Stocks: chicken, beef, fish & vegetable
Bones, a few vegetables and cold water, kept at a bare simmer for hours. It costs almost nothing and makes every soup, risotto and sauce taste better.
Why it works
A good stock does two jobs. It carries flavour, extracted from meat, bones, vegetables and herbs, and it carries body. The body comes from gelatin. Bones, joints, skin, wings and feet are full of collagen, a tough connective protein. Held in hot water for long enough, collagen slowly unwinds and dissolves as gelatin. That is what makes a sauce glossy and clingy, gives soup a rich feel in the mouth, and makes a cold stock set to a jelly. Meaty but bony parts give the most of both: chicken wings, backs and feet; veal knuckles; beef shin and oxtail.
Gentleness is the whole technique. You start the bones in cold water and heat them slowly. As the water warms, soluble proteins leak out and set into large, loose clumps that float up as grey foam, easy to skim off. Hold the pot at a bare simmer, a bubble or two breaking the surface every second, and the liquid stays still enough for fat and debris to rise and separate. Boil it hard and the churning breaks fat into tiny droplets and smashes protein into fine particles. Both stay suspended, and you get a stock that is cloudy, greasy and tastes muddy.
White stock uses raw bones and gives a pale, clean, delicate result, the base for risotto, velouté and chicken soup. Brown stock starts with bones and vegetables roasted hard at 200–220 °C until deep brown, plus a little tomato paste caramelised on top. The Maillard browning brings roasted, savoury depth and colour, which you want for gravies, red wine sauces and French onion soup.
Stock is never salted. You will often reduce it by half, or down to a syrupy glace, and any salt concentrates with it. Season the dish you make with it instead. Shop-bought stock is usually salted, which is one reason it cannot be reduced into a good sauce.
What you need
- Tall stockpot: A tall, narrow pot of 8–10 litres loses less liquid to evaporation than a wide one and makes skimming easier.
- Ladle and skimmer: A flat ladle or a fine mesh skimmer lifts the foam without stirring up the pot.
- Fine sieve and muslin: A fine-mesh sieve catches most debris; lined with damp muslin or a clean tea towel it gives a clear stock.
- Roasting tin: A heavy tin that holds the bones in one layer, for brown stock.
- Shallow containers and ice: Wide, shallow tubs and a sink of iced water cool stock fast enough to keep it safe.
- Pressure cooker: Makes a full-bodied chicken stock in about an hour and a half instead of four.
Step by step
Choose bones for body
Pick parts rich in collagen alongside some meat for flavour: chicken wings, backs, necks and a few feet; beef shin, oxtail, knuckle and marrow bones; veal bones if you can find them. Ask the butcher to cut large bones into 5–8 cm pieces so more surface is exposed. For fish, use the frames and heads of white fish such as sole, turbot, cod or hake, with the gills and any blood removed.
Tip: Keep a bag in the freezer for chicken carcasses, wing tips and trimmings. When it is full, you have a stock.
Roast, if you want brown stock
Spread the bones in a single layer in a roasting tin and roast at 200–220 °C for 40–60 minutes, turning once, until deep brown. Add roughly chopped onion, carrot and celery for the last 20–30 minutes. In the last 10 minutes smear a tablespoon or two of tomato paste over the bones so it darkens. Pour off the fat, then deglaze the tin with a little water and scrape every brown bit into the pot.
Tip: Brown is the goal, black is not. Burnt bones or tomato paste make the whole stock bitter.
Cover with cold water
Put the bones in the pot and add cold water to cover them by 3–5 cm, roughly 2–2.5 litres for every kilo of bones. More water makes a thinner stock that may not set; less leaves bones poking out. Heat slowly over a medium-low flame so the proteins have time to clump together.
Tip: For a very clear white stock, some cooks blanch the bones first: bring them to the boil in water, drain, rinse, and start again with fresh cold water.
Skim, then hold at a bare simmer
As the water nears a simmer, grey foam gathers on top. Lift it off with a ladle every few minutes until it stops coming. Then turn the heat down until the surface only trembles, with a lazy bubble here and there, around 85–95 °C. Never let it boil hard, and do not stir.
Tip: Set the pot slightly off-centre on the burner. The liquid rolls gently up one side and pushes fat and foam to the other, where they are easy to collect.
Add vegetables and aromatics
Once the skimming is done, add a mirepoix of onion, carrot and celery in large chunks, about a fifth of the weight of the bones. Leek and a few mushrooms are good too. Then add parsley stalks, a few sprigs of thyme, one or two bay leaves and a teaspoon of black peppercorns. No salt.
Tip: Leave the onion skins on for a deeper golden colour. In a long beef stock, many cooks add the peppercorns in the last hour, since hours of simmering can make them taste harsh.
Give it the right time
Chicken needs 3–4 hours, beef and veal 6–8 hours, vegetable stock 45–60 minutes, and fish only 20–30 minutes. Top up with a little hot water if the bones start to surface. Taste near the end: it should taste clearly of what you made it from, with a round, slightly sticky finish.
Tip: Longer is not always better. Fish stock past 30 minutes turns chalky and bitter, and vegetables in any stock eventually taste stewed.
