Making stock.

Making your own stock is simple. I collect a bunch of stuff in the freezer in plastic containers and bags. Bones mostly, both chicken, beef and pork. I also throw in onion ends and skin, carrot and celery ends, various herbs, whatever. It doesn't really matter, the point is to make it from whatever you have on hand when you need some.

I cook mine in a 20qt pot and in the end I will have about 12qts of stock that I will freeze.

Time: 4 - 9 hours. In my experience the longer the better.

You'll need:
1 large pot, mine is 20qts.
1 other pot, smaller than the first but big enough to hold at least 12qts.
1 small strainer
1 vegetable steamer (optional, you can probably do without it but it is helpful)
a bowl full of cold water

This stock consisted of:
chicken bones, cooked and uncooked
pork bones, cooked
onion skin
thyme

celery
parsnip
carrot (ends and peelings)
vinegar
sea salt

Add in pretty much whatever else you might have. Beef bones are fine too and I don't worry about the amounts of anything other than the bones. Lots and lots of bones.

There are 5 steps

Step 1: Throw it all in the pot. Add some sea salt and vinegar if you'de like.

Step 2: Simmer it for 8 hours or so

Step 3: Strain it

Step 4: Cool it

Step 5: Freeze it

That's it, but there are a few details to sort out along the way. Read on.

Here is my pile o' stuff out of the freezer:

And here it is all in the pot filled with cold water. Here I add some sea salt (about 1-2tbsp) and some vinegar, about a1/2 cup:

Now turn the burner on high and and when it begins to simmer turn it down to low. You want a very gentle simmer. Try not to let it get to a boil, remember, it'll be on the stove for a long time so don't rush it.

The small strainer, vegetable steamer and bowl of cold water. Simple tools for a simple job.

What's the job? Skimming protein of course.

After you've got it down to a simmer you'll start noticing a bubblly foam forming on the top. It is your job to skim it off with the small strainer and then rinse it in the bowl of cold water. You only need to do this a couple of times, after about 2 hours you shouldn't need to do it anymore.

This is where the vegetable steamer helps. Push it down into the stock far enough to create a nice little protein pond. You would have to skim around everything in the top photo, but in the bottom photo the steamer pushes the stuff in the stock, making the job much easier.

Skim all that white stuff off, about every 15 minutes or so for the first 2 hours. After that you'll have something that looks like this:

Ok, good time to drink beer because you're pretty much done for the next 7 hours. Keep an eye on it to keep it at a very low simmer.

Many hours later you'll have something like this:

Now we'll want to strain that into another pot. You'll probably need someone to help you.

Some folks recommend cheesecloth to strain it as well. If you have some, great. If not a regular fine mesh strainer will work just fine.

Now you've got a second pot full of stock that you need to cool. Do not put 12qts of 200F stock into your refrigerator. I like to cool it in a water bath in the sink. If you have ice, great. If not, no big deal. Just fill up the sink with cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then drain the water, which will be warm, and fill it up again. The 3rd time around I add the ice.

After about 30 minutes the ice will have melted and the stock will be around 76F. At this point I put it in the fridge overnight.

After it has cooled in the fridge overnight, the fat will have risen to the top and congealed. Scrape it off with a large spoon and freeze that too. It is wonderful for Sauteing anything. Especially garlic and onions.

After you skim the fat off you are left with something like this:

Now just ladle it into a bunch of containers and store it in the freezer. I put most of mine in 2qt containers and a few 1 and 2 cup containers for when I only need a small amount.

Now when it comes to stock there are different kinds. There is the colored water kind, like what you'de buy in a store but I tend to think the thicker the better. In the video below you'll see this has the consistency of jello. If you don't get it this thick right away don't worry, you've still made kickass stock.

Here it is, the holy grail of stock:

Now what can you use it for? If you like to make Risotto this stuff kicks ass. I also use it anytime I make rice and of course any soup.

Now throw out that crap chicken flavored water they sell at the store and get to making yourself some real stock!

Sous Vide - Salmon

The next round in my sous vide experiment is Salmon and the principles are the same as before. Hot water, something in a sealed bag & time. Temperature will be 125F and time will be a relatively short 40 minutes, which is perfect for mid week meals where taking 2 hours or longer to cook a steak isn't feasible.

You'll need:

• Salmon fillet. I left the skin on.
• Salt & Pepper

And:

• 8 qt. saucepan
• Cast iron skillet
• Oven thermometer

In the picture below I have the cast iron skillet under the pot but with a short cooking time of only 40 minutes I don't think it is necessary.

Step 1) Start by taking the salmon steaks out and letting them come up to room temperature. Season them with a little salt and pepper at this point. I chose to leave the skin on so that when I seared it after cooking I could have that yummy crispy skin.

Step 2) Preheat the oven to your target temperature, in this case 125F. I have read about using lower temperatures so I shot in the middle of the range of what others were using.

Fill your pot with hot water and put it on the stove at a medium-low temperature to bring the water up to 125F.

