Chicken stock, veal stock, fish stock, vegetable stock, fond blanc, fond brun, ham stock, lamb stock—each bearing the flavors of culture and tradition. The process of making stock is simple and rewards the cook with a versatile and flavorful product. For all of the literature dedicated to stock making (especially in the French tradition), one might conclude that stock is a difficult and exacting creation. This could not be further from the truth. Stock is no more than food remnants steeped in a pot of hot water. There are many “recipes” for the various stocks of the world, calling for an assortment of ingredients that often require extra trips to the store: this is unnecessary, and counter to its original design. As a means of prolonging limited nourishment, people across the world placed their inedible scraps (bones and fibrous portions of vegetables, mostly) in water to extract the flavor and sustenance trapped within. The resulting liquid, stock, has improved countless meals since.
A great way to accrue material for stock is to simply have a bag for bones and scraps of meat and vegetables that you keep in your freezer. Have ribs or chicken wings one night? Into the bag. Leftover carrots and broccoli? Into the bag. We even go so far as to bring home the bones from when we eat out (it’s not that strange of a request). Feel free to throw in that bit of onion that you’ve convinced yourself that you will use, but that precedent says otherwise, or those smaller pieces of garlic that end up at the bottom of whatever you keep your garlic in.
Why do we make stock in the oven? Because it’s easier. We can better control the temperature (temperatures between 170°F–200°F are ideal as that range minimizes the destruction of gelatin, while still freeing up flavor effectively), and consequently can place a lid wholly over it and thus have no need to add water.
Note, also, the bone snap toward the end of the video. If you can break a thick bone like that with ease, you have properly extracted all that you should want from it.
Fish stock is the exception—it should not be cooked overnight at such temperatures. A mere 20-30 minutes on low heat is sufficient (more on this later).
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