Take Stock

@p1kef1sh (45681)
January 16, 2010 12:47pm CST
I love to trawl the net for recipes and having half a roast chicken left from last night I looked for leftover recipes. I found one for Chicken Chasseur and the chef suggested buying chicken stock for the meal. Excuse me - but didn't he notice that he had a carcass right there on the table next to him. Take the meat off, boil up the carcass with some vegetables, reduce, strain and voila - chicken stock. Sure it take a little while but he had the raw ingredients already. He could have saved himself time shopping and money. Do you make your own stock when you have the ingredients to hand?
4 people like this
15 responses
@saphrina (31552)
• South Africa
16 Jan 10
Now that is good. Please remember, he is suppose to impress you. No, i never buy stock. Why waste the money if you have it in your fridge. But you have to give him credit for trying.
1 person likes this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
I understand that as a professional he wants to give of his best. But store bought stock is always too salty and I never know exactly what's in it.
@saphrina (31552)
• South Africa
16 Jan 10
I was actually making fun of the chef. They are supposed to know better, because we normal people can actually cook with our heads and not with our hands only. But you just go on and enjoy your cooking. You were right and he doesn,t know it.
@peavey (16936)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I never buy stock of any kind, I always make my own. Whenever I have a chicken carcass, or a beef bone or whatever, I make stock and keep it in the freezer until it's needed. Chefs don't worry about money (they wouldn't be cooking some of those extravagant dishes if they did) so he probably didn't think anything about it. I think homemade stock is better than canned, though!
1 person likes this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
We are fortunate here, there is a constant and massive supermarket war and we have some of the finest local produce in Europe. Some of those meals are just camouflage I think. They aren't that difficult to make and certainly it's not often that I buy stock when I have the means to make it right here in the kitchen.
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I do make my own stock on occasion but not as much as I should..usually only on holidays or special occasions, otherwise sadly I buy it from the store. I'd rather have the stock come in a box then a can though just taste better. Well, it does seem nowadays we always try to take the fastest easiest way out..
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Very true.he should have suggested that it could be made and told how..or that it can be bought..did he suggest how to make the stock even to those who don't buy it ready made?
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
No. He didn't mention it at all. Just opened the carton and poured it in.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
I do use ready made stock Becky. It just seemed silly that professional chef should advocate buying it in when her had the means to make it right there in front of him.
@blackbriar (9076)
• United States
18 Jan 10
NOTHING beats homemade stock of any kind, p1ke. I use the turkey and chicken carcasses for their own stock and even beef bones for beef stock. Ham bones are awesome for ham and beans. They also taste better and YOU can control what goes in them.
• United States
19 Jan 10
LOL Tummy rumbling over there?
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
Yip!
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
Very true. I really shouldn't be answering this just before supper! LOL.
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
19 Jan 10
I make soup when I have a carcass at hand, but I don't make my own chicken stock other than that.... Then again, if I have a carcass there, it's usually because I'm making soup.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
Now I have this image of you pulling in some big old bear carcass and boiling it up Dawn. LOL.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
19 Jan 10
Ah yes, bear broth, cures just about everything...
@catdla1 (6005)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Sometimes I do, other times I don't. I prefer homemade, but in the summer when It's 100 degrees out, the last thing I want to do is cook anything I don't have to for broth/stock. When the chicken or vegetable stock is on sale, while not as good, it's cost effective. Especially when I would use electricity to cook it, and then more electricity to cool the house down from cooking. All that goes our the window if I get enough P1ke parts to make stock, no matter what time of year it is. That would be better fresh than canned for that excellent, delicate flavor.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
At 100 degrees the only heat I would accept is the natural heat of the water in the swimming pool or sea. Forget stock under those conditions! In fact forget cooking. I don't function well in high temperatures.
1 person likes this
@catdla1 (6005)
• United States
16 Jan 10
I agree totally. I wonder if you'd be good as cold cuts? How much ice do I need to make the pool cold enough?
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
Leave the gin in and I'll drown in ice.
• United States
16 Jan 10
Yes I do. My Scottish heritage will not allow me to spend money when it is not necessary!
