Stock vs. Broth Many people brought up the difference between "stock" and "broth". According to some English language sources, "stock" is made with bones, and "broth" is made with bones and meat. I really don't care what you call it as long as you know how to get the results you want. In French, it's just called "fond". In Russian, we don't have two words for it either. Lately people have been calling the bone stuff "bone broth." If you read the chapter on stocks in Judy Rodger's Zuni Cafe cookbook, you'll get a story of how she only used bones until a french colleague asked why doesn't she add some meat too -- won't it be tastier? The recipe for chicken stock in Zuni Cafe book uses every part of chicken except for breasts. Knowing cooking terminology and knowing how to make delicious food are not the same thing. Worry less about what to call it and worry more about how to make it tasty. Raw chicken carcass vs a carcass leftover from a roasted chicken If you cut up your own chickens, you can roast the carcasses, plus a few wing tips and end up with quite good stock because raw chicken will inevitably have some meat still left on it. A roasted chicken from which you ate all the meat doesn't. Unfortunately, finding raw chicken carcasses isn't easy. You can only get them if you cut up your own chickens. This is a pain in the ass for most home cooks for a few reasons. It's silly to make stock with one carcass. You need about 4 to fill an 8 quart pot. This leaves you with an awful lot of chicken to use up all at once. You can certainly do it one chicken at a time and freeze the carcasses. But even I find it a pain. If I want to serve my family breasts, I need 3. 1 chicken is too little and 2 are too much. If I want to serve legs, I'd rather buy 8 thighs than cut up 2 chickens to end up with 4 legs. Everyone loves to talk about cutting up their own chickens. But in reality very few people do it, and I completely understand why. I have tried every single stock procedure known to man, and starting with a store bought rotisserie chicken is the fastest way to end up with restaurant quality jus de poulet with the least amount of effort. You can call it whatever you want: "broth", "stock", "jus", "chicken juice". How do you make demi-glace? Demi-glace is stock reduced 4 times. I give a procedure for it in all my chicken stock videos.
Demi deserves a full video of it's own. If not it's own series of videos. Not just how to make it, but also how to use it, and derived sauces like Chateaubriand, Espagnole...
I don't think it's silly to make stock with only 1 carcass. Even if you only boil it for 2 hours without roasting the carcass first you get enough stock that you don't have to use a cube. I even buy chicken legs sometimes and debone them because often chicken legs are cheaper than buying a whole chicken - I guess because a lot of people like chicken breasts. Give me deboned legs any day, so much more flavor.
Check with your local butcher shop, quite often they will sell chicken carcasses. Also, nice video, it filled in some gaps for me, especially the part about making a sandwich, I will stop asking how many grams of bread to use.
I'm smacking myself on the side of the head right now! My freezer has quite a few quart size containers of stock. It never dawned on me to reduce, reduce, reduce my stock so that I could use the smaller containers like you recommended! Thank you for your wonderful tips!
Same here! I've been dreading making more stock because I'm out of freezer storage room, but I cannot make myself waste the ingredients. This was a big, old light bulb above my head moment for me. I learned a lot from this video.
You can also freeze them flat in a gallon bag so they don't take up much space. Of you have a big freezer you can stand them up like books. And break off frozen pieces, to use, if you want.
So, I don't know why this channel has never been in my suggestions until now, but I'm so happy it finally popped up. Always a treat to stumble across a binge-worthy vlog. Appreciate you sharing your insight and your very comfortable presentation.
I agree with Lisa. My (female) partner and I have a spare room for Helen, and I would love to delve into culinary deliciouness in the French language. "Wrong" onions, by the way??! Will there soon be "wrong" garlic? Hope not. God bless!
My boss was an old deli owner and he kinda taught me how to cook. We made our own chicken salad. We saved every (most) vegetable piece that we used during the week. Pieces of carrots and celery mostly. We then would boil two chickens in a pot with all the veggies. When done (this part is a little dangerous) we would pour the stock through a strainer into another pot then put the contents in plastic containers and refrigerate. The fat would rise and could be scooped right off. You also pull the chicken apart and place it in containers to chill to make chicken salad the next day. Our deli was popular because the food was fairly “homemade”. Anyway we wasted nothing!
@@sharroon7574 oh no the chicken tasted amazing. If my memory serves we cooked three to five a week in a 40 qt pot and that made enough chicken salad for a week. And enough stock for at least three soups. One of my regrets is I copied my boss’s soup recipes and lost them in a move. His butternut squash and tortilla soups would sell out.
@@sharroon7574 My guess is since they were boiling it and not making a stock it was for a short period of time and the flavor wasn't completely extracted from the meat.
My dear great grandmother was a kitchen maid in NYC in 1908 and she learned many tricks she taught my grandmother and mother later on. One thing she taught me was how to make stock from a broiled chicken, duck or goose (we didn't use turkey in the 1970's in Germany) just using the bones. And that you always use everything from the bird - neck, tail and the insides - don't throw the fatty parts away, because you always need it. We always had duck and goose grease at home to use for cooking.
Thank you for being very clear about the role of fat in flavourful cooking. I hear a lot of people say "fat is flavour" when they should be saying "fat carries flavour" ... notably the fat-soluble molecules found in the aromatics we use in cooking. Of course, fat also has a role in texture and mouthfeel/roundness but that is entirely separate as well.
