The Foundation of Good Cooking - Good Stock,That Cooking Thing 🍳

Have you ever made a soup or sauce and thought, “Something’s missing”?

Sometimes that something is stock.

In this episode of That Cooking Thing, Chef Jonathan Frazier talks about one of the basic building blocks of cooking: making a good stock.

Stock isn’t complicated, and you don’t need a fancy kitchen or a long list of ingredients to make it. Jonathan walks through the basics, from bones and vegetables to aromatics and seasoning, and explains what each one is actually doing.

We’ll also talk about the difference between stock and broth, why you want to simmer instead of boil, why you skim your stock, and how to know when it’s ready.

And one of the biggest things with stock is learning not to waste food. Those chicken bones, vegetable trimmings and bits and pieces left over from cooking can have another job to do.

You just have to know what to do with them.

In this episode:

What stock actually is
Stock vs. broth
Why we use bones
The role of vegetables and aromatics
Why you simmer instead of boil
What skimming does
How long to cook your stock
When to strain it
How to cool and store it safely
Using kitchen scraps to make stock
How stock is used in soups, sauces and other dishes

Chef’s Shortcut:

Don’t throw away something just because you’re finished with it.

Bones and vegetable trimmings can still have plenty of flavour left in them.

🎧 Listen to this episode of That Cooking Thing and let’s make some good stock.