29 minutes ago, weinoo said:I used to not use salt in stock making, which is how I learned to do it in cooking school. But then I read somewhere that a bit of salt at the beginning of, say, a white chicken stock, help to coagulate the proteins and schmutz, which then are very easy to skim off the top.
Now I salt all stocks at the start; very judiciously. And I skim pretty often (or when necessary) during the first hour, before mirepoix is added.
Thanks weinoo. I wondered about that.
What do you think of his thing for white chicken stock to not skim at all? I'm not certain of my memory, but I think Judy Rogers might have felt the same way, removing fat in the frigo. Now that I think of it, she trained for a short while with the Troisgros brothers, and here's from their The Nouvelle Cuisine of Jean and Pierre Troisgros, on light chicken stock:
(after adding the chicken)...bring to the boil gently and skim..."
but then, after aromatics: "...make certain that it stays at a rolling boil for 45 minutes...."
Unfortunately I only have the English translation so I guess it's possible that's a translation error but it sure seems specific. Weirdly they say right after "...45 minutes":
"...skim off the fat as it rises to the surface. These two points [skimming, and the rolling boil] are important if you want to achieve a crystal-clear stock." Rolling boil with light chicken stock? Crystal clear?
I don't get it at all. I understand from Steven and others that Ducasse has no problem with clear stocks and jus - with the butter giving it a beautiful sheen, without the lip-smacking unpleasantness of overly reduced stocks (after all these years, I'm moving in the same direction. Just for home and friends now).
What are your thoughts?