This is my favorite video, here - I've made chicken stock regularly since getting my Instant Pot, & been pleased with the result but I've always started with raw chicken. After watching this video, I roasted the chicken (and vegetables) first, then put in IP to cook down - wow, what a game changer. The flavor is incredible, and MUCH better than a blonde stock. Thank you Helen!
I also use roasted chicken, but I take the lazy way out. I use pre-cooked chicken to save myself the time and effort of cooking it myself. Unfortunately (for my wallet) I've tried the local supermarkets whole roasted chickens and been disappointed with the flavor, but I've found that Boston Market's chickens make an excellent tasting stock. That just makes it an expensive stock (around $10USD for a whole, rotisserie cooked bird from Boston Market). I boil it down and freeze it in 1oz cubes.
There is no such thing as wasted chicken in my kitchen. Now I’m only cooking for one, so I use two legs or thighs , four or more wings with my older onion ,celery, carrots from my fridge bin in a pressure cooker. I remove the skin, bones, and my favorite cartilage from the bone ends. Use the meat in different recipes, stock ( as I call it) for soup and throw the mushy veggies away . HA, see no chicken wasted, only wilted veggies. Now, the skin and bone ends are my self indulgent treats. That may sound totally weird to most folks, but I’ve always been a little off.Lol! Helen, I’m addicted to your darling accent and humorous and utterly delicious recipes and helping points.🥰🥰❗️
If you guys refuse to waste meat of the chicken: simmer everything for an hour, take out chicken, let cool down just a bit, take all the meat off the bones - return bones to pot. Shredded chicken meat can be returned to soup later to add some texture.
@@charlieandhudsonspal1312 As far as I know its fine. Especially for cats. They primarily need protein, which wont be cooked out. Its always good to ask your vet though.
Helen, I so appreciate your information-packed videos. Your warm and friendly style of presenting makes me feel right at home, and I always come away feeling more confident in the kitchen. Thank you! 💕
5:10 while the importance of fat is explained well, it's important to note that chicken skin is only about 5 to 10 percent fat. Most of its value comes from the collagen (and thus gelatin), which makes up about 35 percent of the skin's volume.
may I ask where you got this info? I could believe that for some parts of the skin that seem thinner, but when you get a really thick piece of skin from around the thigh area it seems to be mostly fat, when you slowly render it in a pan the resulting crispy skin seems to weigh a small fraction of original weight, whereas there seems to be a heavy amount of fat in the pan
So literally collagen makes up 35 percent of the skin volume which is responsible for the fat. Does that not imply that the skin is high in fat regardless of the 5% you mentioned earlier? Just curious
The flour analogy is a good one. I have always thought of backing as a science and cooking as an art. I prefer cooking because I don't like to be bothered measuring every ingredient.
Great video, love finally hearing the reasoning behind certain ideas that are simply "known" but never explained. I save all my old bones and extra chicken skin in the freezer to use for stock, whether I'm also using fresh chicken or not, it still adds to the flavour and there's no sense wasting them Roasting the bones will give them a better flavour for the stock. After freezing, or straight after pulling the cooked meat, place bones and skin on a lightly oiled pan, cover with foil and roast or broil on low. Check on them in a bit, and mix em around with a spatula and put them back in till browned (time depends on initial temp and amount of bones so just watch and wait) you want the gristle to be golden and the skin to be brown and crispy. Then, just like in this video, when it's roasted and ready to add to the pot, make sure to get all the tasty bits from the pan as well The roasting draws out flavour from the gristle, skin, and leftover meat bits, and makes the bones more brittle and easier for the marrow to come through. Cracking the bones also helps give it a richer flavour and more iron and nutrients from the marrow, which is easier to do after roasting
This is so good. Thank you! I love how detailed your explanations are, especially when you talk about how recipes are typically given in a certain manner/format and WHY they are given like that. Knowing why stuff in the culinary world works the way it does is the most mysterious and confusing aspect of cooking for me. Thanks again!
I don't know how I missed this video 3 years ago, but thank you for making it! The idea of the lack of precision for making a sandwich and how you play with stock was the perfect concept to connect with me.
I can't thank you enough for this video! I decided to get more serious about home cooking and to start with chicken and into stock, it seemed like the most useful and practical place to start but everyone tells you their own way. And I was desperately looking for useful information about the WHOLE process of stock from the chicken to the different applications of using the stock. This is SO HELPFUL. Thank you thank you!
This was fun - thank you. I keep my bits in my freezer and throw everything in a pot and boil when I can't get into my freezer any longer ... smells so good and tastes pretty good, too.
I've found two ways to increase the flavor of stock made from the bones: 1) break the bones open with a pair of pliers so that the water has access to the marrow & 2) put the bones in a very hot oven for 10 minutes to produce browning via the Maillard reaction.
I thought you’re supposed to add some vinegar to the water to help soften the bones so they break open easier. I haven’t made chicken stock for a few years but I added a few tablespoons of vinegar the last time I made chicken stock.
This is the best discussion of stock I have ever heard. Thank you so much for readjusting my perspective--and giving me a couple of laughs. It's like you have been spying on me in my kitchen...
I often make my own stock. I recently retrieved all the turkey parts from the holidays and made stock that those. It came out fantastic. These are great tips and I'll be using them from now on. For instance, I never thought of using my pressure cooker to speed up the cooking time. I simmered mine on the stove for 3 hours but I'll have to give this a try next time.
No problem whatsoever with the click bait title when you give so much information, and you're always such a joy to watch! Thank you for your passion, your teaching abilities, and your simplicity!
