In Which I Know I Made Good Stock
How do I know I made good soup stock? Well, one of the primary ways you can tell if you made good stock is if it gets gellid when cold. Consomme can be served as a sort of meat-flavored jello.
I stored half of my stock (smoked pig bones/neck, smoked ham hocks, calves feet) in an old Jim Beam bottle in the refrigerator. After it had been in there a day, I took it out to look at it and was surprised to find the fat had separated and moved to the top of the bottle. So I shook it to break up the fat. No dice.
So I turned it upside down. And nothing happened.
Then I gave the bottle a good, hard shake. And the bottle jiggled and wiggled like a bus full of cheerleaders. There is nothing quite so strangely amusing as feeling a glass bottle jiggle weirdly. Slapping the bottle also produced this effect.
So yeah, the stock is pretty good and when I added the chicken mousseline quenelles it was even better.
I stored half of my stock (smoked pig bones/neck, smoked ham hocks, calves feet) in an old Jim Beam bottle in the refrigerator. After it had been in there a day, I took it out to look at it and was surprised to find the fat had separated and moved to the top of the bottle. So I shook it to break up the fat. No dice.
So I turned it upside down. And nothing happened.
Then I gave the bottle a good, hard shake. And the bottle jiggled and wiggled like a bus full of cheerleaders. There is nothing quite so strangely amusing as feeling a glass bottle jiggle weirdly. Slapping the bottle also produced this effect.
So yeah, the stock is pretty good and when I added the chicken mousseline quenelles it was even better.