Stocks and Soups

Making stock is new to me. I don’t do too much cooking at home. After making the stock and researching recipes that used chicken stock as the base I realized how important stock can be for cooking. I learned how nourishing elements was a key to the flavor of the liquid. So was the mirepoix and the boquet garni. I enjoyed learning and making the stock along with making the soup. I learned how the nourishing elements helped flavor it by simmering it for a while the straining everything out at the end with a chinois. My group and I had fun chopping all of the vegetables for the stock also for the soup we made with the stock. It smelled so good especially with so many people making stocks at once. Butchering the chicken was fun since I was the only one in my group that would even touch it. It was much easier than I thought. I learned the difference between stock and broth as well. They always seemed to me to be the same thought I learned that a stock is more of a watery based liquid and the solids are strained out. A broth is less watery and not all of the solids including meat and vegetables are strained out. -Tommy E