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Standards of Quality for Stocks
Appears in
Published 2014
After you have finished a stock, evaluate its quality. Look for the following characteristics:
- Clarity. When hot, a well-made beef, veal, or chicken stock is nearly clear, with only a slight amount of cloudiness. Fish and vegetable stocks may have slightly more cloudiness.
- Color. When hot, white stocks made from beef, veal, and fish bones should be nearly colorless. Chicken stocks may have a slight golden color. Brown stocks should have a deep amber or rich golden brown color, although not as brown as canned beef broth. Vegetable stocks vary in color, depending on the vegetables used, although a neutral vegetable stock usually has a light golden color when carrots are used.
- Body. When hot, well-made meat and poultry stocks have a rich mouth feel, due to their gelatin content. When chilled, they should be very thick or even gelled. Fish stocks should also have a rich mouth feel from gelatin, although the gelatin content may be somewhat less, depending on the fish used. Vegetable stocks have no gelatin content and therefore are much thinner.
- Aroma and Flavor. All stocks should have a rich, full-bodied, and well-balanced flavor and aroma. Meat, poultry, and fish stocks should taste and smell mainly of their main ingredients, with no strong flavors from the mirepoix or the herbs and spices in the sachet. Brown stocks should have a richer, deeper flavor, but with no charred flavor from bones that were browned too heavily. Fish fumets should have a smooth, mellow flavor from the white wine content, with no harsh alcohol flavors. Flavors and aromas of neutral vegetable stock should be rich and well-balanced, with no strong flavor from any single vegetable. Vegetable stocks made for specific purposes with a high proportion of a single vegetable should have the fresh flavor and aroma of that vegetable, not a strong or unpleasant flavor of overcooked vegetables.