vegetable stock

maltesers_2

zippychick wrote: »

Can someone explain to me about reducing down? I've never quite understood how that works or how to do it..... Possibly sounds silly but I don't understand how you can concentrate the flavour into one small quantity but would be interested to know.

Another thing like this I need to learn about is deglazing so I must go search now!

Stock cubes are concentrated and dehydrated. If you want to concentrate or reduce down stock you make stock in the normal way eg sweat vegetables and then add liquid and cook. When it is ready strain the stock and remove the veg etc then return stock to pan and boil until concentrated. (If you don't remove the solids the stock may turn bitter depending on contents) The water evaporates leaving very strong stock which takes less room to store in a freezer. Add water to use.

lucy_lemon

My boyfriend and I have made veg stock a few times - I have a pot bubbling away right now - but while it's good, it doesn't ever seem to be as good as it should be, if that makes sense? We're following basic guidelines, so we can't figure out why not! If anyone has any tips I'd be grateful

hitatotatus

I generally make meat, chicken or fish stock and not veg, however, the key to a good stock is letting it reduce in the pan letting the flavour become more and more concentrated. Just leave it at a rigourous simmer and keep tasting.

lucy_lemon

Thanks. I'll see how this batch turns out.

kitschkitty

I think veg stock never tastes right till it has fried onions in it, and is well seasoned with herbs etc, unlike meat stocks.

lucy_lemon

kitschkitty wrote: »

I think veg stock never tastes right till it has fried onions in it, and is well seasoned with herbs etc, unlike meat stocks.

That's pretty much what we do - fry the onions with some garlic (we're addicted!) and then add the other veg. We put loads of herbs in too, so we must be doing something wrong somewhere. I'll have to experiment the next few times with different amounts of herbs I think.

zippychick

I've merged this with our main vegetable stock thread