[punatic]

Chicken and andouille gumbo tonight.  I used 50:50 bacon fat:safflower oil for the roux.  I used chicken thigh meat because it's got a little more fat and some tasty darker meat.  I also like a bit more color in my trinity, so I use red bell peppers.  I had a brain fart at the grocery store today and got "Louisiana" hot sauce instead of tabasco (I keep a number of hot sauces on hand, BTW -- I just happened to have run out of tabasco recently).  Oh well, it tastes ok.  I just don't like that it has a bunch of filler ingredients.  The finished gumbo was out of this world!

That looks awesome!  Too cool... I didn't think you guys even knew how to spell gumbo up there in Minnesota.  

+1 on the thigh meat.  It tastes better to me too.

I've tried red bells in my trinity, but the flavor is not the same as with the green bells.  I like the colors too, so what I do is use green bells and I use red jalapeños from my garden.  They add color and some heat too.  I let almost all of my jalapeños turn red for use in kicked up trinity (quadrinity?)

I let my roux go to the color of dark chocolate (two beers long).  That gives it a bit of smokiness.

I was going poor buying stock, so now I buy pork bones from the grocery and make several gallons of stock at a time, and freeze it.

Wish I was having dinner at your house tonight!  I can bring some tabasco...  

[bluesman]

Chicken and andouille gumbo tonight.  I used 50:50 bacon fat:safflower oil for the roux.  I used chicken thigh meat because it's got a little more fat and some tasty darker meat.  I also like a bit more color in my trinity, so I use red bell peppers.  I had a brain fart at the grocery store today and got "Louisiana" hot sauce instead of tabasco (I keep a number of hot sauces on hand, BTW -- I just happened to have run out of tabasco recently).  Oh well, it tastes ok.  I just don't like that it has a bunch of filler ingredients.  The finished gumbo was out of this world!

Looks great.  I can't tell from your pics but hopefully your "Trinity" also includes the "Pope". 

+1

Beautiful work Matt! 

I'm sure it tasted as well. 

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Chicken and andouille gumbo tonight.  I used 50:50 bacon fat:safflower oil for the roux.  I used chicken thigh meat because it's got a little more fat and some tasty darker meat.  I also like a bit more color in my trinity, so I use red bell peppers.  I had a brain fart at the grocery store today and got "Louisiana" hot sauce instead of tabasco (I keep a number of hot sauces on hand, BTW -- I just happened to have run out of tabasco recently).  Oh well, it tastes ok.  I just don't like that it has a bunch of filler ingredients.  The finished gumbo was out of this world!

Looks great.  I can't tell from your pics but hopefully your "Trinity" also includes the "Pope". 

It didn't, but I'm not catholic anyway!   

I think I might try adding some next time though.  While I can't imagine this recipe being much better, I can see how a little garlic would make it just a little more savory.

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Chicken and andouille gumbo tonight.  I used 50:50 bacon fat:safflower oil for the roux.  I used chicken thigh meat because it's got a little more fat and some tasty darker meat.  I also like a bit more color in my trinity, so I use red bell peppers.  I had a brain fart at the grocery store today and got "Louisiana" hot sauce instead of tabasco (I keep a number of hot sauces on hand, BTW -- I just happened to have run out of tabasco recently).  Oh well, it tastes ok.  I just don't like that it has a bunch of filler ingredients.  The finished gumbo was out of this world!

That looks awesome!  Too cool... I didn't think you guys even knew how to spell gumbo up there in Minnesota.  

+1 on the thigh meat.  It tastes better to me too.

I've tried red bells in my trinity, but the flavor is not the same as with the green bells.  I like the colors too, so what I do is use green bells and I use red jalapeños from my garden.  They add color and some heat too.  I let almost all of my jalapeños turn red for use in kicked up trinity (quadrinity?)

I let my roux go to the color of dark chocolate (two beers long).  That gives it a bit of smokiness.

I was going poor buying stock, so now I buy pork bones from the grocery and make several gallons of stock at a time, and freeze it.

Wish I was having dinner at your house tonight!  I can bring some tabasco...  

I guess I'm not the most traditional Minnesotan.   I lived in the mid-south for almost 10 years and got hooked on authentic Cajun food (as well as southern BBQ!).  I also make a ton of Mexican food (I didn't really get into the authentic stuff until a buddy of mine opened up a Mexican restaurant in Minneapolis though).

