Breakfast was a maple sweet roll. I weighed in at 159 pounds.
Well, we made it through Christmas dinner. We started out with shrimp cocktail, cheese and crackers. We had a <a href="https://hbf.honeybaked.com/ohio_secure/" title="the Honeybaked Ham Company">Honeybaked Ham</a>, cloved onions, baked beans, sweet potatoes, bread rolls, and a <a href="http://www.sutterhome.com/html/wine/wz.html" title="White Zinfandel">Sutter Home White Zinfandel</a>. Dessert was a choice of pumpkin pie or mince pie followed by <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolates.
Christmas Eve Food Log
Breakfast this morning was four potato coquettes and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 158 pounds. We had a quesadilla while we cooked.
<ins datetime="2003-12-24T22:14:00-05:00">Tonight we feasted. Gretchen, the woman who despises all type of entertaining, decided that we would not only do Christmas dinner, but Christmas eve dinner as well. We spent the day cooking, and this is what we had. Dinner was marinated sirloin steaks, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and a three layer, meringue and jam torte. Gretchen’s sister made a salad, and her mother had cranberry sauce. We also had a bottle of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=4" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Pinot Grigio</a>. Alcohol makes a surprisingly effective social lubricant, and the evening was very pleasant, apparently for all involved.</ins>
<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/torte.jpg" height="256" width="341" alt="Gretchen's Torte" />
And you thought you had problems with wildlife in your garden
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/24/opinion/24WED4.html?ex=1387602000&en=c5d18cce283beb0d&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">The Elephant and the Chili Pepper</a>: “Farmers in the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe have hit on a novel way to keep elephants from trampling their fields. They surround their crops with rows of chili peppers, whose smell is noxious to elephants. The peppers prevent battles that have harmed both man and animal, save crops and give farmers a lucrative new product to export.”
Stock or Broth? A non answer.
Despite the apparent authority and level of agreement between the two people I quoted, there really is no agreement at all. I simply chose two authoritative sounding answers that seemed to agree. There are many other opinions:
- Some believe the only difference is whether you add salt.
- Some believe the one is simply a reduction of the other.
- Some believe that they are the same, but one word is used by professionals and the other is used by amateur cooks at home.
- Some believe that one is a finished product and one is an ingredient for another recipe.
Call it what you want. What I make does not follow any of the recipes I have seen for stock or broth.
Stock or Broth? Another Answer.
The basic differences between a broth and a stock lies in its “properties.” For example, a chicken broth will react differently when deglazing a sauté pan than a chicken stock. The reason for this is that the chicken stock will contain more gelée than chicken broth and will bind up the pan drippings into a pan sauce as the stock is reduced, replacing the alternative of cream or butter to aid in this process. The type of chicken parts used in the pot and the amount of extraction of gelée depends on the length of reduction. These are the key factors to consider in determining whether you are making chicken stock or chicken broth. Let us take a moment and review these key factors in chicken broth and chicken stock.
Chicken broth is usually made with chicken meat and chicken parts, with a high flesh to bone ratio. Whole chicken or assorted parts can be used. Fryers and roasters, both readily available at your local supermarket, do not produce satisfactory results. Stewing hens produce the best broth and are often available in the poultry section in your market. If you cannot find them do not hesitate to ring for assistance — the poultry manager will usually order them for you. For the more adventuresome, you may be able to locate someone who has a small flock of laying hens that are past their prime for egg production. Purchase one or two of them to slaughter and dress yourself. The reduction time for chicken broth at sea level is about 3 hours.
Chicken stock is made mostly of chicken parts that have a very low flesh to bone ratio. Backs, necks and breast bones produce the best stock. These boney parts are also readily available at your local supermarket, either in the case or by special order. It is also advantageous to buy whole chickens and cut them up yourself for other recipes. You can then freeze backbones, wing tips, and other parts not used in your original recipe until you are ready to make your stock. To achieve the maximum extraction of gelée from the chicken bones the reduction time at sea level is 6 hours. Water, vegetables, herbs, and salt are ingredients that are common to both stock and broth. [Dove]
Dove, CeCe. “<a href="http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets025.htm" title="Family Secrets #25: Chicken Stock and Chicken Broth">Family Secrets #25: Chicken Stock and Chicken Broth</a>” <em><a href="http://www.parshift.com/ovens/home.htm" title="La Lama Mountain Ovens Home: Italian recipes and bakery goods">La Lama Mountain Ovens</a></em>. 1 May 2002. <a href="http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets025.htm" title="Family Secrets #25: Chicken Stock and Chicken Broth"><http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets025.htm></a> (23 December 2003).
