River Cottage A-Z

A good stock makes all the difference to soups, stews, sauces, gravy and risottos, which is extraordinary when you consider that most stocks are comprised essentially of leftovers, trimmings and remains. Making your own is a deeply satisfying process.

All stocks begin with a collection of aromatic vegetables, herbs and spices. Meat and fish stocks also need bones, scraps and trimmings, skin, sinew and even selected items of offal, to give them their full-bodied flavours.

Carrots, onions and celery stems are the holy trinity of stock vegetables. You need at least two of each and they should be chopped, but you can leave them chunky and even unpeeled as long as they are clean. You can either start your stock with raw veg or sauté them first to get some browning flavours going.

To the vegetable base, it’s usual to add herbs such as bay and parsley, and sometimes spices or aromatics such as peppercorns. To this, you can add whatever bones, giblets, skins and frames are appropriate. A slosh of white wine often goes in and the last thing to add is cold water to cover the ingredients. Add only enough to cover them – there is no point diluting the flavours any more than you have to.

Slowly bring the stock to the boil, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Leave the pan uncovered. With meat stocks, it is best to ladle off any ‘scum’ that rises to the surface (this is just protein from the meat). To get the most flavour out of the ingredients, meat stocks should simmer for 3–4 hours, being topped up with a little water only as much as necessary to keep the ingredients submerged. You can let the liquid level drop towards the end to concentrate the stock’s flavour. Vegetable and fish stocks need only about 30 minutes’ simmering, and fish stocks actually start to take on some undesirable flavours after this time. At the end of the cooking process, your stock needs to be strained.

A meat stock that is left to cool will almost certainly form a layer of fat on the surface. This is easily removed once the fat has cooled and set. Stocks freeze well, either in plastic containers or, if very concentrated, in ice-cube trays.

If you can get a supply of fresh, raw bones from your butcher (cheaply or even for free) then your stock-making need not depend on leftover bones generated in your own kitchen (or you can combine both sources). This is particularly important if you want to make beef or lamb stock in any quantity, as the joints we buy rarely have enough bones to make a decent amount of stock from the leftover roast. Using a combination of raw and roasted bones produces the best flavoured meat stocks, as each contributes different flavours. Online suppliers are a good source of organic and free-range bones.

There are many off-the-shelf options if you don’t have time to make your own stocks. Instant stocks can often be overly salty, however, in which case dilute them more than the packet suggests. And do check the label for unwelcome additives if you are buying stock cubes. Look for instant stocks that use organic and/or free-range meat, at least. Pre-made liquid stocks can be useful too – though the quality varies considerably.

STOCK-BUILDING INGREDIENTS

Essentials For any stock, you need onion, celery, carrot and bay leaves.

Desirable extras For any stock, the following are a bonus: parsley stalks, thyme, black peppercorns, white wine, leek tops, celeriac trimmings (well-scrubbed).

Possible extras For a veg stock: fried mushrooms, parsnip (just a little), tomato skins and seeds, a little garlic; for a fish stock: fennel trimmings, garlic; for chicken and other poultry stocks: giblets such as gizzards and necks, but not liver; for red meat and game stocks: red wine, strip of orange zest, star anise (just one), garlic, a few leaves of lovage.

What not to put in a stock Avoid adding salt or salty seasonings such as soy or Worcestershire sauce (these will become concentrated and make the stock too salty), cabbages or other brassicas (these will make your stock sulphurous), potato (adds nothing and makes stocks cloudy), liver (this makes meat stocks bitter).

TYPES OF STOCK

Vegetable stock Use lots of celery and alliums, such as onions and leeks, lots of herbs (particularly bay) and not too much carrot (which can make the stock oddly sweet). Make sure the veg is not over-diluted. And if you can add some tasty, umami-rich fried mushrooms or tomatoes you’ll be creating another welcome layer of flavour. Vegetable is a good basic stock for almost any soup, risotto or stew but not ideal in rich gravies where you need more heft.

Fish stock This utilises the skeletons (‘frames’) and skins of filleted fish – it can be supplemented with the shells from crabs, lobster, crayfish or prawns, or these can be used alone to make a shellfish stock. If using a fish head, remove the eyes as these make the stock cloudy, and the gills, which can give an ‘off’ taste. Stick to white-fleshed fish, avoiding oily fish such as mackerel. A fish or shellfish stock needs only 30 minutes’ gentle simmering. It is the obvious choice for a fish soup, chowder, risotto or fish pie.

Chicken stock This is often made with the stripped carcass of a roast chicken. If you have a bird with giblets, add these too (minus the liver). If you have jointed a chicken for a dish and have the raw bones left, it will make excellent stock, though not a large quantity. A light chicken stock is good in soups and risottos but if it’s too strong, it can also detract from delicate ingredients. Chicken stock comes into its own for broths (see below), casseroles, stews, gravies, curries – any slow-cooked meaty dish.

Game bird and other poultry stocks These are made in the same way as a chicken stock and can similarly be turned into wonderful, warming broths with the addition of noodles, small pasta or rice, and some chopped vegetables and/or leftover meat. Game bird stocks work well, of course, in game dishes such as pies, stews and curries but you can also use them in non-game recipes.

Meat bone stocks These stocks traditionally fall into the categories of dark (or brown) and white meat stocks. Dark meat stocks begin with the deliberate overcooking of meat bones in a hot oven for long enough to make them richly caramelised and coloured. The ‘Maillard reaction’ that goes on when meat is browned releases intense flavours. A white meat stock is made using meat bones (classically veal) but without the initial caramelisation.

Lamb stock This is one of the strongest tasting and most distinctive red meat stocks, so it is generally best reserved for lamb dishes. A good lamb stock, with the addition of pot barley, carrots, onions and some greens such as spinach or kale, gives you a fine Scotch Broth.

Beef stock The best, most full-bodied beef stock is made from a combination of roasted beef bones (including, ideally a marrow bone) and also some raw bones, plus a good spectrum of stock veg (ideally the onions and carrots well-browned) and aromatics (crucially bay and parsley), simmered very gently for upwards of 5 hours. Too rich for most soups or risottos, it’s a fine addition to beefy stews, ragus, and chillies. It’s also a great addition to your roast beef gravy (see Beef stock). Strained and boiled down hard with a dash of red wine, it makes the ultimate beef reduction.

Pork stock There’s no reason not to make a stock from pork bones as you would any others. It’s a good all-purpose base for gravy, spicy broths and sauces or, if jellified with trotters, can be used to fill a pork pie. Pork bones can be added to beef or chicken stock too.

Ham stock The salty, savoury stock made from cooking a ham bone is a classic base for pea and ham soup but can also go into other vegetable soups.