I do a quick roux.  I do it over high heat, whisking constantly.  It only takes about 15 minutes.  Saves a LOT of time!

I hear you on making stock.  It would be way more cost efficient (and probably tastes a lot better too).  I should probably start making my own.

[nicneufeld]

I saw your picture of ingredients, and was about to go on a full-fledged tirade about canned/bottled stock, and I see above you just mentioned that! 

Seriously, if you used chicken thigh meat, I assumed if you deboned them you had plenty of bones/skin and trimmings that were tossed...I just started making my own stock in the past year or two and the difference is amazing.  It's like comparing real mashed potatoes with instant.  There are a few recipes I don't need real stock for, but for those, I just use a little cube of boullion.  It probably doesn't help that the last thing of chicken stock I bought from one of those cardboard containers just tasted outright bad to me.

For soups, gravies, etc...you've got to start making your own stock!  What I do is debone the meat (usually chicken) the day before, and set the meat aside, or marinating, and then cook the bones and trimmings in water with some spices, maybe an onion/carrot/celery.  After a couple hours, strain out, let cool, and refrigerate overnight.  The next morning you can skim off the rendered fat from the surface which will have solidified (and either discard, or use...it will be a very flavorful fat, I sometimes use it to start the gravy instead of extra butter or oil) and you've got a really rich tasting stock that outclasses anything you can buy in a jar.  I've also become very cheap err resourceful when it comes to cooking so the idea of throwing away the significant trimmings of a whole chicken after deboning it, when it could be used to make a large quantity of stock better than anything you buy at the store, is hard for me to swallow, anymore. 

Gumbo looks fantastic btw!!! 

[punatic]

+1 on homemade stock!  The difference is very noticable.  I make chicken, turkey, pork (hambone), and shrimp stocks.  They freeze nicely in 1 gallon ziplock freezer bags.  No bones, carcasses, or shells escape the stockpot!

A friend of mine, who is more frugal than I, lines a 2qt bowl with plastic wrap, pours the cooled stock into the bowl, then freezes the stock in the bowl.  Once frozen he fips the plastic wrap off of the outside of the bowl and around the frozen stock, removes the stock from the bowl, adds another layer of plastic wrap around it, and into the freezer it goes.  I'm too lazy to bother, but it works well.

One ingredient that really helps stock taste good is celery leaves.  I also use a head of garlic, cut in half at the equator, a few bay leaves, an whole onion cut in half, 20-30 whole peppercorns and some salt.  Sometimes I add fresh thyme or some fresh sage to my turkey stock.  I put a wedge of lemon peel in my shrimp stock (a little dab'l do ya).

Boullion cubes are gross.  All they are is salt and chemicals.

[nicneufeld]

Boullion cubes are gross.  All they are is salt and chemicals.

Oh they aren't that bad!  They do in a pinch if what you are trying for is that "salt and chemicals" taste...for example, in trying to duplicate Chinese take-out style egg drop soup for my wife, I tried it with the fancier boxed stock, and it was crap, but with the boullion cubes it was spot on!   

Beef stock I'm more at a loss because I rarely buy beef, and when I do its usually in steak or hamburger form...I don't usually have a surplus of beef bones.  Generally speaking I make a lot of poultry stocks though.  I made some pork stock with the bones removed from pork chops the other night (for a schnitzel gravy) and to some extent I wasn't as wild about the taste from pork stock.  I imagine a ham stock would be a LOT better.

[euge]

Since I rarely have time or desire to make stocks I like using base. The Minor's chicken and beef is excellent and I also have the vegetable and mirepoix bases.



I like my gumbo dark. Making the roux takes at least 30 min and cut the amount way back cause I also like gumbo on the thinner side and with less fat.

[SpanishCastleAle]

TGI Fridays and other restaurants I worked in used Minor's bases (way back when most everything was made from 'scratch'...except stuff like stock).  I always have some Better Than Boullion beef and chicken base on-hand for when I need a quick stock.  It's not as good as made-from-scratch stock but there are way less storage/spoilage/manpower issues when using the bases in restaurants.  Up the ante to different demi-glaces (even more labor/energy intensive) and I can see why many use packaged stuff.

