I have been doing a lot more with stuff coming from the garden and the farmlands around me than before. Making more big batches and freezing them for lazy Sundays where you don't want to do anything but open the freezer and see what is on left overs inside of there.
One of the things I have been doing a lot more is making stock myself. At first this was mostly vegetable stock but since I have recently discovered that the farm shop around here sells bones by the kilo for nearly nothing....It makes sense to use that stuff and make tremendous batches of stock from that.
It all started with this bad boy. Nice stock from the store, but that also means that this 1 jar costs you more than 4.50 euros and that is nearly theft if you ask me.
It is good tastefull stock though, but since I use a lot of stock in stews, risottos, pearl couscous dishes and all kinds of other things, I would totally go bankrupt buying only that.
So...prep time!!
Ingredients?
Actually making stock is just really easy and you can totally freewheel in there which is perfect for me as I really suck in following recipes.
I started with roasting the bones in the oven for an hour. As said, these bones come from the farm shop and this costs like 2 euros or something. You do need some meat on the bone though there as well.
Kind reminder. Roasting bones in the oven stinks and since this dish takes hours and hours to make...Mentally prepare for disgusting fumes in the morning.
You also need standard veggies for in the stock. Onion with peel, some celery sticks, garlic which I also didn't peel and carrots which I also didn't peel. Stuff from the garden mostly that was not the nicest to look at but what is perfect to be tossed up in the stock.
I guess you could also call this veggies for the lazy person. Later on you can also add in parsley including stems and rosemary if you like. Honestly, I had intended to and later on I forgot again in the process. Does it makes the stock less tasteful? Not at all...so just go for it.
What to do?
So the bones need to roast in the oven for about an hour. After that you toss then into your soup pan and also include the fat that has dripped out of the meat for your additional flavor.
Add water as much as you can put in there and also put in the veggies. I also tossed in some bay leaves and some peppercorns and I let the water slowly go to a boil
As you can see here the fat is floating on the water which is good by those little bubbles you want to take off as that makes your stock bitter.
Here you can see the bubbles are getting thicker already and you want to get that layer off of there.
I use this little tool that you can also use for poaching your eggs as it works as a little sieve.
It also lets you get in between the floating veggies and that is super helpful as you don't want to toss the mixture around too much as that will release the meat in the soup which you don't want.
You call the layer of bubbles 'scum' and removing it you call that 'skimming'. For some reason that sounds nasty in my brain and I really love to shout throughout the kitchen 'I'm gonna skim the scum' and wave around with my little sieve as a true pirate.
I don't know why...cooking makes you weird I guess.
Well do that for the next 8 hours, or 6 of 10 whatever time you have!
The mixture shouldn't boil to much just make little bubbles. 'A muted applause' they call it versus a whole bubbling orchestra.
Love the analogy there!
Further prep
Hours later when you are fed up with it and the mixture is enough reduced and has good color that means it is ready. Sieve out the veggies and the bones but don't throw the bones away!! You can actually use the bones again the next day for a second stock batch. It is not a super strong one anymore then, but it is still good like a veggie plus plus stock.
I cool the stock actively in a pan in some cold water around it so the process of cooling goes a bit faster. After that you leave the stock overnight in the fridge before you start to put it in bags.
The next day when the stock is cooled off entirely this looks like a gigantic jelly and it looks kind of gross but it does make it a lot easier to preserve.
I got me this little lamination machine a while back for making better storeable bags for the freezer and honestly...This was the best small investment ever for you kitchen. Using old sterilized jars is also an option of course but I like these easy bags as they really never go bad.
And yep...the day afterwards I made a lot more stock from the same bones and that one wasn't so jelly but still very decent. That is more the version for in those old jars.
Doing the math
Apart from that this stock just tastes a lot better than shop bought stock it is also a lot cheaper. Remember the jar from the first image for 4.50 euro?
Well this totally costed 2 euro on bones, 2x2 carrots, 2x2 celery sticks, 2x2 bay leaves and 2x2 onions of any kinds. I would say less than 5 bucks in total and enough stock for the next months to head out with!
Yeah it takes a whole day for sure but who cares, you don't really need to pay attention to it once i is going and the taste is awesome!