Chicken stock (re)freezing question

[jfilmm]

I have some chicken stock in my freezer and have been thinking about defrosting it, making a double stock, then re-freezing it. It it okay to freeze chicken stock twice?

[Carolyn Tillie]

Sure - just make sure it has come to a roiling boil for at three minutes. Technically, a stock could last indefinitely if brought to a boil ever few days.

[Waterzoy]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by double stock......is this the same as demi glace where you reduce the stock to a more concentrated form? It's not generally a good idea to re-freeze anything but if you have to do this I'd make sure it was brought back up to the boil before a second round of freezing.

[jfilmm]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by double stock......is this the same as demi glace where you reduce the stock to a more concentrated form? It's not generally a good idea to re-freeze anything but if you have to do this I'd make sure it was brought back up to the boil before a second round of freezing.

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I mean doubling the stock by adding chicken and veggies to this stock, rather than water, to concentrate its flavor.

[jfilmm]

Sure - just make sure it has come to a roiling boil for at three minutes. Technically, a stock could last indefinitely if brought to a boil ever few days.

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What does boiling do? Does it reset the decomposition process or something? (Pardon my ignorance)

[Waterzoy]

I can't give you a particularly technical answer but boiling would kill most or all of the bacteria that might come to life during or after the initial thawing process.

Edited December 1, 2006 by Rachellindsay (log)

[Forest]

in answer the boiling question, it will kill the germs before you refreeze it. The only problem you might have with that, is it's nice to simmer rather than boil stock. (although i remember reading somewhere recently that you don't have to actually bring something to a full boil to make it hot enough to kill the little bad things - that's something you'd probably want to doublecheck)

To concentrate the flavor, you could always just boil it down so it's more concentrated and make a new batch of stock with your other chicken. (of course you would have less stock then) I'm sure there's an entire stock thread on here somewhere, which probably has lots of info.

happy stock-making!

[Carolyn Tillie]

For Thanksgiving, I made a generic stock with venison, quail, pheasant, duck, and squab bones and simmered for 24 hours. It gave me about 12 quarts of good stock. After a good straining, I sauteed up another round of mirepoix and simmered for an additional 12 hours and ended up with about 8 quarts of concentrated stock. I then consommed those 8 quarts and ended up with a little over half-a-gallon of intensely rich, concentrated game consomme. Stunning...

So, to Forest, just boiling it down doesn't necessarily make the flavor more concetrated, while re-simmering with additional mirepoix seems to help.

[Forest]

Good point! Thanks for the info. I've been making a lot of stock lately and your Thanksgiving one sounds great!

[paulraphael]

To concentrate the flavor, you could always just boil it down so it's more concentrated and make a new batch of stock with your other chicken.  (of  course you would have less stock then)

A double stock will give you the same amount of stock from your ingredients as a big reduction will, but it will usually taste better. It won't suffer from the flatness that you can get from extended boiling/reduction.

[scott123]

Sure - just make sure it has come to a roiling boil for at three minutes. Technically, a stock could last indefinitely if brought to a boil ever few days.

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Re-boiling stock to prevent spoilage has been proven as a myth. I believe it was Wolke that disproved it. There are particular bacteria that can survive the boiling process. Make the stock, cool it quickly, refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze.