Stock (cooking)

“ The stock pot is indispensable to good cooking, and although many soups and sauces can be made with water as a foundation, nearly all of them are improved by using stock, and no cook who desires to achieve good results should be without a basin of stock when she commences operations in the morning. ”

“ When once the principle of the stock pot is understood the first excuse falls through, for in any ordinary households the stock can be made from bones and trimmings of meat, and costs nothing. Neither does the excuse of too much trouble hold good. Some little time must be devoted to cooking, and soup will almost cook itself while other preparations are going on, and it can be made at any time and just boiled up when required. ”

“ If allowed to remain, when straining, a large part will pass through strainer. Vegetables, spices, and salt should be added the last hour of cooking. Strain and cool quickly; by so doing, stock is less apt to ferment. A knuckle of veal is often used for making white soup stock. Fowl should be used for stock in preference to chicken, as it is cheaper, and contains a larger amount of nutriment. A cake of fat forms on stock when cold, which excludes air, and should not be removed until stock is used. To remove fat, run a knife around edge of bowl and carefully remove the same. ”

“ As is generally known, a stock of anything means a reserve supply of that thing stored away for future use. When applied to soup, stock is similar in meaning, for it refers to material stored or prepared in such a way that it may be kept for use in the making of certain kinds of soup. In a more definite sense, soup stock may be regarded as a liquid containing the juices and soluble parts of meat, bone, and vegetables, which have been extracted by long, slow cooking and which can be utilized in the making of soups, sauces, and gravies. ”

“ Soup Stock.—The word stock when used in cooking means the foundation or basis upon which soups and sauces depend; it is therefore the most important part of soup making. Care should be exercised that nothing in the least tainted or decayed enters the stock pot; it is very desirable that soup stock be prepared a day or two before it is wanted; the seasoning should be added in moderation at first, as it is difficult to restore a soup that has been damaged by over seasoning. ”

“ LESSON LXIII BEEF: METHODS OF COOKING TOUGH CUTS (B) EXAMINATION OF COLD BEEF STOCK.—Examine the beef stock of the previous lesson. Why has the fat risen to the top (see Experiment 35) ? Why is fat cooked with meat and bone in making soup stock? What use can be made of the fat after removing it from the stock? Remove the fat from the stock. Stir the stock with a spoon. How do you account for its jellylike consistency? From what material has the gelatine been formed? What solid material is found in the stock? Should this be strained out when the stock is used for soup? ”

“ Place on back of range, add browned meat, and heat gradually to the boiling point. Cover and cook slowly six hours, keeping below the boiling point during cooking. Add the vegetables and seasonings, cook one and one half hours, strain and cool as quickly as possible. This is called soup stock.
To clarify bouillon.—When stock is cold, remove fat which has hardened on top and put quantity to be cleared into a stew pan. Allow white and shell of one egg to each quart of stock. Put over fire and stir constantly until boiling point is reached. ”

“ These seasonings, with the addition of salt, pepper, and parsley, are the essential flavorings for stock soups. Flour, cornstarch, arrowroot, fine tapioca, sago, pearl barley, rice, bread, or eggs are added to give consistency and nourishment.
In small families, where there are few left-overs, fresh meat must be bought for the making of soup stock, as a good soup cannot be made from a small amount of poor material. On the other hand, large families need seldom buy fresh meat, provided all left-overs are properly cared for. ”

“ Do by all means save your bones, gristle, odds and ends of meat of all kinds, and convert them into broth; but even if you do, it often happens that the days you have done so no30 gravy is required, and then it sours quickly in summer, although it may be arrested by reboiling. In no family of three or four are there odds and ends enough, unless there is a very extravagant table kept, to insure stock for every day. My remedy for this, then, is to make a stock that will keep for months or years—in other words, glaze. ”