The onions don’t go with dogs even after cooking. Be careful! I’m sure they like it, tho! Maybe onions could be added after? I wonder! I give my chickens that kind of meat, as onions are safe for them after cooking so long but not dogs.
@@valeriesjeans I don’t give my dogs onions or garlic because I know it is not good for them but thank you for saying anyway (if I didn’t know I’d definitely want to)😜
I just thought I knew how to make chicken stock. Been making frozen stock “pucks” for years. They take space and thaw slow. I’ll be making the reduced versions ASAP…several great tips in this vid. Thanks a zillion.
Thank you for so many good tips. I have been making my own for several years now (I raise meat chickens) and some of these tricks I had learned by trial and error. But you have taught me a lot more. One thing I like to do (I usually make a blond stock from raw backbones, skin and bits) is add the dark outer peel of a yellow onion. Gives the stock a nice color.
Helen you have heard this a million times, you have great videos and your voice, the way your so natural and composed is like listening to ones favorite classical music. Your the kind of teacher I want to wake up in the morning and get to class on time, unlike others I have had in the past. (you know those types of teachers that show up to class 5 minutes late telling the students someone cut them off on a bridge, and in your mind you wonder why they just did not run them off the bridge)
I just found you. I'm a relatively decent home cook (and gardener). Jumping around your videos based on topic. Omigoodness - great stuff, you are filling in so many "gaps" for me. Thank you!
I’ve been making my stock, from bbq 🍗 chicken bones 🦴 for years now. The smoky flavors from which ever type of wood you use, mesquite, charcoal, cedar, ect ect, seem too give the stock a very distinctive type of flavor which seems unique, tasty and savory. 🍵 yummy 😋.
I like your analogy of bread to stock - it's so individual. But so IS flour! I "mess" with flour all the time! I try out substituting oat flour for wheat flour, and almond flour, etc. And I ALWAYS use whole grain flour no matter what the recipe says. As for verbiage, stock is something you cook with and broth is something serve or eat. Happy cooking!
Asian cooking techniques in making stock will often briefly blanch and rinse the bones/parts first to reduce the "gaminess" or to produce a "cleaner" stock, including washing the pot and dumping all the original blanching water. In my experience it makes a difference to include this extra step when making blond stock but not with brown stock, and I think this is more necessary when making beef stock than it is when making chicken stock, but I'm curious to know your thoughts on this. Also since I've been frequenting Asian grocery stores I have been using raw chicken feet sold there to make my stock and I have to say it produces the most gelatin per volume of water, so for me that means less reducing and less time to achieve the same level of gelatin-i-ness, but I admit the flavor is maybe not quite as deep as you could get when including more meaty parts like wings and legs. Chicken feet at my local Asian market are between $1.99/lb and $2.39/lb, which is pretty cheap and worth every penny, IMO. If you can get over the macabre appearance of the feet, I highly recommend their use in making stock.
I defrosted my freezer yesterday and made beef stock. I can't wait to reduce all that stock tonight, this video has a ton of useful information for soup / sauce / gravy lovers.
I use a combination of carcass and browned drumsticks and/or thighs. The meat is NEVER wasted!! I cook the drumsticks/thighs (plus veg and seasoning) for about 45 minutes. When the meat is cooked through and fall off the bone, I remove it from the stock pot, throw the bones, skins and cartilage back to the post and simmer for another hour. The meat is then made into chicken salad, or I've even used it to make a chicken pate!
If you accidentally already ate the chicken meat (Like i tend to do, every time) you could roast the veggies thoroughly before adding them to the pot to get that same caramelisation. Not quite like broth from meat and fresh veggies but much tastier than simple bone broth. Great and informative video Helen!
Yes, the 'click bait' worked instantaneously for me. But valuable information after one click is hardly 'click bait.' I was knee-deep in work when your notification popped up- "Squirrel!" This still prompted me to use the half of rotisserie chicken sitting idle in my fridge. These were very good subtle tips! Thank you.
I like her logic. Really good fundamentals. I like the gelatin trick. Didn't learn that at culinary school, but figured it out after reading On Cooking and learning the chemistry. I'll have to try the pressure cooker way to make stock. At school we only learned the long way to make it. Unless you have a huge pressure cooker at a restaurant, it's not practical to do it that way. It might work in a pinch at home, but I like to make a lot of stock and freeze it so I don't have to make it everyday in a pressure cooker.
A couple of things that I might have added to this great explanation is the use of tomato paste to coat the chicken and veg and then roast it to build umami, and adding bay leaves.
Well said. My mother taught me to cut up the large bones to release the marrow into the stock. She always made sure there was plenty of meat and skin left on the carcass (or added to the pot) for flavor and fat. She also taught me to not add salt until I was using it for cooking, because she used it for many purposes.
Your videos are my favorite. So informative and well put. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I have learned so much from you! Sending you love ❤️
I disagree - the video title isn’t click bait. I see the name Helen Rennie and I click immediately! That’s not bait either, I genuinely love this channel and Helen is a wonderful teacher!
Thank you so much. I am a great believer in common sense and experience and that everything will not always come out well, but that doesnt mena to stop trying
My Grandmother was Russian and for some reason I failed to recognize your accent... not that it matters - Your wonderful content transcends all accents :) I love this stock video. Thank You for this.
I always add leftover corncobs to my chicken stock. It moderates the chickeny flavor. Any leftover butter on them might help too. I put a large handful of red grapes in the pot once as a lark. The stock came out pink but pleasingly tasty.
