Gelatin Purée

Most kitchens discard things like chicken skin or pork skin after they’ve made stock. I recommend reserving these, blending them with a little bit of stock, straining, and freezing the resulting purée. This suggestion is a prime example of the intersection between scrappiness and refinement that MSF was all about. Sure, you’re not going to cloud your consommé or demi-glace with puréed chicken skin. But you can improve your meatloaf, gravy, or soup 10 percent. And sometimes you just need a quick fix. If your braised pork shoulder is dry, add a cup of gelatin to the re-warming liquid to introduce unctuousness; if you have a thin braising liquid that’s too salty to reduce into a viscous sauce, voilà, gelatin purée to the rescue.