydrated vegetables. Some of them are sold as seasoning for meat, instructing you to just add water to reconstitute them and others are actually sold as “instant minestrone”. There’s nothing inside the latter except the mixed dried vegetables and herbs and either red lentils or tiny soup pasta shapes. No salt, nothing. I just throw them into boiling water with some veggies and cook over a low heat for quite a while — at least an hour — and they make a delicious soup.
Add me to the stock club! Would rather use water and grated ginger/garlic than sodium boxes or cubes.
I have frozen home made stocks and find it a pleasurable activity to do on a wintery Sunday. I look fwd to the week after xmas – my mum makes an awesome chinese soup with the ham bone and mustard vegetables.
I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to make stock. Any time I have meat with bones, I throw the leftover bones in the freezer. When I have a couple of pounds, I throw everything into a large pot, fill it with water, and stick it in the oven on low for 6 ish hours. Sometimes I actually divide out bones by type (chicken, beef, whatever) and sometimes I just jumble them all in one generic stock.
I freeze it in blocks using a silicone loaf pan and then stick the blocks in gallon sized ziploc bags in the freezer. The actual “work” part of making the stock is 30-45 mins. And I always have blocks of stock (about 2 cups per block) to add to whatever I’m making.
I make my own chicken stock from a recipe I came across years ago. The secret is the veggie scraps.
As you prepare vegs for a meal, save the offcuts, and especially the brown onion skins, and keep them in the freezer. By the time I’m ready to make more stock I usually have a big bag of scraps, which I add to with a few fresh bits of celery or carrot.
The onion skins add more oniony flavour and give the stock a good rich colour.
I use an organic chicken carcase, and pull it out after 45 minutes, pick off all the meat and throw the bones back in for another hour. There’s usually enough meat for a risotto, or a couple of meals as salads and sandwiches.
When you strain the stock, everything can go out. Or pull the bones out first & put the rest in your compost bin.
Hi Kathryn
Thank you so much for your blog. I have been following it regularly for a long time and it is always wonderful and full of good information. I love to cook and agree with your comments on the need for good flavor in a risotto. I sometimes make my own chicken stock in winter but more often than not if I feel a dish needs stock I use the very good organic “stock cubes” and stock powder available in health food shops. Most shops have a reasonable range to choose from. I assume it has a higher nutritional and lower salt profile than the Maggi varieties and they certainly work very well in soups and risottos which are the main dishes I use them in.
Thanks again Kathryn for your great blog.
Kind regards
Suzanne Apps
Leave a comment