Lamb stock

Hi guys,

Today I made a lamb stock, inspired by the method you guys used for making beef stock.

I roasted some leftover bones and meat scraps that I had stored in the freezer for about 1.5 hours, then combined with double their weight in water and cooked for 10 hours. After 9 hours I added some mirepoix, tomato paste and a sachet d'epices. Stock was covered with plastic wrap during the cooking.

As this is my first time making stock, I have a couple of questions that I hope someone is willing to answer for me

First of all, an easy question: what's the recommended amount of salt to add and when do you add it? It seems logical to add it at the last step so it won't be too salty in case one would like to reduce his stock, but it makes it harder to judge the flavour of the stock of course.

Secondly, I found the 'roast lamb' flavour more pronounced when I tasted the stock after 5 hours or so compared to the final result. Could this be due to the mirepoix? Did I add too much?

Finally, the meat was of course void of any flavour after 10 hours of cooking, so I don't think cooking longer would have improved the flavour. Why do you then state that you prefer to cook your stock for a whole day in the recipe for beef stock at chefsteps? I guess that this has to do with the conversion of collagen into gelatin (from the bones) and the breakdown of gelatin from long into short strands, which seems to give a more preferable texture. However, wouldn't you lose some of the more 'delicate' flavours, or top notes, from the meat?

Kind regards,

Quinten (yeah I know my name is tagged to the post, but this seemed nice

)

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HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

I have the greatest respect for the CS team, I just don't cook my stock that long.....i am a couple of hours guy with the the veggies in the beginning with the roasted bones.....the alt is tricky. I generally salt the stock very lightly because until you know what you are going to use it for you need to be careful not to wind up with too much

tshewman

Recommended salt for stock? None to the best of my knowledge. Save it for the final use of the stock. Roasted lamb flavor diminished? Presumably the bones were roasted and the surface "flavors" would be the first to be extracted. the marrow will carry less flavor (and will not be oxidized-which is where much of the lamb flavor comes from), so I suspect it won't be as pronounced as ~1/2 way through. FWIW, I typically use a pressure cooker for my stocks (unless fish) and the results are w/in a couple of hours. To extract the same amount of combined flavor and gelatin from the bones a much longer time is needed via SV. The stock is the "beginning" of a final jus or sauce so you won't have the pronounced flavor as it were that you will with a finished sauce. It's a balance of flavor, gelatin and aromatics.

artstype

I also use a pressure cooker, and I have taken to adding a 1/4-1/2 lb of ground meat to my stocks, a la Thomas Keller. I roast the bones under the broiler while caramelizing the mirepoix and then adding the ground meat to brown before adding the bones and water. Never, never salt stock.