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Dec. 7th, 2007 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickToday for supper, we're (This is the royal we. I live alone except for two cats and they do not, as a matter of course, support me or agree with me. I contain multitudes, damn it all, and I can be We if I want to.) having rustic potato-leek soup, a favorite of mine for wintery weather. As a special treat, there's also pumpernickel bread to go with.
I wanted potato-leek soup so I got leeks at the grocery. Then, I examined the chicken department to see what for chicken they had that I could make into stock for the soup. The selection of chicken was not impressive. It was expensive. I do not understand why leg-n-thigh parts of chicken cost a buck sixty-nine a pound. Who the fuck eats chicken dark meat? (While I prefer it for eating, breast meat does not make nice stock. Boneless chicken breasts DO NOT make stock. Really good stock comes from leg-n-thigh or whole-chicken.) Whole-chicken cost $1.69/lb, too, which I thought was a little high. They did have some buy it today, really must cook and eat it pronto before it goes bad el-cheapo reduced-for-quick-sale chicken. With a fifty-cents-off coupon on it, too. That chicken, the fire-sale salmonella chicken? It was sixty-nine cents a pound not including the fifty-cents-off coupon. I'm sure I do not have to tell you people which chicken I bought.
Cringe if you want, but any chicken I bought was going to go home and immediately spend two and a half hours completely submerged in boiling water to make stock. I realize that LaRousse Gastronomique is not in favor of boiling the shit out of the chicken. I know that prettier, clear stock can be made by gently simmering the chicken at about 180 degrees F. My thing is that I want every bit of chickeny goodness in the stock and I want it in two and a half hours. When I am done, the chicken bones are brittle and dry. The chicken meat is lifeless, limp, and devoid of flavor. It falls off the bones, which makes picking for meat really easy but does mean that I have to do something else to the meat to make it edible. It works well in soup, enchiladas, curry... But anyway, I get stock that you'd write home about if I were damn fool enough to feed it to you instead of me.
Now, you can buy chicken broth in cans at the store. It sucks. This week, Weis Quality chicken stock is 2 48 oz cans (96 oz total) for $3.00 (it's on special). I bought the whole entire chicken for $2.75 (I'm telling you. Fire sale prices.) I got twelve cups plus a bit (so 96 oz and then some) of first-class stock way better than the canned shit plus also chicken meat totally free of icky bits (because I picked it off the bones and I have an eagle eye for ick) suitable for enchiladas or curry or chicken salad or adding to soup.
If I, on a small scale, as a home producer of chicken stock, can make chicken stock at a price less than that of the Weis Quality people... and mine is an order of magnitude better than the Weis Quality product, why the fuck is anyone buying the Weis Quality product? Are there people in this world who do not know how to make basic chicken stock? Is it possible that there exist people who DO NOT CARE that the Weis Quality product tastes like complete ass? (How can people not notice this?!? Don't they have taste buds?)
I wanted potato-leek soup so I got leeks at the grocery. Then, I examined the chicken department to see what for chicken they had that I could make into stock for the soup. The selection of chicken was not impressive. It was expensive. I do not understand why leg-n-thigh parts of chicken cost a buck sixty-nine a pound. Who the fuck eats chicken dark meat? (While I prefer it for eating, breast meat does not make nice stock. Boneless chicken breasts DO NOT make stock. Really good stock comes from leg-n-thigh or whole-chicken.) Whole-chicken cost $1.69/lb, too, which I thought was a little high. They did have some buy it today, really must cook and eat it pronto before it goes bad el-cheapo reduced-for-quick-sale chicken. With a fifty-cents-off coupon on it, too. That chicken, the fire-sale salmonella chicken? It was sixty-nine cents a pound not including the fifty-cents-off coupon. I'm sure I do not have to tell you people which chicken I bought.
Cringe if you want, but any chicken I bought was going to go home and immediately spend two and a half hours completely submerged in boiling water to make stock. I realize that LaRousse Gastronomique is not in favor of boiling the shit out of the chicken. I know that prettier, clear stock can be made by gently simmering the chicken at about 180 degrees F. My thing is that I want every bit of chickeny goodness in the stock and I want it in two and a half hours. When I am done, the chicken bones are brittle and dry. The chicken meat is lifeless, limp, and devoid of flavor. It falls off the bones, which makes picking for meat really easy but does mean that I have to do something else to the meat to make it edible. It works well in soup, enchiladas, curry... But anyway, I get stock that you'd write home about if I were damn fool enough to feed it to you instead of me.
Now, you can buy chicken broth in cans at the store. It sucks. This week, Weis Quality chicken stock is 2 48 oz cans (96 oz total) for $3.00 (it's on special). I bought the whole entire chicken for $2.75 (I'm telling you. Fire sale prices.) I got twelve cups plus a bit (so 96 oz and then some) of first-class stock way better than the canned shit plus also chicken meat totally free of icky bits (because I picked it off the bones and I have an eagle eye for ick) suitable for enchiladas or curry or chicken salad or adding to soup.
If I, on a small scale, as a home producer of chicken stock, can make chicken stock at a price less than that of the Weis Quality people... and mine is an order of magnitude better than the Weis Quality product, why the fuck is anyone buying the Weis Quality product? Are there people in this world who do not know how to make basic chicken stock? Is it possible that there exist people who DO NOT CARE that the Weis Quality product tastes like complete ass? (How can people not notice this?!? Don't they have taste buds?)
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Date: 2007-12-08 06:33 am (UTC)Personally, I'd recommend a mire pois and some herbage in your stock. It results in a much fuller flavor.
Dark meat has a higher fat content than white meat, so more flavor. Dark meat has more connective tissue, so more collagen and lip-smacking goodness. Personally, I like both.