Step 3) Place the salmon into zip log bags and either suck out all of the air or lower them into the water and let the water push the air out. The temperature will drop a few degrees so leave it on the stove on medium-low heat to come back up to 125F. I described my ghetto vacuum technique in more detail in the Steak Sous Vide post.

 

You want to make sure they are fully submerged and as long as you got all the air out they should not be floating. If they are, put a ceramic mug in there to weigh them down. Next just put the whole affair in the oven.

Step 4) Time to go prep whatever you are serving with this. I made a garlic aioli to put on the salmon and a garlic and asiago cheese orzo for a side.

Step 5) Time to take them out and sear them. They will be very tender and if you fat finger it reaching into the bag they will just fall apart. The pictures below only show 1 fillet and that is because the first one I was not gentle with and it just fell apart.

A quick sear is all that is necessary, I think I seared them for no more than a minute. If you take the skin off I would certainly sear it for less as salmon cooks very quickly and you don't want to over cook it at this point.

 

And there it is. It isn't steak but damn it was incredible. Moist like you dream about, and slightly flaky. 

Sous Vide - Steak with a side of awesome.

Ignoring the pretentiousness in the mere name itself - “Sous Vide”, which sounds even more annoying if you say it with a French Accent, it is essentially cooking stuff in a plastic bag immersed in water. The exact translation is “under vacuum”, but seeing as though I am entirely to low brow to own a vacuum sealer I will be presenting this most excellent method of cooking meat using a much simpler method.

So what is it and why is it awesome? Ignoring once again the vacuum part, which I am under the impression would contribute very little to this particular recipe anyway, what we will essentially be doing is cooking the steaks in a ziploc bag in a water bath at a precise temperature. The advantages are twofold towards achieving a steak of epic proportions;
1. There is zero chance of overcooking
2. The steak will be cooked at your target temperature the entire way through.

If you are a lover of meat cooked rare to medium-rare this will be of particular interest as even with the highest of cooking temperatures using ether a grill or skillet, even cooking is simply not possible.

So, given the simple nature of what we are about to do there are a few details to sort out. First is finding a way of maintaining a pretty low temperature of 125F for 2 hours. If you have an oven that is accurate at this low a temperature, wonderful. If not you will need to get creative.

Software:

• steak
• salt & pepper

Hardware:

• 8 qt. Saucepan
• Cast Iron Skillet
• Oven Thermometer accurate at a low temperature.
• A pizza stone or cast iron skillet (placed in the oven to provide thermal mass)

Step 1) Start by leaving the steaks out to come to room temperature. Go ahead and season them at this point and the rules are similar to grilling with the exception of olive oil. Don't use it, as olive oil will develop an odd taste if cooked at a low temperature for an extended period of time.

Step 2) Preheat your oven to your target temperature, in this case 125F. Thermal mass is your friend so including something heavy is a great idea. A pizza stone or a cast iron skillet would work just fine.

Fill a large pot with hot water. More is better so fill it as much as you can and still leave room for the water to displace once the steaks are added. My tap water is 120F so heating this on the stove those last 4 degrees will quicken the process up considerably.

For no particular reason, a picture of meat.

Step 4) So now that you have them seasoned grab your double zip loc freezer storage bags and put a steak into each one. Now it's time to get implement our ghetto vacuum technique by zipping the freezer bag all the way across and then unzipping a portion in the middle and then start to slowly lower the bag into the water. The idea is to let the water push all of the air out of the bag, like so:

When you get to the zipped part just zip that little bit that was unzipped and there you have it.

Do this for the rest of the steaks and cram them all into the pot. Since there is no air in the bags you shouldn't have a problem with them floating to the surface. If you do just put a ceramic mug on top of them to keep them submerged.

Step 5) The water temperature will have dropped after the steaks are in the pot so leave them on the stove on a low heat to return the water to your target temperature. Mine dropped 15F once the steaks were dropped in. Once the water is back up to your target temperature throw the whole thing in the oven.

Step 6) Now it's time to go drink beer and occasionally check on things to make sure the oven is doing its job and the temperature doesn't creep up on you. It should be very easy to moderate if it does since the large thermal mass will work in your favor. If the temperature gets more than 2F over your target simply turn off the oven and crack the door. When it gets back down turn it back on again. Easy.

Step 7) After 2 hours get your cast iron pan nice and hot and prepare for some quick searing to give us the beloved complex blend of flavors that only the Maillard Reaction can give us.

Straight out of the bag they will look pretty unappetizing. Thoroughly cooked, but needs some work.

Remember, the cooking is done so we want to limit the time in the pan, no more than 1 minute per side and it is not necessary to do this at a nuclear high heat. Technically the Maillard Reaction happens somewhere around 310F, which on most stoves should be somewhere around a medium heat setting on a well pre-heated pan.

After 1 minute per side things start looking right:

And this is what it's all about, a perfectly cooked steak from top to bottom with no gradient at all.

Meat lovers rejoice.