A good homemade stock is a hallmark of a resourceful, frugal, whole-foods kitchen operation. It allows you to get full value out of your chickens, veggies, and other scraps as well as saving money on stock, broth, or bouillon you would have to purchase. In addition, the ingredients lists on most of those products is less than ideal.
I endeavored, therefore, to make a lovely chicken stock. I saved my scraps.
I've been keeping a bag in the freezer and stashing scraps - onion ends and peels*, celery leaves, carrot tops, apple cores, everything.
I put all of those goodies in my giant stockpot with bones from a baked chicken and some bay leaves. All is well so far, right?
And I cooked it.
And cooked it.
And cooked it.
I cooked it for hours, and it had no flavor. I cooked it for two days, and it had no flavor.
Then, finally, eventually, on about the third day, it had a flavor - the flavor of utter disgustingness. The flavor of burnt something. The flavor of "this is going in the trash."
The flavor of failure.
Total time: 3 days
Estimated cost: free - I just used scraps
Estimated cost: free - I just used scraps
Serves: no one with tastebuds
Tastiness factor: 0
Easiness factor: 5
Easiness factor: 5
*According to James Duke, most of the beneficial quercetin in the onion is in the peels. He suggests cooking the peels with the onions and straining them out later.
