One Cook's Trash

[Ling]

One of the pleasures of making a vat of chicken stock is dining on the strained contents.  Lately, I've been using a long-handled strainer to keep most of the bird and vegetable bits submerged.  However, the carrots and layers of onion that rise to the top to become encrusted with fat are the best part, eaten with freshly ground pepper and Fleur de sel during the fishing process.

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I always eat the chicken bits and pieces from the stock, and I bypass the actual "meat" and pick at the neck and the back first (that's where the "oysters" are, after all!) But I just don't like the overcooked vegetables in stock....

[Lilija]

I can't think of too many, offhand, but I suppose this one counts.

When making a traditional boiled corned beed dinner, the pan liquid that the corned beef, and later veggies are simmered in. I dish that up, throughout the day, while the beef is simmering, and sip it out of a mug, like a fine bullion. It's so salty, it makes the backs of my eyes wither. It's soooo warming, rich and good.

[The Old Foodie]

[but I just don't like the overcooked vegetables in stock....

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Ah! but that's my whole point. Eating vegetables as VEGETABLES then I want them al-dente, but overcooked vegetables in stock - when pureed - are SOUP, which is not meant to be al-dente.

[Pontormo]

[but I just don't like the overcooked vegetables in stock....

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Ah! but that's my whole point. Eating vegetables as VEGETABLES then I want them al-dente, but overcooked vegetables in stock - when pureed - are SOUP, which is not meant to be al-dente.

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I think Ling was just expressing a difference in taste which I completely understand, especially in the context of her amusing anecdote.

I've got a few relatives whose over-cooking of vegetables Nigel Slater would have fit nicely into an unpleasant little chapter were they part of his childhood. I don't like mushy peas or limp Army green asparagus. I'm all for perfectly stir-fried vegetables that remain somewhat crisp or resist each bite. I mostly prefer vegetables somewhere beyond Al Dente otherwise, unless raw, though there are plenty of exceptions. I have grown to appreciate certain dishes in which vegetables are over-cooked, something I would have turned up my nose over long ago were it not for Southern messes of greens or how wonderful fagiolini are at Cinghiale Bianco where they stew forever to become more fully themselves.

But let's face it, virtually all of the flavor is extracted from the chicken, celery, onion and carrots after they've simmered for four hours. I personally would not recycle them in soup since I figure they have become one with soup already as they produced stock and the solids remaining are the coil shuffled off. I won't touch the celery. Yet the transparent onion is utterly sweet if faintly so and the carrots are the part I love the way Ling loves her chicken-back "oysters", especially when there's a brown wrinkly end that has been above the broth, coated with a slick, gooey membrane of fat from the top.

That's all.

Now, as for Chefcrash...well, he must have posted here already, no?

[I_call_the_duck]

Great idea pureeing those overcooked vegetables into a soup. Two! Two! Two soups in one! I just use those veggies as a base for a chicken pot pie.

[Radio7]

Chicken oysters! Chicken organs!

Broccoli, cauliflower stems

I have no problem with overcooked veg.

End-of-cereal dredges milk.

Celery leaves I mix into salad.

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

~Radio

[Kim Shook]

Chicken oysters! Chicken organs!

Broccoli, cauliflower stems

I have no problem with overcooked veg.

End-of-cereal dredges milk.

Celery leaves I mix into salad.

Can't think of anything else at the moment.

~Radio

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Chicken oysters! Most people don't even know what they are, I find! So we sneak the little carcass out to the kitchen after the meal and Stink (daughter) and I have a nibble.

[Susan in FL]

Yesss! Chicken oysters. I wish more people didn't know they were so good. What I really wish for is an entire meal of them, with many to eat.

[Shalmanese]

My solution to the vegtable problem is to do 2 seperate stock renderings. First I fill the pot as full as possible with chicken bones and simmer for 3 - 6 hours, strain and defat. Then, I put it back on the stove with the vegtables and let it go for another 30 - 40 minutes and strain again. The vegtables aren't over cooked so they can be reused in another soup, the stock tastes more green and fresh, I get a nice clean layer of chicken fat without any vegtable flavour to it and I get more stock to boot. Seeing as I like to reduce down my stock to ~1/2 it's original volume anyway to save freezer space, this doesn't take much more time than the conventional method and probably much less time on a per litre basis since I get ~ 25% more stock.

[Meez]

As a child it did not take me long to figure out that the best stuff on Thanksgiving was back at the board in the kitchen: wings, skin, and all the bits from around the carcass. I'd sprinkle salt and pepper directly onto the counter and drag all the good stuff through it, wondering why the whole meal wasn't like this, and trying not to look like I was having too good a time.

To this day, after 12 years of happy marriage, I am still scandalized by the amount of meat my wife leaves on her fried chicken.

If any meat is left from post-stock grazing these days, I pound it with herbs, pepper, and cheese, and stuff it into raviolis.

Edited June 22, 2006 by Meez (log)

[Susan in FL]

.....If any meat is left from post-stock grazing these days, I pound it with herbs, pepper, and cheese, and stuff it into raviolis.

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Great idea, thanks Meez.

[Shalmanese]

If any meat is left from post-stock grazing these days, I pound it with herbs, pepper, and cheese, and stuff it into raviolis.

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Leftover beef from beef stock makes a really great shepards pie but I'll have to try the ravioli sometime.

[Meez]

As I reread this, I think I should clarify: what I mean by "pounded" is not literally 'pound,' as with a mortar and pestle, but rather 'add a lot of,' i.e. add a lot of pepper, herbs and cheese to the meat.

[C. sapidus]

I made Marlene’s braised short ribs with port, wine, and honey. The ingredients include a whole head of garlic, cut in half and added to the braising liquid. After the braising was finished, I tried the garlic and it was wonderful. We are saving it for this weekend, when we can slather tender, port-and-wine-flavored garlicky goodness all over crackers without worrying about social niceties.

[MissAmy]

Oh.  Do not presume to touch the backs and organs of chickens.  The penalty is high; I love them that much.  I don't think my kids even know that chickens have backs, livers, hearts and gizzards.

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What about the necks? My great-grandmother's greatest pleasure in life was to eat chicken necks. I swear to god.

For me, I LOVE fried shrimp tails! Crunchy goodness! I ate them in front of a boyfriend once and he was horrified. Until I made him try them, then I had a convert. Mwah hahaha!

[judiu]

As I reread this, I think I should clarify: what I mean by "pounded" is not literally 'pound,' as with a mortar and pestle, but rather 'add a lot of,' i.e. add a lot of pepper, herbs and cheese to the meat.

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Aha! Don't know where you're from but I think the phrase you might be looking for would be to "slam it" rather than "pound it", but I get your drift!