“ This rule once learned will clear every kind of soup or jelly.
There are many people who are good cooks, yet fail in clear soup, which is with them semi-opaque, while it should be like sherry. The cause of this opacity is generally quick boiling while the meat is in. This gives it a milky appearance. After the stock is once made and clear, quick boiling will do no harm, but of course wastes the soup, unless resorted to for the purpose of making it stronger. A word here about coloring soup: Most persons resort to burnt sugar, and, very carefully used, it is not at all a bad makeshift. ”

“ Whatever difference of opinion there may be with regard to the propriety of cooking the food of stock, we believe there ought not to be a doubt as to the desirability of mechanically treating the harder kinds of feeding stuff. It is quite evident that a horse fed upon hard grains of oats and wiry fibres of uncut hay or straw must expend no inconsiderable proportion of his motive power in the process of mastication. After a hard day's work of eight or ten hours he has before him the laborious task of reducing to a pulp from 12 lbs. ”

“ Very often left-over material serves as a basis on which to plan one or more meals.
A housekeeper may drain from a vegetable the water in which it was cooked. But she sees in it for the next meal or for the next day several possible uses. The vegetable stock may be used in soup or it may be combined with milk or cheese and serve as a sauce for some left-over vegetable. Bread crumbs combined with milk, peanuts, or egg make a tasty meat substitute one week; or they may be utilized in making bread pudding the second week; a scalloped dish the third week; and a meat loaf the fourth. ”

“ Fat from beef, poultry, chicken, and pork, may be used for shortening or frying purposes; fat from mutton and smoked meats may be used for making hard and soft soap; fat removed from soup stock, the water in which corned beef has been cooked, and drippings from roast beef, may be tried out, clarified, and used for shortening or frying purposes. ”

“ STOCK FOR SOUP
Stock in its composition is not confined to any set rules for any particular proportions. All cook books give particular as well as general directions for its manufacture; but all cooks know that the most economical plan is to have a general stock-pot, where, or into which, you can throw any pieces of beef or any piece of meat from which gravy can be extracted—bones, skin, brisket or tops of ribs, ox-cheek, ham, trimmings [Pg 4] of turkey and other fowls, pieces of mutton, bacon, veal, game, etc., etc. In fact, anything that will become a jelly will assist in making stock. ”

“ Let the rice milk cook very slowly at the back of the stove, adding more milk before it gets at all stiff; when tender enough to mash through a coarse sieve or fine colander add it to the stock, which must have been strained and be quite free from sediment, season with salt and a little white pepper or cayenne, boil all together gently a few minutes. It should look like rich cream, and be strongly flavored with celery. Of course the quantity of rice, milk, and celery must depend on the quantity of stock you have. ”

“ Lawes is not favorable to the cooking of food unless when it is scarce. The results of Colonel M'Douall's experiments go to prove that cattle can be more economically kept upon a mixture of raw and cooked foods than upon either raw or cooked fodder given separately. One meal of cooked food and two feeds of raw turnips gave better results than three feeds of raw turnips; whilst two cooked feeds and a raw one resulted in a loss.
The fermentation of food, if not the best, is certainly the cheapest mode of preparing it. ”

“ Stuffing for Chicken in Aspic Chop finely breast and meat from second joints of an uncooked chicken, or one pound of uncooked lean veal. Add one-half cup cracker crumbs, hot stock to moisten, salt, pepper, celery salt, cayenne, lemon juice, and one egg slightly beaten. In stuffing boned chicken, stuff body, legs, and wings, being careful that too much stuffing is not used, as an allowance must be made for the swelling of cracker crumbs. ”

“ Scald milk with bay leaf, remove bay leaf and make a white sauce of butter, flour, and milk; add salt, cayenne, nutmeg, parsley, yolks of eggs slightly beaten, and lemon juice. Add lobster dice, refill shells, cover with buttered crumbs, and bake until crumbs are brown. One-half chicken stock and one-half cream may be used for sauce if a richer dish is desired. ”