About Beer…
<a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/1003/kgk100303.html" title="Kate's Global Kitchen">May I See the Beer List, Please?</a>: “Before Prohibition,” [Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery,] explains, “we had a vibrant brewing culture and thousands of breweries. Brooklyn alone had 48 breweries. But Prohibition destroyed the brewing industry, and after 12 years with no beer, the surviving breweries figured that people would be willing to drink almost anything. So they made the cheapest, blandest possible product, sold with huge amounts of advertising. Traditional beers are made from four essential ingredients: malted barley, yeast, hops and water. Some types of beers use both barley and wheat. In contrast, mass-market beers are usually made with fillers like corn or rice. It makes a big difference — it’s one of the reasons that these mass-market beers are so flavorless.” Fortunately, nearly 2,000 breweries in the U.S. today have brought real beer back to the public, and Oliver is out to educate people on how they’re made, what to look for, and what to serve with them.
Stock or Broth?
By the way, if you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a “stock” and a “broth,” relax: they’re essentially the same thing. Or at least the differences between the two definitions are minor. I have plowed through a library of cooks’ references, including Larousse Gastronomic, The New Food Lover’s Companion, Barbara Kafka’s Soup: A Way of Life, and The New Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America. In virtually every case, both “stock” and “broth” are defined as a liquid made from bones and meat, sometimes with vegetables, herbs and seasonings. Most definitions go further to yield circuitous references to “soup” and “bouillon,” which, in the interests of limited clarity, I’ll conveniently skip in this column.
The latest edition (1997) of the esteemed Joy of Cooking adds its own unique imprint to the murky world of stocks and broths: “Unlike stocks, which are made primarily from bones, broths are made from meat (except for vegetable broth), and they cook for shorter periods of time. The resulting liquid has a fresher, more definable flavor but less body than a stock.” Immediately following this passage is a recipe for chicken broth, which calls for simmering in water a whole chicken, presumably with bones and carcass intact.
The late Steve Holzinger, who trained many a professional chef, offered the following advice in a column printed here several years back: “A stock is a water extract of food. A broth is a stock made with meat or poultry as distinguished from one made from the bones of meat and poultry. A consommé is a finished broth, one that has great flavor due to the use of considerable amounts of meat or poultry. If properly cooked and skimmed, it will be as clear as a consommé clarified with egg whites.” Clear as mud, once again.
Actually, what all of these references seem to intend but leave a bit cloudy is that the main distinction of a stock is indeed the richness derived from the gelatin (essentially concentrated protein) released by the bones and cartilage, and to a lesser extent by tendons, skin, and other tissue. Gelatin-rich bones may or may not be dropped into a broth-pot, but even if they are included as an ingredient, it’s always to much less degree than in a stock. Shorter cooking time for a broth also yields less gelatin than a long-simmered stock; hence the resulting broth has almost no gelatin and is thinner.
When a true stock is chilled, it congeals because of the gelatin. A refrigerated broth remains liquid and flowable. But that’s not to say a broth is totally gelatin-free, as even in a short cooking period the simmered meat protein itself will still leach some gelatin; a broth just contains less gelatin than does a stock. Clear, eh? [Heyhoe]
Heyhoe, Kate. “<a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/0103/kgk011003.html" title="Kate's Global Kitchen">The Essential Chicken Stock</a>” <em><a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/" title="Kate's Global Kitchen">Kate's Global Kitchen</a></em>. 10 January 2003. <a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/0103/kgk011003.html" title="Kate's Global Kitchen"><http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/0103/kgk011003.html></a> (23 December 2003).
Food Log
Breakfast was a bowl of cereal. I weighed in at 158 pounds. Lunch was a bean and cheese quesadilla with bread and butter pickles and a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale.
<ins datetime="2003-12-24T09:04:00-05:00">Dinner was the last of the gratin and a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale with more cookies for dessert.</ins>
Making Cheese Is Her Calling
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/nyregion/21CONN.html?ei=5007&en=b7090c05be6532e4&ex=1387515600&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position=" title="Connecticut: Making Cheese Is Her Calling; Make That Her Second Calling">Connecticut: Making Cheese Is Her Calling; Make That Her Second Calling</a>: “When Mother Noella Marcellino first focused a microscope more than a decade ago on cheese she had made by hand at the Benedictine abbey in Bethlehem, she had no idea she would become the celebrated champion of France’s famous raw-milk cheeses, the centuries-old ways they are made, and the tiny microorganisms that help flavor them.
“Along the way, this 52-year-old former college dropout also has won a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, earned a University of Connecticut doctorate in microbiology, and achieved near rock-star status among cheesemakers and cheese-lovers, both here and abroad.
“Last week, Mother Noella was honored by the French food industry with its first French Food Spirit Award in the category of science advancement for promoting an understanding of its cheeses and helping to preserve the traditional ways of making them.
“Next year, wearing her black nun’s habit and irresistible smile, Mother Noella will star in a national PBS documentary film, called ‘The Cheese Nun: Sister Noella's Voyage of Discovery.’”
Food Log
I had a glass of orange juice for breakfast. Weighed in at 158 pounds. We went gift shopping today and stopped at the <a href="https://hbf.honeybaked.com/ohio_secure/" title="the Honeybaked Ham Company">Honeybaked Ham Company</a> and had Classic Ham sandwiches. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/smile.png" height="18" width="18" alt=":-)" /> Dinner was left-over butternut squash and vegetable gratin and a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale.