About Stocks — The Culinary Pro (2024)

FAQs

About Stocks — The Culinary Pro? ›

Stocks are flavorful liquids used in the preparation of soups, sauces, and stews, derived by gently simmering various ingredients in water. They are based on meat, poultry, fish, game, or seafood, and flavored with mirepoix, herbs, and spices.

Stocks play a very important part in the culinary world as the basis for soups, sauces and more. ... Stocks are essential, and important to get as much flavour our of your ingredients as possible. A stock is an essence created by simmering ingredients in water for a long period of time to draw out the flavours.

There are four basic kinds of stock/fond: white stock (Fond Blanc), brown stock (Fond Brun), vegetable or neutral stock (Fond Maigre) and Fish Stock (Fume de Poisson). The classifications refer to the contents and method used to prepare the stock, not necessarily to color.

At the highest level, classic culinary stocks can be categorized into four types: meat, poultry, fish, and vegetable. The French refer to stocks as the fond, or base, by which the foundation of a dish is developed.

Stocks are most associated with French cuisine, as they were refined in the early kitchens in modern France. Stocks were cooked down, removing water from the stock and leaving behind collagen rich gelatins which were used for garnishes and for preservation of other foods.

Health benefits of stock

Compared with broth, stock contains more fat, carbohydrates, and protein. It also contains more vitamins and minerals. Consuming stock may have various health benefits, including: Improving sleep: Stock and bone broth both contain the amino acid glycine.

Stock is generally made from bones, and broth is generally made from flesh. In both cases, they are often supported with aromatic vegetables, but in the case of stock, left unseasoned for maximum flexibility in recipes, whereas broth will usually contain at least salt and pepper.

Large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap stocks

Stocks also get categorized by the total worth of all their shares, which is called market capitalization. Companies with the biggest market capitalizations are called large-cap stocks, with mid-cap and small-cap stocks representing successively smaller companies.

What are the 4 main broths? ›

The main types of broth are chicken, beef, fish, and vegetable, which is made by simmering just vegetables and seasonings.

Chicken stock can be simmered for as little as 1 hour or up to 8 hours. Most often, you'll see recipes call for somewhere in between, about 3 to 4 hours. The longer the stock simmers, the more concentrated its flavor.

One of the leading causes of foodborne illness is the failure to properly cool foods. The food danger zone is that place between 40 and 140 °F where pathogens grow most quickly. It can take a long time to get through the danger zone when cooling a large batch of chili, soup or stew.

As you can see, it is super easy to use vegetable broth as a versatile ingredient in soups, stews, pasta recipes, vegetable dishes, and for sauteeing without oil. Try some of these different ways to use broth the next time you make a meal, and be sure to check out some of my favorite recipes that I've shared here.

Beef stock is typically made of bones and contain a small amount of meat, while broth is typically made with more meat than bones. Stock is typically simmered for a longer amount of time than broth (between three to six hours versus one to two), resulting in a thick gelatinous texture. Broth doesn't gel when chilled.

So to recap and for a quick rule-of-thumb, stock is made with cleaned animal bones. Broth uses bones with meat still on them, or meat alone. And soup is made from either broth or stock, and has other ingredients added to it for texture and flavour.