Under Pressure

Efficient Stocks & Broths

Welcome Frens! 🏝

We have a lot of bacon lovers in The Jungle based on the feedback and DM’s I received after the Bacon Substack dropped. Octopod is pleased with the response and knowing most should be ditching supermarket bacon post haste!

Today we talk about one of the foundations of a well ‘stocked’ kitchen; pun intended 😉

Stocks & Broths

Had an Animal tweet at me the other day about the difference between stocks and broths. It got me thinking, and since I had this subject in line I bumped my planned post to bang this out and provide some context.

Stock vs Broth:

So what’s the difference? It’s important to note that stocks and broths were a foundational element in the Classic French kitchen, where much of western coking technique is based/derived. When Escoffier made the evolution of Mother Sauces a staple of the culinary repertoire, the differentiation between a stock and broth had much more importance than current day.

In those times, a stock was cooked longer (usually) with a higher ratio of bones which added a more viscous character, whereas broths were made with a lower ratio of bones (or none at all) and used meat, as opposed to bones to extract flavor.

Regardless, in 1974 James Beard wrote that “stock, broth, and bouillon are all the same thing". And since then the terms have slowly come to mean the same thing in the modern culinary lexicon.

Flavor

A good stock provides a depth of flavor; the foundational backdrop on top of which soups, sauces and gravies are built. A bland stock will require final adjustments to the final soup (or sauce, etc) that usually include over-seasoning and tweaking since the foundation you started with is bland.

Most people are under the assumption that stock-making is tedious, long and a time suck…. so they buy the prepared shelf stable versions at the local Super Store.

All of these products are bland AF.

In the 80’s you started seeing “low sodium” broths, spurred by the medical marketing that “salt bad for blood pressure” which further turned these products from bland to insipid.

The idea that stocks are laborious to produce probably stems from movies or stories of French chefs yelling at young apprentice cooks to skim and monitor said stocks for hours at a time.

This is wholly unnecessary, and with a little common sense and OG technology, you can crank out batches of stocks that can be stored indefinitely and ready “on demand”

Why Make Your Own?

Sinple…

1) Flavor. Hands down a homemade stock will crush anything bought off the shelf and bring to life sauces, soups and gravies.

2) Economy. If you are buying your proteins on the bone; you pay less, and can save all those bones to make stock, which will also taste better, and save you from buying the grocery store “cardboard water”.

3) Easy. All you need are bones, some vegetables, a few herbs and spices… add water. Done.

Below I’ll provide a frame work, not a specific recipe, because this is a very flexible process

Add Pressure

The efficiency part of this comes in by using one of the most underrated kitchen tools… the pressure cooker.

Yes, this kitchen workhorse is a timesaving machine. Dried beans, quick braises, fast stews, and making stocks in a fraction of the time…. all thanks to the pressure cooker.

So how do they work?

A pressure cooker is simply a sealed chamber that traps the steam generated as heat is applied. As steam builds, pressure increases, increasing the boiling point of water past 212°F. In general, this higher temperature shortens cooking times and, due to a lack of evaporation, extracts flavor more efficiently from foods… aka Flavor Retention.

Turbo Autist Note. During the cooking process all of the aromatics that you smell are actually being lost from the ingredients themselves. Since taste is 90% smell, the more you can limit evaporation, the more aromatics are contained in the final product. This is why pressure cooked stocks are generally superior.

Most pressure cookers will have two levels. 1 bar of pressure (15psi) and 2 bars (30psi). At 30psi the boiling point of water is raised to ~250F, compared to the normal 212F. (Note cooking at high altitudes will alter the pressures achieved).

Myths

Before moving on, someone will raise the objection of pressure cooking “dangers”. These stories are largely overblown and exploding pressure cookers were a result of poor quality metals and faulty pressure valves… this was within the decade after WWII. Quality controls and manufacturing specs have eliminated this concern.

Choosing Your Cooker

The choice boils down to Electric vs Stove Top. Main difference being that electric pressure cookers usually run at a lower psi (12) vs their stovetop counterparts (15psi). This will result in longer cooking times. In addition, with stovetop pressure cookers, you can run them under cold water, in a sink, to rapidly cool them without releasing all of the steam that contain those aromatic compounds we want to hold on to. Electric you have to wait for natural cooling or release the steam valve.

It should be obvious by now that Octopod favors the stovetop variety. Favorite brand is Fissler. German company that makes sleek, rock solid, pressure cookers. If you happen to wear out a gasket from using your cooker so much, it’s easy to reorder replacements. A second place pick would be Kuhn Rikon (Swiss).

Free-Form Stock Making

Use this easy framework to making delicious stocks is categorizing the components:

Bones: Roasted or Unroasted

Aromatics: Onions, Celery, Carrot, Leeks, Garlic, etc.

Herbs: Fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley (dried can be substituted).

Spices: Peppercorns, bay leaf

Example 1: if I wanted make a chicken stock for soups or sauces I would-

Place unroasted chicken bones. (Ratio of 2lbs of bones to 1 gal of water; water should cover by 1-2inches)

Add:

Aromatics: 1 chopped onion (or 1 leek; washed), 2 chopped carrots, 2 garlic cloves, 1 rib celery

Herbs: 6 sprigs of thyme, 6 sprigs of parsley

Spices: 1 bay leaf and 5-10 black peppercorns (whole).

Close your pressure cooker and bring up to high pressure. Hold at temperature for 45 mins. Cool under running tap water to depressurize.

Example 2: Want maximum flavor? Simply roast (450F oven) or sauté the bones and vegetables until golden brown and then proceed as usual.

Limitless variations come with beef, pork, lamb, goat, etc etc… if you want some ideas on different spice/aromatic combos then comment below!

Beef, pork etc benefit from longer cook times; 90-120 mins.

You will notice that your stock will possibly thicken or solidify when cooled and stored in your refrigerator. This is normal and great. It means you have extracted the marrow, gelatin, etc.

Note: some find added benefit by blanching the bones before roasting or making stock. In certain preparations this is necessary (Tonkotsu Ramen, for example; and veal stock), but in most cases for home use this is purely a matter of preference and taste.

Store-Bought As Last Resort

If you must use store bought broth/stock… add a bouillon cube to try and add some flavor.

Until next time Frens! 🥂