Marscafe Home      CHEF MARS'- THE BASICS OF STOCKS
   HOW TO USE....THE INGREDIENTS


GENERAL INFORMATION

In the professional kitchen stocks are most often used to make sauces and soups. When the stocks are reduced we get essences, flavorings, demi glazes and full glazes, the full glazes being very gelatinous. When the basic stocks get thickened with roux or some other thickener, they then form the basic sauces.
    Essences: are the extraction and then fusing of an isolated flavor, such as mushrooms, fennel, fish, etc. The concept is simple and direct; reduce the stock so it retains. isolates and emphasizes the flavor and/or aroma you are after. Essences are prepared the same way as you do when making an ordinary stock but begins with less liquid to ensure that they end up with the main ingredient's flavor being concentrated. Used for flavor enhancement and added by drops.

    Glazes or Glaces: are classified as meat (glaze de viande), fish (glaze de poisson), poultry (glaze de poulet) and game (glaze de gibier) glazes and are simply high quality stocks that have been slowly skimmed and reduced to a syrupy consistency. When reduced to about half volume the resultant is referred to as a demi-glaze and when reduced to a about a fourth of their original volume the product is called a glaze. In professional kitchens that make their own they are used to finish sauces and reductions and add great shine and sheen and impart a definite tone and distinction to a sauce or soup. They are potent protein enrichers and flavor enhancers. Glazes differ from Essences by the fact that the essence goes after just one flavor whereas the glaze concentrates the united flavors of the whole stock. The process is slow and prolonged and necessitates a few changings of the stock pot or saucepan as the quantity is reduced. At each changing make sure you strain carefully and go to a saucepan that is of smaller diameter with higher sides than the previous saucepan or stock pot it was reducing in. The finished product will be very firm and rubbery when cooled due to it's concentration, which makes storage very easy.


    Enriched Poultry Stock : simply augmenting the recipe with more chicken. Generally two extra chickens beyond the normal recipe will produce a more flavorful and richer stock from the increased protein. Remember to remove the chickens at under three hours so that you can remove the meat and use it in croquettes or another preparation. One word of caution here is that you should only enrich the stock when you know that its final use will require it...once again a referral to the fundamental rule of preparation/mise-en-place:
    "Know what the final end use for the product is".


    Double and Triple Stocks: are stocks made by replacing water with another stock. I find that saving the materials from a beef or white stock and reusing them by simmering in fresh water for about 4 hours gives me a very nice liquid to begin another stock pot of new stock.

    Difference between a stock, broth, bouillon and consommé: All begin as a stock and as we now know, stocks are divided into white, brown, fish and game and go on to receive further cooking and become incorporated into sauces and soups. Broths or bouillons (same) are simply stocks which are strained then and served as clear soups, with or without a garnish. Consommés are stocks which have been carefully stained and then clarified usually, but not always by the use of egg whites. Consommés are also often enriched (double consommé) during the clarification process by using lean chopped beef.

    Soup and Food Bases: are "convenience products ". They come as pastes, powders, liquids in concentrated and normal strength. It is unfortunate but too many of today's kitchen, cooks and chefs utilize these products instead of making their own. Of course, when you are in a "pre-portioned " type of kitchen operation, byproducts to put into a stock are not available and most likely, neither is the proper kitchen equipment. Also, many owners are concerned about the labor and storage involved in the making of your own stocks. A lot of chefs I know use these products to boost the flavor of their own preparations. Commercial Soup and Food Bases range from very poor to quite good, relatively speaking. Make sure you taste the product so you are not in for a surprise and check the ingredients to see how much is meat flavoring ingredient and how much is salt, msg (hydrolyzed protein) and perhaps chicken fat.

    Other Meat Stocks: examples are meat drippings from roasts or sauteéd items.
    "Au Jus", or "with juice" is an example of another meat stock that is easily prepared, being the pan drippings from a roast beef.
    Gravy: When the pan drippings are thickened, usually with flour, we get a gravy. A gravy differs from a sauce in that the gravy has the distinct flavor of the meat or poultry item it "dripped" or came from whereas a sauce has the blending of the flavors of all the ingredients that went into preparing it, with no one flavor being so dominant as it is in a gravy.
    Deglazing: is the process to extract flavor from the bits of meat adhering to the pan or pot that meat has been roasted or sauteéd in. This is done by adding liquid, usually wine, stock or water to the preferable still hot cooking pan, heating and making sure the meat pieces and drippings are loosened from the pan and allowed to "swish around". Further cooking and reducing will produce a richer "pan" stock whose incredible flavor cannot be captured anywhere else.

