Stock Preparation

Gathering and making sure you have the right equipment and ingredients (mise en place) is very important when making a good stock. The size and shape of the pot used to cook the stock plays a major role in assuring that your stock is rich in flavor, full-bodied and have a great color. The stockpot used should hold all of the ingredients and the liquids and still have at least 3 inches of space left over at the top of the pot. Stockpots are always taller than they are wide because the shape helps to create a good stock. The smaller suface area helps to better extract the flavors from the ingredients and it encourages convection by bringing all of the impurities to the top of the stock to be skimmed away more easily.
The best selection of the ingredients determines if you are going to have rich flavorful, full-bodied stock or not. There is nothing like having a delicious stock to flavor soups, stews and sauces.

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