You seem to hit every single point and question that arises after watching a million "expert" videos that throw theories out there. Your content is unbelievably good, pls keep it up.
Awesome video and helped clear up a lot of questions for me. I tend to favor stock in a box in most situations but I also know that learning how to make stock would be a good skill to develop. I've always been intimidated by the process though, and this video helped ease a lot of my concerns and fears :)
I love your videos. Your style is great. Among the things I respect the most is you give practical advice and also import an understanding of why one should do things a certain way. Thank you so much
ive been freezing containers of unreduced stock (I drink the broth like hot tea / thin soup). I’m gonna go get myself some icecube trays immediately so i can just use a cube and avoid the freezer jenga
Helen, I love your channel and all of the great techniques and information you bring to us. Only in the last four or five years have I tried learning to cook, mainly from channels such as Foodwishes, Adam Ragusea, Joy of Baking and yours for which I have Ragusea to thank in pointing me towards. Its exactly videos like this that less experienced cooks will benefit from the most and provide better results with less frustration in the kitchen. So, Helen, thank you very much for all your help and advice. PS: You have a lovely accent. Where is it from ;-)
Sweet lady with allot of patience, but don't be mistaken, she KNOWS. I am an experience and schooled chef and there were a couple of things I did not know. Like the part about gelatin (think it is made from horse bones). I did not think it made a difference on how long it is cooked.
I always make chicken stock with a whole chicken and use the shredded chicken in curries and other meals. The stock serves as a base for my curries, goulashs and what not.
Thank you for another great video Helen. Not sure if you're going to see my questions (and I apologize in advance if they sounds silly) but here we go: 1 - When you use cicken bones "left overs" do you actually use the bones that people left on their plates after eating? 2 - I only buy frozen whole chickens, can I dethaw it, separate the carcass from the rest and the chicken and freeze the carcass again in order to accumulate enough carcasses for a batch of stock? Obviously my main concern with both questions is food contamination and poisoning.
Stock vs. Broth
Many people brought up the difference between "stock" and "broth". According to some English language sources, "stock" is made with bones, and "broth" is made with bones and meat. I really don't care what you call it as long as you know how to get the results you want. In French, it's just called "fond". In Russian, we don't have two words for it either. Lately people have been calling the bone stuff "bone broth." If you read the chapter on stocks in Judy Rodger's Zuni Cafe cookbook, you'll get a story of how she only used bones until a french colleague asked why doesn't she add some meat too -- won't it be tastier? The recipe for chicken stock in Zuni Cafe book uses every part of chicken except for breasts. Knowing cooking terminology and knowing how to make delicious food are not the same thing. Worry less about what to call it and worry more about how to make it tasty.
Raw chicken carcass vs a carcass leftover from a roasted chicken
If you cut up your own chickens, you can roast the carcasses, plus a few wing tips and end up with quite good stock because raw chicken will inevitably have some meat still left on it. A roasted chicken from which you ate all the meat doesn't. Unfortunately, finding raw chicken carcasses isn't easy. You can only get them if you cut up your own chickens. This is a pain in the ass for most home cooks for a few reasons. It's silly to make stock with one carcass. You need about 4 to fill an 8 quart pot. This leaves you with an awful lot of chicken to use up all at once. You can certainly do it one chicken at a time and freeze the carcasses. But even I find it a pain. If I want to serve my family breasts, I need 3. 1 chicken is too little and 2 are too much. If I want to serve legs, I'd rather buy 8 thighs than cut up 2 chickens to end up with 4 legs. Everyone loves to talk about cutting up their own chickens. But in reality very few people do it, and I completely understand why. I have tried every single stock procedure known to man, and starting with a store bought rotisserie chicken is the fastest way to end up with restaurant quality jus de poulet with the least amount of effort. You can call it whatever you want: "broth", "stock", "jus", "chicken juice".
How do you make demi-glace?
Demi-glace is stock reduced 4 times. I give a procedure for it in all my chicken stock videos.
Demi deserves a full video of it's own. If not it's own series of videos. Not just how to make it, but also how to use it, and derived sauces like Chateaubriand, Espagnole...
I don't think it's silly to make stock with only 1 carcass. Even if you only boil it for 2 hours without roasting the carcass first you get enough stock that you don't have to use a cube. I even buy chicken legs sometimes and debone them because often chicken legs are cheaper than buying a whole chicken - I guess because a lot of people like chicken breasts. Give me deboned legs any day, so much more flavor.
Some Chinese supermarkets have raw chicken carcasses for sale.
Check with your local butcher shop, quite often they will sell chicken carcasses. Also, nice video, it filled in some gaps for me, especially the part about making a sandwich, I will stop asking how many grams of bread to use.
U should realy watch escoffier's version , he was the master of it all.
I'm smacking myself on the side of the head right now! My freezer has quite a few quart size containers of stock. It never dawned on me to reduce, reduce, reduce my stock so that I could use the smaller containers like you recommended! Thank you for your wonderful tips!
Hey, careful of the carbon footprint!
Same here! I've been dreading making more stock because I'm out of freezer storage room, but I cannot make myself waste the ingredients. This was a big, old light bulb above my head moment for me. I learned a lot from this video.
@@jerrytang3146 I do worry about that. Reducing stock can use a lot of gas.
Ofetn I use older stock in freezer to make 2nd "generation" stock with more bones.
You can also freeze them flat in a gallon bag so they don't take up much space. Of you have a big freezer you can stand them up like books. And break off frozen pieces, to use, if you want.
