What you will need:Bones
Veggies
Acid
Herbs
H20
Stock pot
Ladle
Strainer
Cheese cloth
Plastic container
Smaller storage container
Optional:
Ice Cube trays
Silicone Muffin tray
Thermometer
To me the best thing about Stocks, is you get something out of nothing. One major plus for the modern day caveman is the added calcium to our diet, we are not running around chugging down cow juice (milk) or munching on cheese. When looking for a stock pot the rule of thumb is taller than wide, a good thick bottom is nice to keep it from scorching. I would stay away from nonstick if you are going to be browning anything in it.
Keeping the something out of nothing in mind. I would suggest saving your veggie scraps, celery ends, carrot rinds, herb stems, onion skins. Just keep a freezer bag in the freezer to toss all these in, I would go easy on the really aromatic herbs and avoid broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage if you want that flavor I would put it in whatever dish you use your stock for. Vegetables that are just about to the point where you would want to throw them out are perfect too. Same can go with your bones, Save your scrap bones when you are preparing you meat for your meals. I would keep the different types of animals to their own bag, some mixing may be ok like chicken, turkey or game hens. You can buy beef soup bones cheap at your local butcher counter, if you don’t see them - ask.
You can use lemon or lime for your acids, most folks will use vinegars, I would rather use that stuff for cleaning. Acid helps pull the calcium right out of the bones and breaks them down. I wouldn’t go crazy with it, one good sized lemon or lime, two max, for 8Qt will do. Some people roast their bones first to give it some added flavor, but this can block up the pores in the bone before the acid has a chance to get in there and extract the calcium we are after, this is the same reason you start with cold water and cold bones.
If you want to add the same effect for flavor brown up a bit of meat in the pot before you add your water and bones.
If Browning Meat:
Heat up some oil or fat in you stock up, I would use lard or olive oil, table spoon or two. Place your meat in the pot, few ounces, once you get it good and brown lower heat then pour in your lemon use to deglaze your pot by scraping around the bottom of the pot with a spatula to free up on the brown bits that are stuck. You can give your pot a bit of time to cool down but I would put in a cup of two of cold water to keep everything from evaporating off, like your acid. Continue right along as “No Browning”.
No Browning?
Throw in the goods, bones(fill ¾ of the pot), veggies, herbs, spices, salt and acid if you have not done so already. Keep the lid off and heat up the pot on medium until it just starts to boil, you want to see some bubbles and slight currant but you do not want much surface movement happening. Turn down the heat just enough to keep this action going for me this is at just about 200 degrees. As it is going foam will build up on top, use a spoon to scoop it out but be careful not to remove much else in the way of liquid, herbs or anything else. You do not have to stand there and scoop up the foam as it forms, you can wait a while until there is some build up. It is a good idea to remove the foam before you stir the pot. Continue to cook it for six to eight hours, three that the very minimum.
After you are done cooking kill the heat, cover, move to a cool burner if you like and let if cool this way for some time. After if has cooled most of the way pour threw a strainer, with cheese cloth spread out in it, into a container for cooling. A good container would be taller then wide like the stock pot but not as big, I use an 8Qt pot and about a 4Qt container. Place the container in the fridge and let completely cool, the fat will float to the top and form a hardened disk. Remove the disk, you can rinse if off with cold water but you make be fast as to not melt the fat from the heat of your hands, place in a freezer bag or wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer, the fat will come in handy to add flavor to other meals or you can use it for browning the meat for your next batch! Pour the remaining stock into smaller containers… small freezer containers or something similar. One good idea is to pour in ice cube trays or silicone muffin form and freeze them dump into a freezer bag. There are numerous ways you can use your stock, so enjoy! Lasts 4-5 days in fridge and a couple of months in the freezer so mark you containers.
I went into way more detail on this then I probably will on most of my food posts, it has been fun though.