BONES
Bones for fish stock should be rinsed under cold running water for 3-5 minutes to remove any impurities and blood.
For brown,, chicken, game and white stock the bones must be cleaned to remove impurities that will cloud and discolor your stock. Especially in the case of chicken, this cleaning process also helps to kill potentially harmful bacteria. The process we use is called "blanching".
  1. Rinse the bones under cold running water for 3-5 minutes.
  2. Place rinsed bones in an adequate sized stock pot and cover with cold water.
  3. Bring water to a boil.
  4. Immediately remove from the heat and strain the bones. Rinse bones under cold running water again.


VEGETABLES
Vegetables should be washed well and cut/chopped into large pieces, never a small dice.

HERBS
When preparing for a "sachet" (bag) fresh or dried herbs are ok. If using dried herbs reduce the quantity if the recipe calls for fresh.
If fresh make sure you rinse the herbs to remove any dirt or growing material.
The "sachet" is made by placing the herbs and aromatics in a piece of cheesecloth which is then tied closed with string and placed inside the stock and then removed and discarded when it has served its function.
The "bouquet garni" is made with sprigs of various fresh herbs such as thyme, bay leaf and parsley that are tied together with string. Like the "sachet" it is removed when its function of imparting flavor has been accomplished, which can be at the end of the stock's cooking or before.

AROMATICS
When used in a "sachet" peppercorns and other berry type aromatics are usually utilized whole or slightly cracked.
Whole cloves are sometimes stuck in large onion pieces to impart their flavor while cooking.

WATER or STOCK
Once again, always begin your stock with cold water or stock, not hot.
Some pointers during the cooking of your stock:
  1. Try not to stir the stock during cooking as it will cause cloudiness.
  2. Skim often to enhance the clarity and flavor.
  3. Do not boil, only simmer as this too will lead to clouding of your stock.
  4. Do not salt as you will be reducing your stock at some point. Best to add the salt when you have almost finished the stock or better yet when it has been incorporated into its final preparations such as a soup, stock or glaze.
  5. Do not over-season or you will overpower the natural flavor melange and meld you are trying to create.
  6. When completed, strain the stock very slowly and do not push the solids as this is a sure way to cloud your stock.
When Your Stock is Finished:
  1. If you are not going to further process-cook the stock down to a demi-glaze or glaze then you should....
  2. Properly chill the stock to avoid a health hazard and to maximize the stock's shelf life.
    Ways to safely and properly cool your stocks
       1. Ice Bath (most common and affordable)
    - Fill a large sink or other large container with ice and water. The more ice the better.
    - Transfer your hot stock to a clean aluminum or stainless steel container. Aluminum is a great heat conductor, Stainless steel a close second, both will allow the heat to dissipate quickly. A wider container is better than a deeper one as the greater surface area will speed up the cooling due to increased surface area.
    - Place the container in the ice bath. The bigger the bath the faster the cooling will happen. Try to place a rack in the bottom of the ice bath to keep the bottom of the container from touching the bottom of the sink. This will improve the cooling and allow for "venting and cooling", or cooling from below and from the top.
    - Frequent stirring is important as it will allow the hot liquid from the inside to come to the periphery and come in contact with the ice bath. A frequent cause of stock souring and spoilage is due to this lack of stirring. The outer stock is chilled but the center traps the heat, so the stock sours from the center out, even when it is in the refrigerator.
    - If you do not have a large quantity of stock, 4 and 6 inch chaffing dish inserts (stainless steel food pans) will let you cool you stock very rapidly using an ice bath.
    - HACCP standards require the following; the liquid must cool from 140°F to 70°F within 2 hours and then from 70°F to 40°F in 4 hours, or a total of 6 hours to cool down from 140°F to 40°F. At 40°F the stock can be identified, covered, and dated, then stored in the cooler.

       2. Blast Chiller or Freezer (for big operations)
    - This piece of equipment which looks like a large roll in freezer or refrigerator will drop the temperature to under 40°F in less than 2 hours, but is quite expensive. - It circulates very cold air around the containers of hot stock, liquid or solid items. - Small shallow containers will work best with this procedure. - At 40°F the stock can be identified, covered, and dated, then stored in the cooler.