10 replies to this topic

[Emily_R]

Hi All --

I'm about to make a batch of vegetable stock with scraps I've been saving in my freezer... I was planning to use my pressure cooker for this, but when Iook online I see widely varying recommendations for how long to cook the stock for under pressure. Recommendations range anywhere from 5-10 minutes to 45 minutes. Any insight here on how long to cook it for to get the most flavor from the vegetables but not to over-extract it and get something bitter (if that's possible?)

Thanks!
Emily

[Yariv]

Modernist cuisine says 35 minutes. That's what I use and it works well. My guess is that the only problem with longer might be things falling apart (anyone know of a different reason?).

[pazzaglia]

The Veggie Queen says 5 minutes with natural release and that's what I use. Here's her veggie stock video..



It only takes about 5 minutes at high pressure to burst the cells of most vegetables to release their juices into the liquid. Don't see why you would need an extra 30 on top of that unless you have some exotic vegetable in your stock that is particularly dense. You could always open, reserve some liquid and make the rest go for 30 more and see if the difference is worthwhile.

I do 35 minutes for chicken, and 60 for beef, veal, or pork stock. Just cover the ingredients of any stock with water for a 2x concentrate.

Ciao,

L

P.S. I add yellow onions with their brown skin (without the roots) and toss in a tomato for a little acidity. It will be the darkest most luscious vegetable stock you've ever made!!

Edited by pazzaglia, 04 November 2012 - 10:17 AM.

[Yariv]

Heston says 20 minutes and let it cool alone (as does the video above). The mc books say cool under water. That might be a small difference. Anyway, it's interesting to compare if there is a difference between the two times.

[radtek]

Modernist cuisine says 35 minutes. That's what I use and it works well. My guess is that the only problem with longer might be things falling apart (anyone know of a different reason?).

Too long and you'll go past extracting vegetable flavors and go into the realm of vegetal flavor which is pretty undesirable. Imagine what broccoli and cauliflower cooked to mushlike consistency tastes like- that's vegetal.

[Emily_R]

Well as luck had it, I had enough vegetable scraps to do two batches. I cooked one for about 28 minutes, and another for 8 minutes. And there was essentially no noticeable difference between the two! Yay for shorter cooking times.

[Yariv]

Thanks Emily, good to know.

[Emily_R]

Oh,and one other note. Don't make the mistake I did in my second batch of stock, and throw a garlic clove in there. Not good. Even with a shorter cooking time, the pressure cooker seemed to really amplify the garlic flavor (over what I'd expect with just a regular stovetop simmer)...

[mkayahara]

Having done a variety of pressure-cooker recipes, I always find pressure-cooked garlic to be unpleasant. No idea why.

[slkinsey]

Modernist cuisine says 35 minutes. That's what I use and it works well. My guess is that the only problem with longer might be things falling apart (anyone know of a different reason?).

Too long and you'll go past extracting vegetable flavors and go into the realm of vegetal flavor which is pretty undesirable. Imagine what broccoli and cauliflower cooked to mushlike consistency tastes like- that's vegetal.

In this connection, the specific vegetables used in the MC recipe may not suffer from this problem. In particular, I can't imagine why anyone would want to put cruciferous vegetables in a vegetable stock.

[naguere]

Yep, what slkinsey said, Noo cabbage.