My first culinary school lesson was learning to cut. With carrots, celery, and onions, I learned to julienne (to slice into small matchsticks), batonet (large matchsticks) brunoise (to start with julienne cuts, then turn the slices 90 degrees and make cuts into smaller, diced bits), and tournee(to flip the vegetable cuts). Mess up, screw up, cut too small, cut too big, make it ugly? No worries. With beauties and uglies, these three vegetables were the first ingredients to make stock.
This celery, carrot, and onion trio is vegetable mirepoix. Mirepoix will have a ratio of onion, to carrot, to celery ( 2:1:1).Take this vegetable base and add caramelized bones to make beef or pork stock. Chicken or fish bones do not need caramelizing since they will burn. Caramelizing means taking the ingredient and cooking them down until their natural sugars begin to show or turn brown.
Beef/Pork Stock:
- Caramelize/Roast the bones first in a bit of oil on a sheet pan or pot, remove them as they start to brown, and put them aside. Scrape the bottom, don't discard, to loosen. (That's where the magic is!) Deglazing it with a little water or wine.
- Add the mirepoix and let it caramelize, till the onions turn translucent.
- Add the bones back into the pot, then add water,
- In the end, add the bouquet garni (herbs/spices sachet).
- Simmer for 8-10 hours on very low heat. For bone broth, simmer for 12 hours.
- Let the stock reduce by 1/2 to 1/3 for a more intense flavor.
- 3-4 days it can live in the fridge, or you can freeze it for 3 months
Chicken/Fowl Stock:
- Start with mirepoix, sweat the onions in a little oil, till they turn translucent, then add your celery and carrots. Let them sweat for a little bit, till they start caramelizing. (2:1:1)
- Add the raw chicken bones, then your water. Fill the water till everything is fully immersed, then add your bouquet garni.
- Lower the heat to a low simmer for 6-8 hours uncovered, and you will see some cloudy foam develop from the stock, just scoop it out. It can make your stock cloudy. For bone broth, simmer for 10-12 hours.
- For cooked chicken/turkey carcass from a rotisserie chicken/Thanksgiving Turkey, you would do the same method, but you would simmer it for 4 hours. Occasionally, skim off the foam.
- 3-4 days it can live in the fridge or you can freeze it for 6 months.
Fish Stock aka Fumet:
- Start with onions, celery, and leeks. (2:1:1).
- Add halibut bones/fish heads or a similar lean fish(flounder or sole).
- Immerse fully in water with a bouquet garni.
- Bring up to a boil, then lower it to a low simmer, and cook for only 20 minutes.(Try your best to not over cook the fumet, since the stock can taste bitter)
- 3-4 days it can live in the fridge, or you can freeze it for 2 months
In New Orleans, you will hear "holy trinity," which means the mirepoix has onions, celery, and green peppers. The different color of peppers like orange, red, and yellow will have more of a sweeter quality and usually accommodates the savory flavor of the gumbo.
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Alright, post your pictures of your homemade stocks. I want to see them all. Let's begin!