The rainy weekend inspired me to finally collect all the bags of vegetable and bone bits that have been cluttering up the freezer and catch up on stock-making. I do need to make some primary stocks as well, both chicken and veal, but this weekend was devoted to secondary stock, that which is made from the various trimmings and extra bits that accumulate in the normal course of preparing dinner.
There were 7 gallon Zip Lock bags all together although one contained chicken carcasses only so it was put aside for next week to join in the chicken stock festival. There was a bag of grouse bones as well. The grouse bones and a bag containing onions, fennel, and some oyster mushroom stems became a wonderful grouse stock, really quite nice and delicate, something I will have to remember, although grouse are not, quite frankly, a normal occupant of my larder. The carcasses of four grouse and one gallon bag of vegetable trimmings became about six cups of very flavorful delicately perfumed stock.
The other bags all contained miscellaneous trimmings: onion peels and trimmings, garlic peels, carrots ends and peels, mushroom stems etc along with a generous helping of chicken bones and maybe a couple of pork chop bones as well. I am not a chef. I do not segregate my trimmings into separate bags as I would never use them up. They still make wonderful stock although sometimes surprises do occur – mostly pleasant.
The yield from 4 gallon-sized bags was a little over 5 quarts of stock. Not a bad output for an otherwise miserable weekend, especially considering that it was not all that much work, aside from a little time straining and later defatting the stock. One quart is already destined to become the base for tomorrow night’s soup.