A Whole New Kind of Stock

The word "stock" takes on a whole new definition to me these days. In the past, when I heard "stock", I was immediately thinking "how has the stock price of GS changed today?", "where did the dow close?", "shall I dare look at my 401(k)?". Today, the word takes on a whole new meaning to me....and this time it it usually in French.

Friday's class was a lot of fun. We learned about the basic brown and white stocks and then in teams of 2 we made chicken stock (fond de volaille), vegetable stock (bouillon de legumes), and fish stock (fumet de poisson). As a class, we also made a marmite, which is a white beef broth with blackened onions (the blackened onions give the broth a warm amber color).

First we made the chicken stock. We started with the chicken bones in a stockpot covered in cold water, which is brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer. Once you bring the water and bones to a boil, the fat will rise to the top and you need to skim this off. Then you add the vegetables, known as a "mirepoix" (carrots, onions and celery), along with a bouquet garni (thyme sprigs, bay leaves, parsley stems and peppercorns tied in cheese cloth), and cloves of crushed garlic. This all simmers on the stove for 2 hours (skimming off any fat that rises) and then strained so you are left with just the broth. These aromatic elements, as they are called, are present in all the stocks, with the addition of leeks for the beef, fish and vegetable stocks.

The fun part of the evening was definitely the fish stock. In making the fish stock, you should use a white fish, and one that is not oily (sea bass would be an example of an oily fish). For our stock we used halibut.....and what a big halibut it was! The fish that arrived to the classroom was basically the carcass. It was filleted ahead of time and the rest of the carcass (minus the head) was given to us. My partner and I had the "pleasure" of basically chopping this into usable sized pieces. This pretty much left us hacking away at the spine of the fish with our chef knives. Fun times. I actually have to admit that this was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach, but when you are "ordered" to do this and right away, you basically just don't think about anything but breaking it apart.

I have some pictures below of the stocks my partner and I made.

Chicken Stock:



Fish bones broken up:




Sweating of vegetables and fish bones:



Fish stock simmering (bouquet garni on top):



Towards the end of class, we continued to practice our knife skills and all the different cuts of vegetables. I think the practicing at home is paying off, and I am getting much more accurate with cutting 1mm perfect cubes. I still lack in the speed department, but at this stage it's not speed we are graded on, but accuracy.

P.S. As for family dinners - Friday's dinner was pork marinated in a Dijon sauce, some kind of sausage w/ sauerkraut, veggies and a salad (all of this is entirely made from scratch by the students). This was better than the meatloaf on Wednesday (um, is that French???). I did take a bite of the sausage and had a piece of bone in mine. If this was Top Chef, I'm sure Padma would have said, "please pack your knives and go". However, I hesitate to be critical, as eventually I will be there making my own sausage and I'm sure it will happen to me!

I have a few more pics from school and will upload them to my photo album soon.