“ Four hours on and eight off was how we apportioned our watches and, thanks to fair winds and the easy handling of the dream ship, it was seldom necessary for more than one of us to be on deck at a time. In fact, there were hours on end when the helmsman could peg the tiller and take a constitutional.
Cooking we took week and week about, a dreaded ordeal. It is one thing to concoct food in a porcelain-fitted kitchen on terra firma, and quite another to do it over a primus stove in a leaping, gyrating fo'c's'le. ”

“ Mix together one cup chopped apple, one-half cup raisins seeded and chopped, one-half cup currants, one-fourth cup butter, one tablespoon molasses, one tablespoon boiled cider, one cup sugar, one teaspoon cinnamon, one-half teaspoon cloves, one-half nutmeg grated, one salt-spoon of mace, and one teaspoon salt. Add enough stock in which meat was cooked to moisten; heat gradually to boiling-point, and simmer one hour; then add one cup chopped meat and two tablespoons Barberry Jelly. Cook fifteen minutes. ”

“ The stock-pot should supply stock for sauces, stews and gravies, and we will now indicate how a careful cook can always have stock on hand with little or no extra expense.
The first consideration is the stock-pot. A well-tinned stock-pot with a tap is to be recommended; the tap permits the stock to be drawn off without any admixture of grease, all the fat rising to the top of the stock-pot. For small households the earthenware stock-pot will be found useful, as a very small amount of heat is required to keep its contents at simmering point. ”

“ It is well worth remembering that a sauce of average thickness is made by allowing two tablespoons each of butter and flour to one cup liquid, whether it be milk, stock, or tomato. For Brown Sauce a slightly larger quantity of flour is necessary, as by browning flour its thickening property is lessened, its starch being changed to dextrine. When sauces are set away, put a few bits of butter on top to prevent crust from forming. ”

“ Hence the value of the stockpot. If the odds and ends accumulated in the kitchen do not suffice to make the quantity of stock required, they must be supplemented by stock prepared specially. The following recipes for making stock are sufficient for all ordinary needs.
Common Stock.— (a) 6 lb. shin of beef, 6 qt. water. Cut all the meat off the bones, and cut the meat across and across, and sprinkle a teaspoonful of salt over it and put it at once into the 6 qt. water in an earthen vessel, while you do as follows: wash and cut up 2 carrots and 2 turnips and leave them in clear water ”

“ Steve and I exchanged glances. The entire crew of the dream ship was, as I think I have before mentioned, exceedingly tired of cooking. The comisario seized on our silence.
Maybe we thought he could not work?
With a dramatic gesture he tore from his neck the passionate tie, from his feet the silk socks, from his back a virulently striped shirt, and stood revealed in a natty line of undervests.
"Poor devil!" said I, thinking of the dream ship's fo'c's'le in a seaway.
"Poor nothing!" said Steve. "He wants work; let him have it." ”

“ The third stock, being made from bones and pieces of meat left from roasts, and from the trimmings of raw meats, will always be changeable in color, quantity and quality. This is, however, a very important stock, and it should always be kept on hand. No household, even where only a moderate amount of meat is used, should be without a stock-pot. ”

“ If it is to form the chief part of the meal, the soup will be more nutritious if thickened, especially so, if pulse—i.e. peas, beans, and lentils—is used as the thickening medium.
Stock is the liquid in which meat, bones, or vegetables have been cooked, and which contains an extract from these substances. It is used for soups, sauces, and gravies. Fresh or cooked bones or meat may be used. A stock pot may be kept on the stove, into which are put any scraps of meat, bones, gristle, or vegetable; at the end of the day it is strained, and all fat taken off. ”

“ When using eggs for other dishes, if the shells be washed before breaking them and added to the stock pot they will help to clear the soup. For clear soups care must be taken that nothing of a floury nature be added to the stock pot. Stock always should be strained before cooling. Never allow it to stand in stock pot all night. Clear gravy soup consists of the extractives, flavoring matters, and gelatine of meat and bones.
Consommé is a good stock made from beef, veal, and often fowl, and flavored with vegetables, cooled, freed from fat. ”