I'm going primarily by the eGullet Culinary Institute lesson on stockmaking here for background info, I usually just boil my chicken for 3 - 4 hours but the bones are still firm which indicates they still have gelatin. My next goal is to either try letting it sit overnight or letting it sit in the oven. To know when a stock is finished, all the bones should crumble easily between your fingers. in one of the Q&A's someone mentioned that a stock with a tiny bit of salt tasted markedly different that a stock with salt added later in a blind taste test. I've never added it to mine but something like 2tbsp in a pot of stock is enough to draw out the flavour. Assuming you don't have an absurdly large stockpot, I always find that the amount of stock I make is limited by the pot. Instead of making two batches of chicken+veggie, why not make 1 batch of all chicken and 1 batch of all veggie. This way, I can use just vegtable stock if I only want vegtable or I can use it with beef if I want beef. Also, I would only use 4hrs + 1hrs worth of cooking time instead of 4hrs + 4hrs worth of cooking time. I think you lost me on this one. To adjust the level of meatiness, simply change the ratio of vegtable stock to meat gelatin thing so you could get a stock that is predominantly meat or just has a hint of meat in it. Eg: I would imagine a big roast would benifit from a stronger pan juice gravy while a delicate chicken soup would work better with more vegtables. I often find that my stocks are either too sweet and light for some dishes and too heavy for others. Since stocks last practically forever, you might as well go on a big stockmaking binge when a certain vegtable is in season or especially cheap. Thats another thing, I generally only make stock when I've accumulated enough bones to fill a pot or when meat happens to be especially cheap. This often does not correspond to when good vegtables are in season so it gives me a lot more flexibility to make them at seperate times. Well, no. You need at least enough water to completely cover all the solids. If you halve the solids by removing all the veggies, you halve the liquid while still having the same amount of gelatin extracted. This means that you get twice the amount of gelatin so it's already twice as reduced as a normal stock. Anyway, I'm going to give this a go. It's verging on winter here in Aus so some nice root vegtables should be in season. I'll go the farmers market on Wednesday and pick up some fresh veggies and give you an update on how it goes.
