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Chef Zambini
12-17-2011, 11:28 AM
stock is derived from bones and shells, along with vegetables.
if you already have the remnants of the roasted turkey, then the rest is easy.
get out you biggest pot, ideally it will fit INSIDE your oven, if not, no worries.
vegetables:
carrots celery, onions
these belong in EVERY stock.
for turkey stock, you can add apple cores or pears and oranges.
chop up enough vegetables to fill your pot along with the roasted bones from your turkey.
an even quantity of carrots-onoin-celery will work best, you can alter to suit your tastes or the availability of produce.
ONIONS: I use sweet onions, vidalia/ texas/ or maui, whatever is available.
KEEP the skins, they bring color to the stock, for that reason I select onoins with nice brown skins.
Carrots: peel first but KEEP the peelings to add to the stock
CELERY; discard all tyhe LEAFY parts of the celery, these are BITTER and will make your stock bitter.
trim away the dark, dirty portion of the bottom of your celery stock, but TRY to KEEP as much of the base as possible, this part imparts great earthy flavor

a simple ruff cut of the veggies is best, not too small, and yet not so big, your objective is to maximize the surface area of your vegetables, something slightly larger than what you would make for a stir-fry.
technique:
once you have all your vegetables cut toss them together with a light cooking oil and sprerad out over a roasting pan.
roast in a hot oven, 425-450 degrees for around ten minutes.
stir occasionally and avoid burning.
after the first ten minutes, if you like GARLIC, you can add frersh SMASHED
garlic to the veggies and continue roasting for another 5 minutes. ( adding garlic at the biggining will yied burnt garlic)
after the roasting add some liquid to the pan, just enough to float the veggies, distilled water is best, but some wine or beer can also be included.
a few more minutes with the floating vegies and your NOSE will tell you you are on the right track.
BONES (turkey) also have to be roasted before added to the stock.
if you saved the ones from your T-day turkey, aLREAdy done.
otherwise roast your raw bones in the same pan on top of the floating veggies, for another 5-10 minutes.
IN TO THE POT:
place all roasted veggies and bones into that big pot and COVER with water
I ONLY USE distilled water, but I live in AZ where the tap water sucks,
my point is the quality of your water is important.
bring it all to a boil on the top of your range
stir occasionally to avoid scorching veggies that linger on the bottom.
once you have aCHEVED A VIGOROUS BOIL, reduice the heat and SIMMER for 4-6 HOURS.

a simmer is a soft boil where the bubbles just break the surface of the liquid small activity at the top of your pot.
if your pot fits INSIDE your oven place it there, uncovered for the 4-6 hours with a setting around 250-275 degrees.
aFTER the alloted time STRAIN your broth from ther veggies and bones and bring to another boil on top of the stove.
taste your stock.
TOO WEAK, CONTINE TO BOIL INTIL THE LIQUID REDUCES
TASTE AGAIN. AT THIS POINT YOU CAN ADD FLAVORINGS TO YOUR STOCK, APPLE SLICES, PEARS, ORNGE SLICES, EVEN SOME LIGHT HERPS LIKE SAGE OR PARSLEY OR TARRAGON, BUT GO EASY ON THE HERBS
if you chose to add these flavorings continue to simmer your stock for another 20 minutes.
remove stock from stove top, strain out any flavoring agents and place your liquid in a container to go into the FREEZER overnight.
ion the morning your stock will have seperated all the FAT on top, which you can use decidantly to cook with and your clear, flavorful stock remains underneath.
Hope this helps, please let me know if you have questions about other STOCKS like shrimp or fish stocks.
happy holidays everyone.