7 hours ago, AlaMoi said:there's a difference in using "stuff" for aroma - vs. "taste"
if you want something to have the 'taste/nuance' of celeriac, add it early on.
if you want the dish to steam the aroma of celeriac to the diner's nose, add it at the end.
or both . . . for desired result . . .
most stocks are about the taste thing.
ala minute preps tend more to using stuff that already has 'the taste' and just pimp up the experience with the aroma.
That's a good point. My suspicion however is it's more caramelization and maillard reactions we pick up after a long simmer, over any aroma compounds given by aromatics and herbs lasting for hours (and with aroma being a key component of what we know of as "flavor", not sure what perceptions would be left, as these compounds, many of them, so easily evaporate). It's an interesting question since these compounds have different evaporation (and thus loss) affinities. I've never compared and so I'm only guessing. I'm sure it's been studied - McGee, maybe?
Mostly, I was just puzzled by the book's comments on timing for their general approach or "master method": "...In the early days, at [TFL}, we'd cook the aromatic vegetables for nearly as long as the bones. But vegetables release pretty much all their flavor in 45 to 60 minutes. So today we only add the vegetables at the end of the stock making..." Yet the veal stock as described in the book is as we've always known Chef Keller to do, in three parts, aromatics added in early in "Veal Stock 1."
At a loss, then, how this fits within the "master [stock] method" description above. Anymore, I tend to do something along the line Escoffier describes, with bones getting long simmers and any meaty remnants (and aromatics) getting a shorter simmer, to preserve these aroma compounds. I'll also get giddy and do something like the coulis described in Peterson's book, with several increasingly stronger stocks coming to make the final stock. I try to parse when to add the aromatics both to avoid too much sweetness, and preserve some aromatic "brightness," really (e.g., not adding in aromatic veggies for "stock 1" or "2" if I'm doing 3 stages).
