Stock/Broth problems

In culinary school we made stock every day, both chicken and veal. Besides being the base of every sauce known to the french, it was a way to use everything. It also kept costs down significantly. There were bins in the walk-in for left over carrot bits, leftover onion bits, and bones from breaking anything down. Very little food scraps went into the trash. With chicken, the chef would save all the livers and hearts and make something special. If you made any white fish dish, you made stock from the heads and bones. The secret to that was to be the person who got the cheeks off of the fish, especially if it was something delicious like striped bass. A tender little oyster, flavored by the parsley stems, leeks, carrots, maybe fennel trimmings also in the pot. It was all so unctuous. I love the mouth-feel of a good stock. The smooth gelatin texture adds so much body to any dish.

I have taken part of this with me. There is a ziplock in the freezer, slowly filling up with carrot peelings, onion skins and trimmings, and parsley stems. I'm pretty sure there are some zucchini stems in there as well. When it is full, or more likely when I need it, I'll make a veggie stock, adding whatever to balance out it's ingredient ratios. I love it because it takes less than an hour and the most work is straining it after it cooks. I also like mine more than anything at the store. First of all it doesn't have any salt in it. Have you ever tried to reduce a store bought stock/broth? Even the low sodium ones are problematic. I like to control my own salinity, thank you. Also, so many of them have tomato, which I rarely want. It is great for any soup base or adding moisture without dairy.

The only problem is thickening. There is nothing better than a stock thickened with a good simmer. The natural gelatin makes it so rich and thick. And yes, fish stock does this as well. This never happens with veggie stock. I end up adding flour, which makes it a gravy, or cornstarch, which makes me think of chinese food. At least with flour I can use butter, and the fat adds to the mouth feel. I'm grateful she's not vegan.

FYI: Stock is made with bones. Broth is made with meat. When it is veggie, who knows. I tend to think of broth as being the liquid of a soup and stock being an ingredient, but I know I'm wrong.