Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Colorful stock


I am boiling our weekly bone broth for 24 hours this time, rather than the usual 6-8; we will see how it turns out! It certainly looked beautiful going into the pot, with the tops from a bunch of carrots and an onion, plus extra purple onion skins (after all, why let all that good stuff go into the compost? there's still a lot to be had from the leaves and skins of veggies). I always add 2 tbsp. raw vinegar to the water and let everything sit for about half an hour before turning on the heat to begin pulling minerals from the bones, cartilage, and veggies. You will see from the picture that we are still using an old unclaimed pot I snitched from my grad school apartment that has some sort of evil black coating on it (ugh). Any sponsors out there who want to send us a test pot? :)

*Note added later: This broth turned out oddly -- it tasted quite bad actually, somewhere between bitter and burned. I can only figure it was the carrot tops, though I have seen recipes that include carrot tops... the other possibility is that our horrible pot has at last bitten the proverbial dust, so maybe that was the problem. For my next batch I will stick with the conventional aromatic veggies and chicken - nothing else.

4 comments:

  1. buy yourself a le creuset for christmas. check out homegoods, marshalls or an outlet for pots that are literally half the price. you won't regret it!!

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  2. I think the onion skins are what give a bitter flavor. I've been told not to use them. I love your blog btw. Discovered it today. Your energy is amazing!

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  3. Thank you for the comment, Amanda. I forgot to add a note on here earlier about this: I learned recently that leaving veggies in longer than 6-8 hours can cause a bitter flavor. The way I get around this is to just not make stock that goes so long, but you could also just remove all the vegetable pieces with a slotted spoon and let the bones continue cooking. I use onion skins when I make pho (Vietnamese-style oxtail soup broth) and it comes out great, so I don't think it could be the skins.

    I should also mention that we now have a very nice All Clad stainless steel 8-qt. stock pot which is AMAZING for stock -- super pricey, but that's what Christmas gift certificates are for, right? :)

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  4. I love making chicken broth but I've never before made beef broth. I just ordered some beef bones recently from our local meat source and thought I'd ask you if you had any tips! (I'm guessing it's the same as chicken broth/stock?)

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