Riddle me this BatChef:  What is the difference between stock/broth/consomme/boullion-any others I may have forgotten?  Seems the answers change depending who you ask.

EDIT: And tonight we're having buttermilk fried chicken fried in an iron skillet.  The chicken has been in the buttermilk mixture since last night.

[punatic]

Riddle me this BatChef:  What is the difference between stock/broth/consomme/boullion-any others I may have forgotten?

The same as the difference between demi-glace, demi-john, and Demi Moore?  Only Julia can say for sure - and she's not talkin...   

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Not sure if there's a difference between stock and broth. They may be synonyms. Consommé is clarified stock/broth. Bouillon is a concentrated, solid, dehydrated form of stock/broth.

[gordonstrong]

Riddle me this BatChef:  What is the difference between stock/broth/consomme/boullion-any others I may have forgotten?  Seems the answers change depending who you ask.

Not sure there are uniform definitions, but a stock is something you make from roasted bones/veg and broth is something you make from meat and veg. Bouillon is what the French call broth.  Consomme is a clarified stock or broth, an involved process involving using protein binders and acid to create a raft which floats to the surface and grabs everything along the way.

So if you roast bones and add veg and water and simmer it, you're making stock.  If you cook a chicken and veg and then pull all those out, you have broth.  If you leave them in, it's soup    If you want to make very pale stocks, you don't have to roast.  But you're missing out on a lot of flavor.

I never use the word bouillon except when talking about bouillon cubes, which I'd never use.  If I want to add salt, I'll use the natural stuff.

Consomme is a fancy preparation.  I'd only expect it at high end restaurants or where someone was trying to show off their technique.  Or they read about it and wanted to try it.

Anyhow, that's how I use those words.

[SpanishCastleAle]

Riddle me this BatChef:  What is the difference between stock/broth/consomme/boullion-any others I may have forgotten?  Seems the answers change depending who you ask.

Not sure there are uniform definitions, but a stock is something you make from roasted bones/veg and broth is something you make from meat and veg. Bouillon is what the French call broth.  Consomme is a clarified stock or broth, an involved process involving using protein binders and acid to create a raft which floats to the surface and grabs everything along the way.

So if you roast bones and add veg and water and simmer it, you're making stock.  If you cook a chicken and veg and then pull all those out, you have broth.  If you leave them in, it's soup    If you want to make very pale stocks, you don't have to roast.  But you're missing out on a lot of flavor.

I never use the word bouillon except when talking about bouillon cubes, which I'd never use.  If I want to add salt, I'll use the natural stuff.

Consomme is a fancy preparation.  I'd only expect it at high end restaurants or where someone was trying to show off their technique.  Or they read about it and wanted to try it.

Anyhow, that's how I use those words.

That's about how I do too but then for s&g's I did a search and wikipedia said this:

Stock or broth?
The difference between broth and stock is one of both cultural and colloquial terminology but certain definitions prevail. Stock is the thin liquid produced by simmering raw ingredients: solids are removed, leaving a thin, highly-flavoured liquid. This gives classic stock as made from beef, veal, chicken, fish and vegetable stock. Broth differs in that it is a basic soup where the solid pieces of flavouring meat or fish, along with some vegetables, remain. It is often made more substantial by adding starches such as rice, barley or pulses. Traditionally, broth contains some form of meat or fish: nowadays it is acceptable to refer to a strictly vegetable soup as a broth

I'd never heard of that definition for 'broth', to me that's a soup (as you said).

I have never tried any sort of reduction using stock/broth made from base, I've only used homemade stocks/broths for that.  I would imagine the difference is magnified even more when reduced a lot.

punatic,
Demi Moore wins everytime with me!

[idris_arslanian]

We make plenty of chicken, and keep carcasses in our freezer, along w/ beef bones and pork shanks that may come along.  I always refer to the stuff I make as Stock, honestly we boil it down far enough that it becomes almost Aspic-like (Hooray meat jello!).  I assumed that Broth just meant the commercial stuff normally fortified w/ way too much salt. 

[gordonstrong]

I'd never heard of that definition for 'broth', to me that's a soup (as you said).

Apparently, that's the British usage.  It's pretty common to find wikipedia articles edited that way.  Look at some of the beer articles sometime.  If you want to get angry, look at the BJCP article and then look at the comments page.