Stock

Stock is an essential part of every cook's kitchen

We may think of stock as something you purchase at the supermarket but if you haven't tried to make your own you are missing out on some great flavor.

Stock is made from combining meat, poultry or fish with vegetables and cooking the broth slowly to pull out flavor. In Western countries the vegetables commonly used in stock are onions, celery and carrots but there are certainly other vegetables like leeks, mushrooms and tomatoes that are also used. To make a pure vegetable stock you replace the meat with a featured vegetable like mushrooms or leeks.

Stock can be frozen and stored for future use and having stock on hand gives you the cook a wider palette of ingredients to create layered flavor.

There is a distinction between stock and broth. Stock is made by using the bones in the liquid while broth uses meat instead. Stock is usually unseasoned while both is seasoned.

Stock is used in soups and sauces and is an elevated essential part of French cuisine.

To learn more about stock try these articles

• Difference between stock and broth
• Stocks, Soups and Sauces

In this episode we featured a recipe from Giovanni called Scrippelle 'Mbusse which comes from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Scrippelle 'MBusse

To learn more about this dish, check out this article on its origins.

Another featured recipe was for a broth you might not think is possible, cheese broth made from Parmigiano Reggiano rind.

Vanessa features a recipe from her blog that is from the new Stanley Tucci book - Taste

Great blog post!