On The Splendid Table (a public radio program that I listen to on podcast), their guest, Michael Ruhlman, suggests an unusual way of making chicken stock. He recommends putting the aromatic vegetables in only at the last hour. He says that by putting them in at the start, they overcook and fragment, clouding up the stock. But, more importantly, after all that time, they’ll soak up too much of the precious liquid. Makes sense to me. I’ll have to try it next time.
Here’s a link to The Splendid Table’s website where they have his recipe for veal stock — a magical elixir that he claims will allow an ordinary cook to be an extraordinary one.
The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman.
I’m a pretty faithful reader of ruhlman.com (though I don’t post). When his book came out, there was a good bit of debate over his opinion that it was far better to use ordinary water than commercial chicken stock. The idea with that is that water adds no flavor, whereas commercial stock adds bad flavor.
I’ve made stock his way (in the oven, adding the herbs/vegs at the end), and it has a lot going for it. Both my beef stock and my chicken stock were pretty good. The bottom line, though, is that real stock, whether it’s made in the oven or the stovetop is so much better than anything that you can buy. That’s the one thing that I’ve really focused on in the past year, and it has improved my cooking quite a bit.