So, I don't know why this channel has never been in my suggestions until now, but I'm so happy it finally popped up. Always a treat to stumble across a binge-worthy vlog. Appreciate you sharing your insight and your very comfortable presentation.
Same here! I'm in love with Helen and her channel.
Joke's on you, Helen. I would have clicked whatever the title.
Same!
Without question! 👍
Truth.
Yep I agree
Fact.
Gamestop and AMC stocks in the news, Helen being cheeky and puts out a video on "stock". Coincidence? I think not.
Time to invest in Helen’s stock.
time to increase my BRoth IRA.
@@dannybrown5889 "I like this stock, that's all."
@@dubiousprime2021 good one!
@@Jotakumon "her"stock
That was a “Master Class” on stock! Wonderful info! Thank you, Helen!
I agree with Lisa. My (female) partner and I have a spare room for Helen, and I would love to delve into culinary deliciouness in the French language. "Wrong" onions, by the way??! Will there soon be "wrong" garlic? Hope not. God bless!
My boss was an old deli owner and he kinda taught me how to cook. We made our own chicken salad. We saved every (most) vegetable piece that we used during the week. Pieces of carrots and celery mostly. We then would boil two chickens in a pot with all the veggies. When done (this part is a little dangerous) we would pour the stock through a strainer into another pot then put the contents in plastic containers and refrigerate. The fat would rise and could be scooped right off. You also pull the chicken apart and place it in containers to chill to make chicken salad the next day. Our deli was popular because the food was fairly “homemade”. Anyway we wasted nothing!
I'm surprised the chicken was edible after making stock with it.
@@sharroon7574 oh no the chicken tasted amazing. If my memory serves we cooked three to five a week in a 40 qt pot and that made enough chicken salad for a week. And enough stock for at least three soups. One of my regrets is I copied my boss’s soup recipes and lost them in a move. His butternut squash and tortilla soups would sell out.
@@sharroon7574 My guess is since they were boiling it and not making a stock it was for a short period of time and the flavor wasn't completely extracted from the meat.
@@anullhandle , and the texture not compromised.
That’s how I was taught Pennsylvania cooking
My dear great grandmother was a kitchen maid in NYC in 1908 and she learned many tricks she taught my grandmother and mother later on. One thing she taught me was how to make stock from a broiled chicken, duck or goose (we didn't use turkey in the 1970's in Germany) just using the bones. And that you always use everything from the bird - neck, tail and the insides - don't throw the fatty parts away, because you always need it. We always had duck and goose grease at home to use for cooking.
Thank you for being very clear about the role of fat in flavourful cooking. I hear a lot of people say "fat is flavour" when they should be saying "fat carries flavour" ... notably the fat-soluble molecules found in the aromatics we use in cooking. Of course, fat also has a role in texture and mouthfeel/roundness but that is entirely separate as well.
This is my favorite video, here - I've made chicken stock regularly since getting my Instant Pot, & been pleased with the result but I've always started with raw chicken. After watching this video, I roasted the chicken (and vegetables) first, then put in IP to cook down - wow, what a game changer. The flavor is incredible, and MUCH better than a blonde stock. Thank you Helen!
I also use roasted chicken, but I take the lazy way out. I use pre-cooked chicken to save myself the time and effort of cooking it myself. Unfortunately (for my wallet) I've tried the local supermarkets whole roasted chickens and been disappointed with the flavor, but I've found that Boston Market's chickens make an excellent tasting stock. That just makes it an expensive stock (around $10USD for a whole, rotisserie cooked bird from Boston Market). I boil it down and freeze it in 1oz cubes.
There is no such thing as wasted chicken in my kitchen. Now I’m only cooking for one, so I use two legs or thighs , four or more wings with my older onion ,celery, carrots from my fridge bin in a pressure cooker. I remove the skin, bones, and my favorite cartilage from the bone ends. Use the meat in different recipes, stock ( as I call it) for soup and throw the mushy veggies away . HA, see no chicken wasted, only wilted veggies. Now, the skin and bone ends are my self indulgent treats. That may sound totally weird to most folks, but I’ve always been a little off.Lol! Helen, I’m addicted to your darling accent and humorous and utterly delicious recipes and helping points.🥰🥰❗️
If you guys refuse to waste meat of the chicken: simmer everything for an hour, take out chicken, let cool down just a bit, take all the meat off the bones - return bones to pot. Shredded chicken meat can be returned to soup later to add some texture.
It makes for healthier food for pets too that ultimately saves money as well
@@SuWoopSparrow I was thinking about that. If you leave the meat in for the whole process are the nutrients cooked out?
@@charlieandhudsonspal1312 As far as I know its fine. Especially for cats. They primarily need protein, which wont be cooked out. Its always good to ask your vet though.
@@SuWoopSparrow Yep, that’s what we do. The meat bits go to make a ‘topper’ for the dog’s kibble. He loves it.
Also great for chicken salad or any situation where you need some plain cooked chicken
Helen, I so appreciate your information-packed videos. Your warm and friendly style of presenting makes me feel right at home, and I always come away feeling more confident in the kitchen. Thank you! 💕
5:10 while the importance of fat is explained well, it's important to note that chicken skin is only about 5 to 10 percent fat. Most of its value comes from the collagen (and thus gelatin), which makes up about 35 percent of the skin's volume.
great point!
may I ask where you got this info? I could believe that for some parts of the skin that seem thinner, but when you get a really thick piece of skin from around the thigh area it seems to be mostly fat, when you slowly render it in a pan the resulting crispy skin seems to weigh a small fraction of original weight, whereas there seems to be a heavy amount of fat in the pan
So literally collagen makes up 35 percent of the skin volume which is responsible for the fat. Does that not imply that the skin is high in fat regardless of the 5% you mentioned earlier? Just curious
@@austindenny7094 About two thirds of skin is water, so you also need to take that into account.