Strain gently
Ladle the stock out, or lift the bones out with tongs first, then pour the rest through a fine sieve lined with damp muslin. Let it drip through on its own. Pressing the solids pushes cloudy sediment and fat into the stock.
Cool fast, then defat
Stand the pot or bowl of strained stock in a sink of iced water and stir now and then, or divide it between shallow containers. Once it is below about 20 °C, cover and refrigerate. Overnight the fat sets in a solid cap you can lift off in one piece, and the stock underneath should be a wobbly jelly.
Tip: Keep the chicken fat. It is excellent for roasting potatoes.
Stocks at a glance
| Stock | Main ingredients | Water | Simmer | Yield | Best for |
|---|
| White chicken | 1.5 kg wings, backs and carcasses, a few feet; 300 g mirepoix | 3.5 litres | 3–4 h | About 2.5 litres | Risotto, soups, velouté, braising chicken |
| Brown chicken | 1.5 kg roasted wings and backs; 300 g roasted mirepoix; 1 tbsp tomato paste | 3.5 litres | 3–4 h | About 2.5 litres | Gravy, pan sauces, roast chicken jus |
| Brown beef or veal | 2 kg roasted shin, knuckle, oxtail and marrow bones; 400 g roasted mirepoix; 2 tbsp tomato paste | 4.5 litres | 6–8 h | About 2.5–3 litres | Red wine sauce, onion soup, braises, demi-glace |
| Fish (fumet) | 1 kg white fish frames and heads, gills removed; 1 onion, 1 leek, fennel; 200 ml dry white wine | 2 litres | 20–30 min | About 1.75 litres | Fish soups, risotto, beurre blanc, mussels |
| Vegetable | 2 onions, 2 carrots, 3 celery sticks, 1 leek, 150 g mushrooms, 1 tomato | 2.5 litres | 45–60 min | About 2 litres | Vegetarian risotto and soups, grains, light sauces |
| Brodo | 800 g beef shin or brisket, half a boiling hen or capon, a few beef bones; onion, carrot, celery | 4 litres | 3 h | About 3 litres | Tortellini or cappelletti in brodo, risotto, pastina |
Storing stock
| Where and how | Keeps for | Notes |
|---|
| Fridge, covered | 3–4 days | Fish and vegetable stock are best within 2–3 days. Bring to a full boil before using. |
| Freezer, in tubs or bags | 3–6 months | Leave 2 cm of headroom for expansion. Freeze bags flat, then stand them up like files. |
| Freezer, ice-cube portions | 3–6 months | A standard cube holds about 30 ml, enough to loosen a pan sauce. Bag the cubes once frozen. |
| Freezer, as glace | 6 months | Reduced to a tenth of its volume. One cube plus water makes a cup of stock. |
Troubleshooting
My stock is cloudy
It boiled, it was stirred, or the solids were pressed while straining, so fat and fine protein stayed suspended. Starchy potatoes cloud it too. Cloudiness does not hurt the flavour much, and it is fine for soup or a braise. For a clear result, strain it again through damp muslin, or clarify it with an egg-white raft as for consommé.
It didn't set to a jelly in the fridge
Too much water for the bones, or too few collagen-rich parts. Simmer it uncovered until it has reduced by a third or more, then test a spoonful on a cold plate in the fridge. Next time add wings, feet or a split pig's trotter and use less water.
It tastes thin and bland
Remember it is unsalted: stir a pinch of salt into a small cupful and taste again before judging. If it is still weak, there was too much water or not enough meat, so reduce it to concentrate. Including some meat on the bones, such as wings or shin, gives far more flavour than bare bones alone.
It's bitter or tastes odd
Fish stock cooked past 30 minutes, or made with gills left in, turns bitter. In brown stock, burnt bones or scorched tomato paste are the usual cause. Brassicas such as cabbage and broccoli make stock sulphurous, beetroot turns it pink, and too much green pepper, rosemary or star anise takes over. Most of these cannot be fixed, so start again.
It's greasy
It boiled and the fat emulsified into the liquid, or it was not defatted. Chill it and lift off the fat cap. If you need it straight away, tilt the pan and spoon fat from the edge, or drag a sheet of kitchen paper across the surface. Fat that has been boiled in will not fully separate, so keep the heat low next time.
The bones are sticking out of the water
Too much evaporation, usually from too much heat or a wide pan. Top up with hot water to just cover them. Exposed bones do not give up their flavour or gelatin.
Cool it quickly, reheat it hot
Warm stock is rich in protein and moisture, ideal for bacteria, and a big pot holds heat for many hours. Get it from simmering to fridge-cold within about 2 hours.
- Never leave a large pot to cool on the hob or worktop overnight. The centre stays warm for hours, and some bacteria form spores and toxins that later reboiling will not destroy.
- Cool in an ice bath or shallow containers, then refrigerate once it stops steaming.
- Bring stored stock to a full rolling boil before using it, even when it goes into a dish that will cook further.
- Do not rely on the fat cap to preserve stock. Keep it covered in the fridge and use it within 3–4 days, or freeze it.
