Stock

While I'm waiting for my animals to arrive in April, I've decided to fill up my kitchen with food. It’s perfect in the winter because it makes the whole house feel cozy. 

Stock is definitely one of my favorite things. Any stock - beef, pork, chicken. The best are made from chicken feet and pig trotters because they have all of that fabulous connective tissue that makes the final product velvety. But all you really need are bones.

I don’t really believe in recipes as anything other than serving suggestions, but these folks do a great job on stock recipes. 




















I love using stock to get rid of any of the less-than prime vegetables hanging out in my fridge. You can really put whatever you have in the pot - here I had half a box of baby kale that was getting elderly. As you can imagine beets turn the whole thing pink in a not-always-pleasant way. Cabbage can be a little bitter. I made one batch of stock with a bunch of parsnips and the whole thing turned out so sweet, it was lovely.

If I’m cooking a big meal I’ll set aside some of the scraps for the stock pot - kale stems, turnip greens or carrot shavings. Leave onion skins on and quarter them. I’ve made the mistake of shoving more things in the stock pot than I needed to and it really just doesn’t do your surface area to ingredient ratio any justice. I like to let it boil for three hours make sure all of the vegetables are entirely spent.

Stock is great for making rice, lentils, anything savory that requires liquid really. I love just drinking it straight.

---