Making Stock

If you're like me, you like to cook, and really enjoy making great meals.  BUT... you're not a 5-star chef or even a "homesteader" who spends time preserving and canning for the coming winter months.

I used to "want" to do that, but time, knowledge, and effort never seemed to be on my side.  So, for years I had grandiose notions to be this fabulous cook who did all that, only to NEVER actually do it.  I know it's a great way to have quality nutritious foods during the colder months, but I JUST NEVER DID IT!

So, I made my own rule.  Do want you can with what you have and be inspired by that.

While perusing Pinterest for winter soup recipes, I came across several posts for creating your own soup bases.  Now, I can make some great homemade soups; so this seemed like a win-win for me.  And guess what?  It was!  Not only that, it was affordable as well...

First, start by saving all the cutting scraps from your fresh vegetables.  I mean all...  Save the ends and any cuttings from your celery, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, and so on.  Any fresh vegetables that you are working with, save it all.  Place them in a large ziplock bag and put in the freezer.  There's no specific way to do this.  Just throw them in the bag and zip it up.  Keep adding cuttings until you have a full bag, or even two.

2 gallon ziplock bags of frozen vegetable cuttings in my largest pot.

When your ready to make your stock, open your bag(s) place your cuttings into the pot and add enough water to cover about 3/4 of the pot capacity.

You can see that all the veggies are not covered with water.  That's okay, they soon will be.  DO NOT overfill your pot.

Next, place the pot on the stove and turn on the heat to high and cover the pot.  You want the water to boil so that it cooks and releases all the goodness of these frozen veggies into the liquid.

You can periodically open the lid and give the veggies a stir so that they all are immersed into the liquid.  As they begin to boil and cook they will wilt and settle, and will eventually be covered by the liquid.  My pots are waterless cookware and have a steamer vent that can be closed to keep the steam inside.  Once it starts to boil I turn the heat down to low and allow the cookware to continue doing its job.  If you are cooking without these types of pots, reduce the heat once the liquid begins to boil to medium to low.  You want the liquid to gently boil to release as much of the nutrients as you can from your veggies.

You want to cook your veggies until it looks like this.  For me, it takes about 45 minutes.  I check it every so often and really just use how it "looks" to know that it's done.  Because I've done this many times I recognize the amber color of the liquid and how "spent" the veggies look.

Now comes the fun!

Remove your pot from the heat and begin to immediately remove the veggies.  Do not let it cool at this point as the veggies will reabsorb some of the liquids and you want to get as much of that "liquid gold" as you can.  I use my hand strainer to dip out the bulk of the pieces and place them in my large stainless bowl.

Now, this is important...you want to squish the veggies with your soup ladle so that you can get more of the liquid out of the veggies.  You will do this several times and be AMAZED at how much liquid is still in them.

Squish them then pour through the strainer to catch any wayward seeds and small bits of vegetables.  I do this part several times until I am satisfied that I've gotten almost all or most of the liquid that I can.

Here's the final outcome...

Look at that!  This is literally nutritious liquid gold, ready for soup and stew making!  Can you believe the beautiful amber color that those vegetables produce?   Plus, it smells heavenly and gives your kitchen that cozy, homemade meal smell...just a bonus!

At this point you can let it cool for about 20-30 minutes on your countertop while you clean up the rest of the your cooking stuff and prepare to place it in freezer bags for storage until you need it.

I set up my bag holder (you can find one here) close to my bowl. 

Once cooled, use a measuring cup to scoop it into a labelled gallon Ziploc bag.  I got two gallons out of this boil - somewhere between 20-24 cups of liquid.  

When you zip it up, leave a small opening to force a bit more of the air out of the bag.  

Once the bags are fairly cool, place into your freezer.  

These 2 bags will be the base for many different soups.

I realize that not everyone will want 2 gallons of soup base.  However, there are some options that you can consider.

*Don't make as much as I did if you're not going to use it or can't gift it to a relative or friend.

* Get with a friend and split the liquid. 

* Freeze a portion and immediately make soup from the other part.  A great vegetable, vegetable beef, or Minestrone are always good options.

* Create small bags to use as the base for recipes or smaller batches of soup.

* Freeze stock in ice-cube trays to use as stock for pan frying and sautéing.

Let me know if you have other ways to make stock or even great recipes for using this stock.  I'm always looking for recipes to make delicious homemade soups with my homemade stock!

Bon Appetit!