@Harry Taylor Collagen is a protein not a fat.
@@valvenator thank you
I'm grateful that the algorithm brought me here. What a wealth of knowledge! Thank you, Helen.
The flour analogy is a good one. I have always thought of backing as a science and cooking as an art. I prefer cooking because I don't like to be bothered measuring every ingredient.
Great video, love finally hearing the reasoning behind certain ideas that are simply "known" but never explained.
I save all my old bones and extra chicken skin in the freezer to use for stock, whether I'm also using fresh chicken or not, it still adds to the flavour and there's no sense wasting them
Roasting the bones will give them a better flavour for the stock. After freezing, or straight after pulling the cooked meat, place bones and skin on a lightly oiled pan, cover with foil and roast or broil on low.
Check on them in a bit, and mix em around with a spatula and put them back in till browned (time depends on initial temp and amount of bones so just watch and wait) you want the gristle to be golden and the skin to be brown and crispy.
Then, just like in this video, when it's roasted and ready to add to the pot, make sure to get all the tasty bits from the pan as well
The roasting draws out flavour from the gristle, skin, and leftover meat bits, and makes the bones more brittle and easier for the marrow to come through. Cracking the bones also helps give it a richer flavour and more iron and nutrients from the marrow, which is easier to do after roasting
This is so good. Thank you! I love how detailed your explanations are, especially when you talk about how recipes are typically given in a certain manner/format and WHY they are given like that. Knowing why stuff in the culinary world works the way it does is the most mysterious and confusing aspect of cooking for me. Thanks again!
"You don't mess with flour!" ahah, I need that as a poster in my kitchen.
Damn you’re right. I just emailed Gordon Ramsay asking for stock secrets... no answer.
Buy GME
I don't know how I missed this video 3 years ago, but thank you for making it! The idea of the lack of precision for making a sandwich and how you play with stock was the perfect concept to connect with me.
I can't thank you enough for this video! I decided to get more serious about home cooking and to start with chicken and into stock, it seemed like the most useful and practical place to start but everyone tells you their own way. And I was desperately looking for useful information about the WHOLE process of stock from the chicken to the different applications of using the stock. This is SO HELPFUL. Thank you thank you!
This was fun - thank you.
I keep my bits in my freezer and throw everything in a pot and boil when I can't get into my freezer any longer ... smells so good and tastes pretty good, too.
Great tip
Your thumbnail got me. And your personality won me over. I subscribed as I know I will enjoy your videos. You are amazing, well done!
I've found two ways to increase the flavor of stock made from the bones: 1) break the bones open with a pair of pliers so that the water has access to the marrow & 2) put the bones in a very hot oven for 10 minutes to produce browning via the Maillard reaction.
This is absolutely correct. Roasting the bones a second time is great and breaking open the bones is a big deal.
Shhhhhhhh,..... That's the stock secret we're not supposed to tell anyone, especially Helen!
Now she's going to go blab it all over the internet!
I thought you’re supposed to add some vinegar to the water to help soften the bones so they break open easier. I haven’t made chicken stock for a few years but I added a few tablespoons of vinegar the last time I made chicken stock.
@@michaelg.294 😂😂😂👏👏
@@michaelg.294 : LOL Thanks for the chuckle ! 😄
That feeling when you were already doing stock stuff exactly the way Helen Rennie does.
This is the best discussion of stock I have ever heard. Thank you so much for readjusting my perspective--and giving me a couple of laughs. It's like you have been spying on me in my kitchen...
Delightful to listen to someone on RUclips who actually knows their subject.
Those wings looked good. I would have to start another batch after eating half of them.
I often make my own stock. I recently retrieved all the turkey parts from the holidays and made stock that those. It came out fantastic. These are great tips and I'll be using them from now on. For instance, I never thought of using my pressure cooker to speed up the cooking time. I simmered mine on the stove for 3 hours but I'll have to give this a try next time.
No problem whatsoever with the click bait title when you give so much information, and you're always such a joy to watch! Thank you for your passion, your teaching abilities, and your simplicity!
You’re the sole person to actually talk about stuff like this on RUclips
You didn't just convince me to stay until the end, but also to subscribe! Loved this video so much.
Well I just give the “waste” meat to my dog who loses her mind with delight at the special treat so not wasted after all😜
The onions don’t go with dogs even after cooking. Be careful! I’m sure they like it, tho! Maybe onions could be added after? I wonder! I give my chickens that kind of meat, as onions are safe for them after cooking so long but not dogs.
@@valeriesjeans I don’t give my dogs onions or garlic because I know it is not good for them but thank you for saying anyway (if I didn’t know I’d definitely want to)😜
I've learnt more in this 16 min video than I learnt in 5yrs of cookery lessons in school!! Thank you!!! xx
The meat from the stock is perfectly fine to use in all kinds of preparations (stir-frys, sandwiches, soups etc') I never throw it away.
I use it in the chicken soup I'm making, and to feed the dog and the cats a treat.
