My review on the soups and stocks unit

When we started the stocks and soups unit, we made a chicken stock using the carcass of a chicken, and various vegetables. We also used a bouquet garni that was created by wrapping bay, thyme, and parsley in a cheese clothe. We put it into the stock to flavor it. I learned that certain parts of the chicken are used to go into the stock as flavoring, and which parts are used as the nutritional element in the soup. The second soup that we created was a recipe of our choice. We came up with the recipe, and wrote down the necessary ingredients. Then when we had reached our misonplas by gathering all the materials, we began the recipe. The roux that the recipe called for was a strange consistency, it was thicker and there was way more than we needed for the gumbo recipe we chose. So we only used a small portion of it. When we had finished the recipe, we figured out that we had added too much chicken, so it over powered the soup. If I had to give it a rating out of 10 stars, I would give it 8.5 stars. It was a good soup, it just took some altering to the recipe to create the desired taste and texture. Next, we had the challenge of creating a chicken- stock based soup, just using our knowledge of cooking. We added many different kinds of ingredients that are not typically found together in a dish. For example, sautéed onions, sautéed apples, celery, carrots, thyme, and potatoes. The soup turned out to be pretty good in the end. We did a lot of experimenting with flavors and we learned from other groups that the poultry should be added to the soup after the cooked vegetable and various ingredients are puréed. Throughout this unit, I learned that sometimes, going on your senses alone can turn out well. The uncommon ingredients that we combined turned into a very good soup. Being creative can actually work in your favor sometimes. - Mary-Kate M.