Stock for soups

[Fat Guy]

I wonder if there is a chemical difference between a double stock and a stock reduced to half.

[Fat Guy]

Okay, so my stock is on its way. I finished skimming a little while ago and the chickens have just been relieved of their breast and thigh meat, which is above average in flavor it turns out. One thing I wanted to add to the stock discussion is the utility of a really big stock pot. By really big I mean by consumer standards. I find that an 8- or even 12-quart stockpot just doesn't do the trick. The two stockpots I use for serious stock-making are 20-quart stainless models from A. Best Kitchen. They cost just $59 apiece and that includes a lid, yet they perform as well as $200+ stockpots I've used. They sound big but they're totally worth having, and at 10 3/4" high these babies actually fit in a current-model KitchenAid dishwasher if you position them at the extreme back right of the bottom rack.

[Suzanne F]

I wonder if there is a chemical difference between a double stock and a stock reduced to half.

Great question! Intuitively, I'd guess yes, but I have nothing to back that up. Also, makes me wonder: is there a point at which the water becomes fully "saturated" and cannot accept any more flavor/essences. (Kind of the way it can only hold so much dissolved sugar and the sugar has to recrystalize)

And thanks for the stockpot recommendation. It's been a few weeks since I bought any cookware or cookbooks, and I'm getting antsy. Mine is an 8-inch tall, 14-quart aluminum pot. Okay, but not quite big enough.

[Fat Guy]

Regular aluminum or anodized aluminum? I like a lot of things about regular aluminum but I find its reactivity and fragility to be annoying. I bought the regular aluminum equivalent of my current stockpots and it was impossible to clean using my normal procedure of a stainless scrubber or the dishwasher -- it would get completely messed up and exude gray stuff either way. Anodized aluminum, on the other hand, is great for stockpots but it's too damn expensive.

By the way if you're on the A. Best site you should look at the Excalibur premium level stockpots too -- they're supposed to be slightly better (tri-ply bottom and stronger handles) at not too much of an uptick in the price.

[NewYorkTexan]

Being too lazy to want to stand around and skim the chicken stock, I have success using the method Tom Colicchio describes in his white chicken stock recipe.

Place a rinsed chicken in a pot with just enough water to cover the bird. Bring to a boil and let it boil for two minutes. Remove the bird, discard the water and rinse out the pot. Return the bird with fresh water, add veggies and aromatics and simmer away.

While there is an added step using this technique, I find it easier than scimming.

[Fat Guy]

I find that method to be less convenient than skimming. It's the equivalent of washing your veal neck bones when you make veal stock, which is why making veal stock is always much more of a pain than making chicken stock. I skimmed my stock four times today in the space of maybe half an hour, for a total of about two minutes labor expended. It's particularly easy if you have the right tool:

[NewYorkTexan]

That looks a lot like a tool an evil dentist would use.

Is the center of it curved mesh or a shallow and flat center? Can not tell by the picture.

[Fat Guy]

Allow me to present the larger size image:

It's fine mesh, shallow-almost-flat, 13" long, and $12 at Williams-Sonoma.

[steverino]

Lookin' good FG !!

In James Beard's American Cookery he speaks of a double chicken broth which involves adding a fresh bird to a "well made, strained chicken broth" Boil, simmer and strain.

I've personally never done this, but it sounds delicious...

His basic recipe for chicken broth includes necks, backs, gizzards, onion stuck with 2 cloves, etc. I've done this. It is wonderful.

I don't want to open any copyright issues, so I'll leave it at that.

Stock / Broth RULES!!!!!

[steverino]

Why in hell didn't my underline work??

Oh well, I'm a greenhorn, I'll figger it out.