@@tracygoode3037 Haha yeah my cats absolutely love leftover stock meat … especially ham hocks. lol
I'm roasting a small chicken currently to make a stock for the very first time! What wonderful timing :)
Helen Rennie: You are an amazing teacher! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge gained from years of experience. You are so very kind. X
I just thought I knew how to make chicken stock. Been making frozen stock “pucks” for years. They take space and thaw slow. I’ll be making the reduced versions ASAP…several great tips in this vid. Thanks a zillion.
Wow! This has to be the bible of all stock-making videos! Thanks.
I learn so much from your channel. It’s comparable to college level cooking courses. Excellent.
My friend used to (re)roast the bones before making stock. It turned out good.
You are brilliant!!! Love your style of communication! Thank you for what you do!
Thank you for so many good tips. I have been making my own for several years now (I raise meat chickens) and some of these tricks I had learned by trial and error. But you have taught me a lot more.
One thing I like to do (I usually make a blond stock from raw backbones, skin and bits) is add the dark outer peel of a yellow onion. Gives the stock a nice color.
Yes I was expecting this. Also a good colour to a vege stock.
I made a stock from the fried turkey carcass after Thanksgiving. It was the best stock I’ve ever made!
A burger pattie in a baguette is delicious! We do it in France, and the contrast between a crunchy crust and the tender meat really is great.
Helen you have heard this a million times, you have great videos and your voice, the way your so natural and composed is like listening to ones favorite classical music. Your the kind of teacher I want to wake up in the morning and get to class on time, unlike others I have had in the past. (you know those types of teachers that show up to class 5 minutes late telling the students someone cut them off on a bridge, and in your mind you wonder why they just did not run them off the bridge)
I just found you. I'm a relatively decent home cook (and gardener). Jumping around your videos based on topic. Omigoodness - great stuff, you are filling in so many "gaps" for me. Thank you!
Where have you been all my life? I make my own stock but now it will be even better. THANK YOU! ❤️
Me again. Just wanted to say you are brilliant now maybe my stock will be.
Quite a timely video for all those newly learning about stocks.
I’ve been making my stock, from bbq 🍗 chicken bones 🦴 for years now. The smoky flavors from which ever type of wood you use, mesquite, charcoal, cedar, ect ect, seem too give the stock a very distinctive type of flavor which seems unique, tasty and savory. 🍵 yummy 😋.
I like your analogy of bread to stock - it's so individual. But so IS flour! I "mess" with flour all the time! I try out substituting oat flour for wheat flour, and almond flour, etc. And I ALWAYS use whole grain flour no matter what the recipe says. As for verbiage, stock is something you cook with and broth is something serve or eat. Happy cooking!
Wow! More useful info per minute than any cooking vid I can recall. Nicely done.
Thank you for sharing such valuable knowledge with us, Professor Rennie. ❤️
I got a stock trading ad on this. I think youtube misunderstood the title
🤯🤣
Don’t tell them. Those ads pay the creator bank. If I was a good tuber I would have a new stock video every couple of months.
One of the best and most comprehensive explanation about stock and so beautifully and clearly explained. Thank you.
Hilarious! The way you started the video, good thing I wasn't drinking anything! Love your channel so much!
Thank you Helen! I learned a bunch and keep telling my wife we need to make our own. I do most of the cooking since I retired and farm full time now..
Asian cooking techniques in making stock will often briefly blanch and rinse the bones/parts first to reduce the "gaminess" or to produce a "cleaner" stock, including washing the pot and dumping all the original blanching water. In my experience it makes a difference to include this extra step when making blond stock but not with brown stock, and I think this is more necessary when making beef stock than it is when making chicken stock, but I'm curious to know your thoughts on this.
Also since I've been frequenting Asian grocery stores I have been using raw chicken feet sold there to make my stock and I have to say it produces the most gelatin per volume of water, so for me that means less reducing and less time to achieve the same level of gelatin-i-ness, but I admit the flavor is maybe not quite as deep as you could get when including more meaty parts like wings and legs. Chicken feet at my local Asian market are between $1.99/lb and $2.39/lb, which is pretty cheap and worth every penny, IMO. If you can get over the macabre appearance of the feet, I highly recommend their use in making stock.
I just read your comment! I just gave my ideas on chicken feet!
Unless you’ve roasted your bones
French, too.
I took a class with the chef at my favorite restaurant (Persimmon in Providence - amazing soups!!!), and he used chicken feet for just that reason!
the bones are rinsed to get a more clear stock. it's primarily esthetics.
I defrosted my freezer yesterday and made beef stock. I can't wait to reduce all that stock tonight, this video has a ton of useful information for soup / sauce / gravy lovers.
Where has this channel been hiding?! Wonderful!!
Whatever video you make, I’ll click. Thank you so much for all the hard work
Made turkey stock yesterday, and came here for a refresher. Learned quite a bit more. Thanks, Helen!
I use a combination of carcass and browned drumsticks and/or thighs. The meat is NEVER wasted!! I cook the drumsticks/thighs (plus veg and seasoning) for about 45 minutes. When the meat is cooked through and fall off the bone, I remove it from the stock pot, throw the bones, skins and cartilage back to the post and simmer for another hour. The meat is then made into chicken salad, or I've even used it to make a chicken pate!
Fantastic video! I'm embarrassed to admit that I've been doing it wrong forever. Thanks for straightening me out.
If you accidentally already ate the chicken meat (Like i tend to do, every time) you could roast the veggies thoroughly before adding them to the pot to get that same caramelisation. Not quite like broth from meat and fresh veggies but much tastier than simple bone broth.
