Stock ; iPot vs simmer

[Martin Fisher]

I've always thought it odd that Beard boiled the hell out of chicken pieces and accompaniments before he simmered the hell out of them!!! 

Source: James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, By James Beard

 

Again, it leads to that fowl foul flavor that I've also described as 'tired.'

 

 

[paulraphael]

6 hours ago, weinoo said:

I don't know about that, Paul.  We were taught (and we were taught classic French technique) skim, skim, skim. Bocuse says nothing about blanching. Eric nada. And Tom says:

 

 

Maybe those culinary textbooks you're referring to have been updated to reflect ancient Chinese secrets  .

 

I just dusted of my Escoffier, and you're right, he doesn't mention anything about blanching the white stock. It must be a later 20th century refinement. Literally every source I've learned from has included the blanching step, so I just assumed it's been canonical forever. 

[Anna N]

 What is not to love about cooking when you find giants in the culinary world who cannot agree about such a simple thing as how to make chicken stock?

[Martin Fisher]

FWIW, it only required about 2 minutes of research to find this—which pre-dates Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire by 7 years.

It's credited to a "French Chef" which hints to it's existence prior—it may very well be published elsewhere. But I haven't done further research.

Source: Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896, Page 109

I'm not convinced it's safe to say that the technique was developed by the Chinese without proof—which likely doesn't exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

 What is not to love about cooking when you find giants in the culinary world who cannot agree about such a simple thing as how to make chicken stock?

 

Imagine if Escoffier had an Instant Pot!

 

39 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

FWIW, it only required about 2 minutes of research to find this—which pre-dates Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire by 7 years.

It's credited to a "French Chef" which hints to it's existence prior—it may very well be published elsewhere. But I haven't done further research.

Source: Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896, Page 109

I'm not convinced it's safe to say that the technique was developed by the Chinese without proof—which likely doesn't exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that's not chicken stock. And it says to boil for three to four hours, which would also make a fairly lousy stock.

Edited March 29, 2018 by weinoo (log)

[Martin Fisher]

2 minutes ago, weinoo said:

But that's not chicken stock.

 

Right, I'm speaking as to the technique of boiling and rinsing—and white stock has long been defined as "soup stock made from veal or chicken without colored seasonings and often used in white sauce'" or similar.

[kayb]

Perhaps I am a Philistine. But I'm perfectly happy with my beef and chicken stock run through two 90-minute cycles on high pressure in the instant pot, the solids removed, the broth strained, then returned to the IP to concentrate with a couple of sessions on the saute function with the lid off.

 

Stock? Broth? Whatever you choose to call it, it suits for my purposes.

[paulraphael]

As much of a bombastic Napoleonic autocrat as Escofier was, he acknowledged that better ways would be discovered. Most famously, he predicted that we'd come up with beter thickeners than flour and roux. 

 

Every high-end contemporary source on my shelves recommends making white sauce the way Mitch (and the ancient Chinese) do it—by blanching the carcases before making the stock, to get rid of stock-clouding impurities and nasty flavors. It's obviously not the only way to do it, but considering how many people consider it superior to the alternatives, I think it's worth noting. Personally, I only make brown stocks (except with fish, which I do sous-vide) so I don't have my own experiments. I

[Martin Fisher]

I don't think there's anything I've experimented with more than chicken stock/broth.

Literally thousands of batches.

When I was a child we raised at least 100 meat chickens every summer.

Then, back in the 90s we used to raise as many 1200-1300 chickens on 'pasture' every summer.

In addition to the birds we raised for ourselves, I had thousands of feet, gizzards, hearts, necks, heads, etc. to work with—from the chickens we processed for others.

Before Salatin became well known, and long before he published his book Pastured Poultry Profits in 1996, he wrote articles for Stockman-Grass Farmer magazine.

I spoke with him on the phone 2 or 3 times back in the day.

His work spurred us to raise chickens in great numbers.

I lived a rural life up until I moved to this village back in 2010.

I ran a contstant 'want ad' for old spent laying hens.

I received a few hundred over the years—all, either dirt cheap or free.

Perfect for making stock or broth.

Unfortunately, I can't do that anymore because butchering chickens here would likely be strongly frowned upon. LOL