• United States
17 Jan 10
I am from Glasgow and I am generous but not daft!
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
Be glad that your not from Yorkshire. The definition of someone from there is "a Scotsman with all the generosity squeezed out of him"!
@bdugas (3578)
• United States
17 Jan 10
Yes especially chicken stock, what you get in those little cans or boxes at the store is so expensive not to mention mostly salt. I guess maybe if they are running a show like that and him thinking some work so buying it would be so much easier than making your own. I always keep the stock off of chicken I boil. I can use it in dressing or to cook rice in.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
My thinking is that if I want something from a packet then I'll go to the store. But if I want to make something than it should all be freshly made, by me if possible.
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
17 Jan 10
I do make my own stock. Even when I buy a cooked chicken from the store (which is often cheaper than a raw whole chicken) I will save the bones and skin and make stock from them. Everything gets used in this house, nothing goes to waste. I think I will look up that recipe, it sounds interesting!
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
It's weird how cooked chicken is cheaper isn't it. They make perfectly acceptable stock though.
• Canada
17 Jan 10
We just made homemade chicken soup from a leftover carcass of one of our roasting birds. So, what you do think my answer is then, huh? lol Yeah, he is an idiot!
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
Sounds yummy soup Annie. Any left?
1 person likes this
• Canada
19 Jan 10
NOPE! We managed to eat it for lunch and supper, as well as feeding our neighbour I had helping me out in the barn for a few days. It was quite yummy and thick with lots of veggies and meat, too. Those roasting birds make the best soup, I find. And we are almost out in the freezer, so I am dying to raise some more this spring/summer. I buy them as day old chicks the last day of March and they are ready to kill just before the first of July...12 wks and very big. 6 - 10 lbs. I love them.
@liquorice (3887)
16 Jan 10
Yes, I love making vegetable stock. Carrots, onion, garlic, and any other root-type vegetable that I have to hand. Then I either add chicken and make it into chicken soup for my daughter, or I drink it, add rice to it, or sometimes add ginger and chillis for a really spicy flavour! I do sometimes use an instant powder vegetable stock for quickness, although a lot of them have lots of salt in, so I make sure I buy the low-salt version. But home-made stock just feels a lot healthier, and quite hearty! I'm glad you're into the healthy stuff too.
@liquorice (3887)
16 Jan 10
Sounds like a kind of cous cous risotto. Shame it didn't turn out too well, in theory it sounds as if it could have been good! Although I'm not sure about the suitability of cous cous in risotte...
17 Jan 10
Hi p1key, My mother always used to tell us not to throw bones away but to save them for stock, I have never bought stock cubes as I make my own, to thicken it a bit I use cornflour, these days everything is easy and simple, just reach for the packets. Hugs. Tamara xxxx
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
My mother said much the same Tamara and as she was of the opinion that men should cook too I had to take what she said in.
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
16 Jan 10
Hi Pikey, well when I roast a chicken its covered in olive oil and all the juices come out and mix in with it, so I scrape the contents into a tub to add to the next nights meal which is quite often chicken in garlic, onion and cream, contents of the tub added for a richer flavour, and rice, all chucked in together for a one pot dish. Meanwhile the carcass is probably cooking away for home made chicken soup. I do add a beef stock cube though to a big pan of beef stew.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
I am not anti bought stock when you don't have any on. But it seemed incredible to me that it didn't occur to him to use what he had!
• India
17 Jan 10
No no no... I never buy stock as whatever I'm making that requires stock already has the ingredients all I do is separate the stock before using the solid stuff. guess that's all we need to do to get stock from almost everything.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
19 Jan 10
That's quite correct. Stock can be made from all meat, fish and vegetables with ease and a little time. Welcome to myLot.
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
16 Jan 10
Lol no P1ke I don't as I always have stock in so I am not forced to make my own lol as that is something I never run out of also I cheat when I make things like Chicken Chasseur lol I buy the Schwartz Packet mix but I do add some extra myself to my taste lol
@p1kef1sh (45681)
16 Jan 10
I have a few stock cubes etc Gabs. But some things are just so easy to make. Then again I like food and cooking. XXXX