Great and informative video Helen!
Yes, the 'click bait' worked instantaneously for me. But valuable information after one click is hardly 'click bait.' I was knee-deep in work when your notification popped up- "Squirrel!" This still prompted me to use the half of rotisserie chicken sitting idle in my fridge. These were very good subtle tips! Thank you.
Hi Helen, run into your channel yesterday and so far I love how informative you are and the fun way you explain things. Thank you so much!
Thank you, I’ve learned a lot from your lecture. I think your a very good instructor. Please continue to make very educational videos.
I like her logic. Really good fundamentals. I like the gelatin trick. Didn't learn that at culinary school, but figured it out after reading On Cooking and learning the chemistry. I'll have to try the pressure cooker way to make stock. At school we only learned the long way to make it. Unless you have a huge pressure cooker at a restaurant, it's not practical to do it that way. It might work in a pinch at home, but I like to make a lot of stock and freeze it so I don't have to make it everyday in a pressure cooker.
Breath of fresh air... Very informative indeed. [ Lochness Scottish highlands }
Dear Helen, you are such an excellent cooking teacher . Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
It's nice to find a food youtuber who isn't a shouty, overexcited boy.
A couple of things that I might have added to this great explanation is the use of tomato paste to coat the chicken and veg and then roast it to build umami, and adding bay leaves.
Well said. My mother taught me to cut up the large bones to release the marrow into the stock. She always made sure there was plenty of meat and skin left on the carcass (or added to the pot) for flavor and fat. She also taught me to not add salt until I was using it for cooking, because she used it for many purposes.
Your videos are my favorite. So informative and well put. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I have learned so much from you! Sending you love ❤️
I disagree - the video title isn’t click bait. I see the name Helen Rennie and I click immediately! That’s not bait either, I genuinely love this channel and Helen is a wonderful teacher!
Great video! This and related stock vids have delightfully changed my relationship with stocks. Thank you.
This was not only interesting, but really wonderfully presented. Plenty of personality but never at the expense of information. Subbed!
Thank you so much. I am a great believer in common sense and experience and that everything will not always come out well, but that doesnt mena to stop trying
My Grandmother was Russian and for some reason I failed to recognize your accent... not that it matters - Your wonderful content transcends all accents :) I love this stock video. Thank You for this.
Wow, this was a very precise and lovely instructional lesson; I learned much, so thank you.
I always add leftover corncobs to my chicken stock. It moderates the chickeny flavor. Any leftover butter on them might help too.
I put a large handful of red grapes in the pot once as a lark. The stock came out pink but pleasingly tasty.
I’m surprised at how much I learned from this video. It answered a lot of question.
You seem to hit every single point and question that arises after watching a million "expert" videos that throw theories out there. Your content is unbelievably good, pls keep it up.
Awesome video and helped clear up a lot of questions for me. I tend to favor stock in a box in most situations but I also know that learning how to make stock would be a good skill to develop. I've always been intimidated by the process though, and this video helped ease a lot of my concerns and fears :)
I always enjoy your presentations. they are all informative and well presented...that, and your personalty is refreshing.
You are amazing! Its like you are here in my kitchen. I make all these mistakes. Thank you!
Thank you for offering value straight off. Also for the easy to follow similies. Love your channel. Love from South Africa.
I love your videos. Your style is great. Among the things I respect the most is you give practical advice and also import an understanding of why one should do things a certain way. Thank you so much
Hello Helen I was your butcher in Wellesley, John Dewars.Stanley Ziel.
Hi Stanley! Great to hear from you
💖🔪👍
Absolutely fantastic masterclass on stock... So useful!! Very grateful. A very big thank you for your expertise and time.
ive been freezing containers of unreduced stock (I drink the broth like hot tea / thin soup). I’m gonna go get myself some icecube trays immediately so i can just use a cube and avoid the freezer jenga
Helen, I love your channel and all of the great techniques and information you bring to us. Only in the last four or five years have I tried learning to cook, mainly from channels such as Foodwishes, Adam Ragusea, Joy of Baking and yours for which I have Ragusea to thank in pointing me towards. Its exactly videos like this that less experienced cooks will benefit from the most and provide better results with less frustration in the kitchen.
So, Helen, thank you very much for all your help and advice.
PS: You have a lovely accent. Where is it from ;-)
Anyone else thinks Helen makes a perfect kindergarten teacher？
Just realised I have the attention span and inellect of a kindergartener.
Sweet lady with allot of patience, but don't be mistaken, she KNOWS. I am an experience and schooled chef and there were a couple of things I did not know. Like the part about gelatin (think it is made from horse bones). I did not think it made a difference on how long it is cooked.
Thank you for all the provided information! Could you maybe do a video about vegetable stock in the near future? Thank you in advance!
Thanks, Aunt Helen :) I won't forget your stock advice on my culinary journey.
I always make chicken stock with a whole chicken and use the shredded chicken in curries and other meals. The stock serves as a base for my curries, goulashs and what not.
Thank you for another great video Helen. Not sure if you're going to see my questions (and I apologize in advance if they sounds silly) but here we go: 1 - When you use cicken bones "left overs" do you actually use the bones that people left on their plates after eating? 2 - I only buy frozen whole chickens, can I dethaw it, separate the carcass from the rest and the chicken and freeze the carcass again in order to accumulate enough carcasses for a batch of stock? Obviously my main concern with both questions is food contamination and poisoning.
I love the way you explained it all. It makes sense and your examples are great! I can understand you very well.