ronnie_suburban wrote:Another tip of the cap to Jen, who turned me on to this easy-breezy method for making stock. Started by oven-roasting ~5 pounds of split pork trotters and neck bones (about an hour, 375F convection roast, flipped at the halfway point) . . .


Roasted Pork Parts & 8-quart InstantPot Bowl
From here, fill with cold water and instantpot the whole deal for a couple of hours. After that, strain, skim all the fat and reduce the resulting gallon down to about a quart on the stove top. Once cooled, it'll be a highly concentrated, completely gelatinous mass.

Remembering something I read from Thomas Keller years ago, and going for maximum versatility here. So, no other ingredients. No veg, herbs or seasonings of any kind. I can always add on to whatever I'm cooking later but if I put it in now, I can't take it out.

=R=

Ron,
In essence, that may be true, and Thomas Keller is certainly the man. But just for the sake of argument:

Making chicken stock with a traditional mirepoix, herb and spice, I don’t taste onion….or celery……or carrot. I just taste a full flavored essence of chicken.
But it would be a difference if I added 20-30 star anise pods or cinnamon sticks….

Have you ever detected the presence of onion or celery in your stock?

I can’t speak for Ron but I don’t put anything else in it because I’m using the chicken for my pups—onion and seasonings are a no-no. But I’ve never made better chicken soup than with this base—I add carrot, celery, salt & pepper to the base and cook the noodles in the stock with some chicken—it may not be traditional prep but it’s delicious. I also use the stock in lieu of water when I make rice—again, wouldn’t want any other flavorings for this.

And I’ve never tasted a difference in any recipe calling for stock when adding additional veggies/herbs/seasonings after v. in the making of the stock.

Nice thing about this time of year is being able to take a hot pot of stock (or anything, for that matter) outside and chill it safely without jeopardizing everything else in your fridge or your fridge. Once my stock had finished instantpotting last night, I strained it out through a colander -- and then a chinois -- directly into the the pot in which I planned to reduce it today. Covered it and placed it outside overnight . . .


Chilled Pork Stock
Fat congealed, stock already fairly gelatinous.

Fat risen to the top and congealed into a semi-solid mass, it was super easy to peel all of it away. From there, onto a low burner the de-fatted stock went, where it will reduce slowly today. Once it gets down to about a quart, I'll let it cool and fridge/freezer it. As much as I like to add some additional steps (which fit my personal style/preferences), it all starts with the super convenient instantpot . . . and I'm guessing a standard pressure cooker would achieve the same result.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Fat congealed, stock already fairly gelatinous.

No joke, I first thought those were trotters with the color boiled out.