Kitchen Scrap Stock

Ingredients

skins and ends of alliums, such as onions, shallots, garlic, scallions, and leeks

corncobs

ends and peels of root vegetables, like carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and beets

ends and leaves or fronds of stalks like celery, fennel, and asparagus

mushroom stems

herb stems

pepper cores

any whole vegetable versions of the above that are wilted but not yet spoiled or moldy (give them a rough chop before you dump them into the bag)

other flavor enhancers: Parmesan rinds or seaweed, such as kombu

Directions

Put all your scraps and vegetables in a large pot and add water until everything starts to float. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer. If you're using meat, skim the surface of any foam. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes at a minimum, but ideally 2 to 3 hours. If you're using meat bones and want to extract all the collagen and minerals, simmer for at least 3 hours for poultry bones and as long as 6 to 10 hours for pork, beef, or lamb bones (a pressure cooker is a great time-saver when it comes to making stock--check your cooker's instructions for information on timing).

Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve or colander lined with cheese- cloth or a kitchen towel. Store in an airtight container in the fridge (label and date highly recommended) for about a week. If it's been hanging out for a while and you have no immediate cooking plans, transfer it to the freezer, ideally portionedinto small containers so you only have to thaw what you need (and it will defrost much faster).

Notes

Source: Perfectly Good Food, by Margaret Li and Irene Li

We love the feeling of making something from what feels like nothing. For free! As in, we used to throw out onion skins, leek ends, and herb stems but now transfornn them into a highly useful item that might cost upwards of five dollars at the grocery store.

Scrap stock is mnore of a process than a recipe, given that you'll likely have to build up to it by saving scraps over the e course of multiple c cooking sessions. Stash a sturdy resealablel bag in the freezer and levery time you prep vegetables, add scraps like those listed in the ingredients.

Members of the Brassica family (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) can make your stock bitter, so we compost those, or add them only in moderation. Same goes for too many onion skins

If you eat meat, save the bones from chicken carcasses or beef roasts (raw or salvaged from the dinner table), or supplement with cheap bones like chicken wings and necks and stash them in the bag alongside your veggie scraps to make meat stock.

Once you fill your bag, it's time to make stock! We add extra aromatics to deepen and even out the flavor, such as a quartered onion or two (no need to peel), a few smashed garlic cloves, and some carrots or celery stalks. You can take the optional step of roasting your vegetables and/or bones (toss everything in a bit of oil first) at 450 degrees for half an hour or so to deepen the flavor.