Broth vs. Stock

[mishalak]

No cook worth his salt will ever make a broth. This is because broth is the most incredibly spendthrift way to make a soup that I can imagine. You take whole meat and cook it in water until all the good juices come out to the point where the meat is inedible. Then you use that to make soup. Stock on the other hand is made using the left over bits after you've eaten the meat. The bones and little bits of meat stuck on them. Very resourceful and it produces a good tasting soup. Why in the name of luck would anyone ever make broth unless he's a rich man showing off how much food he can waste?

This came up for me watching a program called America's Test Kitchen one day. Normally I love their recipies because often they are well designed in terms of time and how much one has to spend upon them. But this broth where they cooked the dark meat until it gave up its jucies then discared. The used a whole chicken to make the soup but the only meat in it was the chicken breast. Arrrrggggg!

Comments

[gomeza.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know you could buy pre-made broth until well into adulthood. Everyone I grew up with made soup by sticking dead animal carcasses in water and cooking it for a day or so.

And wasting meat to make broth is just mind-boggling.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I knew from early on that you could buy stock in a can, but mostly soup was something that was an extra treat after making a turkey. Use those turkey bones! One of my favorite left over things.

I've never bought pre-made beef stock though. I always start with the bones to make soup. But then I'm crazy.

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

I can get 10lb of beef or chicken bones for under 2 bucks. Why do a broth? Time and flavor I guess. Roast yer own bones then make stock, waste nothing in the kitchen.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I figure. Roast then put the bones in something like a crock-pot to slow cook and not have to watch it closely. I suppose that was the main reason for the broth on America's Test Kitchen, speed. Still they talked about freezing broth in muffin tins to use it later. If you're going to use it later make stock!

Total Aside

[kosmickitten.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read James and the Giant Peach? I think of it every time I see that pic. And I get hungry.

Re: Total Aside

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yes I read it years and years ago. The peach is my favorite fruit so that's why it is the one icon not featuring me. Plus the association with food thing.

[alias-lilacgirl.livejournal.com]

But this broth where they cooked the dark meat until it gave up its jucies then discared. The used a whole chicken to make the soup but the only meat in it was the chicken breast.

Y'know, I never realized that. But then again, my stuff comes out of a can. :)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

The stuff in the can is probably stock even though it says broth. They're used as synonyms even though they're not.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I think of stock as being made from bones that have been roasted, which produces a different flavor. Being on a low-fat Diet (sometimes trying to follow it carefully) and cooking for one, without a large freezer for long-term storage of bones, I must confess to rather often making broth. A cheap & tough chuck or 7-bone roast will usually contain a portion of non-marbled muscle that I can grind for low-fat hamburger (which, if purchased as ground meat, would cost as much as the whole roast does). The remander (c. 2/3) gets simmered overnight with onions and a few herbs (and maybe a couple of pounds of bones, rather blurring the distinction) for broth to be used in soup or for cooking various Japanese & Chinese noodles. Similarly, I buy whole chickens, use the fat-free breasts, and make broth (which is usually free, considering the price differentials) from the remainder. The residual flavor-extracted meat (bones carefully removed, in the case of the chicken) seems to please the neighbor's dogs, so it's not really wasted.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Even if I was on a low fat diet (which I'm not I must admit) I would think most of the marrow fat from the bones would be eliminated by the usual skimming method. And even if that isn't the case marrow fat is different than meat fat (no really). It is lower in cholesterol among other things.

Have some olive oil and don't worry about it.