soup stock

[+ friendofsheila]

has anyone tried maaking stock from the way where you collect fresh vegatable odds and ends (ends of onions, and carrot peels and stuff but not the ones that are strong smelling).  

I do not seem to collect very much of them and they are going to sit in the freezer for a long time.  I wonder what other the experience of other people is using this recipe (instead of the usual one of fresh vegatbles cut up).  

[jeezifonly]

We all buy more pre-trimmed veg now - for convenience- so it takes lingering to accumulate enough for a full pot of stock. The same trimmings in smaller amounts can be put into the bottom of the pan for oven-roasting chicken, beef or pork, and strained out, leaving added flavor. 

[samhexum]

11 minutes ago, jeezifonly said:

We all buy more pre-trimmed veg now - for convenience- so it takes lingering to accumulate enough for a full pot of stock. The same trimmings in smaller amounts can be put into the bottom of the pan for oven-roasting chicken, beef or pork, and strained out, leaving added flavor. 

🥰

[mike carey]

I do this all the time, I always have a plastic bag in the freezer to collect the bits and pieces I use to make stock. Right now I have four litres of stock in the freezer (in 2 litre milk bottles - leave some space at the top when I fill them for the ice to expand). It doesn't make a consistent stock that you might want for precise repeatable recipes, but in reality that's not what I want. It adds variety, complexity of flavour, that little bit extra to soups, stews and gravies over what water would give. All batches are different, some are better than others, but they all add something positive to food when I use them. (If I boil or steam veges, the water goes into a bottle to add to other stock or into the pot for a new batch.)

I use the tops and bottoms of onions (removing most of the darkly coloured bits on red and brown onions to avoid making the stock too dark), carrot tops (not peels, but I could), celery leaves (although tender ones sometimes go in with other salad leaves) and the tougher base of the stalks, bacon rind if I trimmed it before cooking (I know standard US bacon may not have that), the bones and trimmings from meat removed before I cook (trimmings will result in fat in the stock, but I can skim excess off when it's cooling after I've cooked it), and even the bones from roast chickens or chicken pieces after meals, they have a bit of meat left and who cares whether it goes direct or via my plate into the plastic bags. As @jeezifonly mentioned, our fruit and vege now tend to come trimmed so there's less to use, but if they are too 'tired' but not completely past it, they can go in too. I don't know about the US, but here an untrimmed bunch of celery, to cite one example, costs less than a trimmed one (which comes in unnecessary plastic packaging as well), and less still than a 300g pack of cut celery sticks. All those leave are great for stock.

The bag I have in my freezer is one that a loaf of bread comes in, and that's about right for the 3 or 4 litre pot (I have a 10L one as well) I have to cook the stock in. I just throw the scraps in, maybe add some more carrot or celery, dried herbs. If you want to go further, here the supermarket sells beef and lamb offcuts and also chicken necks, and you could get some of them - I rarely do, though.  and fill the pot with water and cook on the lowest setting, topping it up if it boils down too much (you could boil it down deliberately to make a more concentrated stock and add water when you use it if you have a small freezer or just prefer stock that way - stronger flavour, it may be a jelly when you cool it rather than a liquid). I cook it almost forever (in reality probably 3 or 4 hours). At the end it doesn't look pretty, but I just lift out the bigger bits from the stock and strain it, not through anything too fine, although I could if I wanted it for a clearer soup, and put it into containers for the freezer, either the bottles I mentioned, or plastic tubs (mostly tubs butter or something else came in). And as I'm learning (not that I didn't already know) LABEL it. And also try to use evenly containers so you can stack it into the freezer rather than just pile it in, rectangular are better. But that's too much detail, it's your freezer, do whatever the heck* you want!

*substitute word of your choice, if you wish.

[craigville beach]

i save the bones and bits of rotisserie chicken and place in the freezer.  After I have 2 or 3 in the freezer I make a big pot of chicken stock to make chicken soup 

[+ nycman]

I tried this. I just ended up with a freezer full of old vegetables and discarded carcasses.

An Instapot makes the preparation of the stock easier and faster.

I just can’t be bothered. Also, my friends freak out when they open the freezer and see a bunch of dead animal bones.

My local grocer sells cheap, ugly, and fresh "stock vegetables" and "soup bones". That’s good enough for me.

I will admit @mike carey’s post made me hard. Especially the choose your own adventure section:

5 hours ago, mike carey said:

….it's your freezer, do whatever the heck* you want!

*substitute word of your choice, if you wish.

And we all know what word I chose…..

[+ friendofsheila]

@mike carey

 :  I''ll read your reply offline and reply again.  thank you.

Edited 20 hours ago by friendofsheila

[Buddy15]

I use a lot of fresh vegetables when cooking so I always save the scraps to make stock (I don't save broccoli stems because they can make the stock taste bitter).  It has a lot less sodium than store bought.  I make lots of soups so I love always having stock in the freezer for soup.