Thursday, November 10, 2011

Veggie scrap experiment

Some of what I want to chronicle in this blog are my experiments--in the kitchen, in art, in life.

And, like in all experiments--and, frankly, like in life--sometimes things don't work out like you thought they would.

That is my introduction to this post about making my own veggie stock.

In an effort to live greener and save money, I've been saving my vegetable scraps to make stock.  For the last couple of months, when I peeled or chopped pretty much any vegetable, I threw the scraps in a ziplock bag in the freezer.

When the bag was about to burst, I dumped the scraps in a pot and covered them with water.

Carrot and other veggie scraps fresh out of the freezer.  You can still see bits of ice!
I added some peppercorns and two bay leaves and let it simmer for about an hour.


Then I strained the stock...


...and poured it into quart-sized mason jars (because you know I love any excuse to use mason jars).


It felt very satisfying to have three quarts of beautiful vegetable stock cooling on the counter.

Then I tasted it.  Sadly, it was somewhat flavorless.

I've still been using it.  I cooked rice in it, and it was mildly more flavorful than rice cooked in water.

And I have plans to try again.  I think with more spices.  And some cloves of garlic.  And salt.

So I will leave you with a favorite childhood saying:

If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again.

3 comments:

Carolinek said...

We've done this a few times, and you're on the right track! Our secret ingredient is soy sauce. We also try to load up on onions/garlic and add herbs like dried thyme and rosemary to give a little more flavor. And don't forget you can always add more ingredients/flavor to your existing stock when you're using it!
-Caroline (I think my account doesn't know my name)

Lina said...

Soy sauce is a great idea! It needed a kick like that.

Lauren Leggatt said...

i love that you use your vegetable scraps! :) such a genius idea! i agree, soy sauce sounds good too!