Always Learning (Part II)

Last year after Thanksgiving, I tried my hand for the first time at making homemade stock.  I remember an essay by Marjorie Williams where she talked about her mother making stock for her, and the entire concept was completely foreign to me.  She could just as easily described her mother flying to the moon for as much as I felt I could relate to that.  Who knows how to do stuff like that?  And then who even bothers? was pretty much my attitude at the time.

So I take it as a measure of how far my cooking skills have come over the years because now making stock is actually something I've done!  Not only that, but I really enjoy making it.

BECAUSE IT'S SO EASY!!!

It's like making soup, except you hardly have to chop or measure anything!  Quarter the onion!  Throw in the skin, too, if you want!  (I heard that it's supposed to add a rich color to the broth, although I haven't actually tried...)  Chop that carrot in half (width-wise, not even length-wise!) and toss it in the pot!  Yup, use the entire carcass, don't bother those bones a bit, just cover it with water and let it simmer for a good long while!

Easy-peasy.

I made more than 2 gallons this year, and I'm sure I could have done more, but I was worried about running out of freezer space.  And-- extra bonus-- your house gets to smell lovely all day while it simmers away!

Straining it is a bit of a pain.  I ended up using two stock pots to do this-- one for the cooking and then a slightly smaller one to strain into.  And I've found that it's important to measure it into freezer bags very carefully (I do 2 cups each, but anything would work as long as you label your bags).  Last year I just sort of scooped broth into the freezer bags until they looked full enough and then I never wanted to use my stock because it was too much work to thaw them out and then measure.  So I'm learning from my mistakes.

I'm making this tomato basil soup today, and I'm totally excited to use my stock.  I feel like a pioneer woman or something.


*Of course, there's nothing homey that Martha Stewart can't do it better.  I made the mistake after my big stock-making day of watching her how-to video, and her stock was all gelatinous at the end!  Mine is a liquid!  So maybe I'm not doing it good enough.  Maybe I'll figure out her tricks next year.  But I bet mine is still slightly better than the canned stuff...  Right?