Question for making vegetable stock...

I'm about to begin my first foray into cooking (I'm thinking of joining a online cooking forum, actually).

I have this huge cookbook and it's been a great, educational read and it has a zillion recipes. I'm about to try and cook something, but one thing I can't seem to get answered. What do you do with the stuff you use for making vegetable stock? Throwing it away seems like a huge waste, but I assume the flavor is all gone in the water so you can't eat it.

The veggies gave their all for your stock. Toss, compost, or feed them to the dog.

The nutrients have basically been cooked out of the veggies and they are the consistency of mush at this point. The good stuff is in the stock.

You can salvage the veggies to make a gravy, but that's about all I would want to use them for.

Like the other guys said, you throw out whatever you used to make the stock with, but you can also make stock with stuff you were going to throw out anyway. For example, if you clean carrot peels well enough before scraping them off the carrot they can go in the stock. The top part of celery can go into the stock too. Depending on what you use you might notice a difference in flavor/quality when compared to using the whole ingredient; personally, I find it quite satisfying to squeeze another meal out of something I was going to throw out.

I make my own chicken stock. There is a second cooking of the veges and chicken that can be done. For your next batch of stock use the second water/stock instead of water. I have done this and it is nice, BUT, since I make a lot of stock at one time and freeze it there is little room to also freeze the second stock. There is a name for this second stock, but it escapes me at this time.

The most important ingredient for vegetable stock is beef bones.

Back on topic- once you finish making your stock, here's a great tip for storing. Pour the cooled stock into ice cube trays. Once frozen, you can dump them into a freezer bag. This way you always have portion controlled stock on hand for sauces. I usually reduce the stock prior to freezing. It's amazing what a cube of demi glace can do for a sauce.

Mark Bittman recently noted in one of his articles that a onion, carrot and celery stalk cooked for 20 minutes is a better and cheaper vegetable stock than anything on the market.

I agree. It's cheap and easy, and for recipes that call for vegetable stock or water, it's better than choosing water. It's also something you can do while you're prepping everything for the dish.

+1 on the beef bones, but sometimes you want a vegan stock not because you are vegan but because you just don't want the meat in stock. My wife likes to make couscous with either a vegetable stock or a chicken stock. For some of us the idea of vegetable stock is veggies. If meat is wanted we would call it beef stock or chicken.

Just kidding about the beef bones- that's a whole nuther process.

Since everyone loves Alton-
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/ge-court-bouillon-recipe/index.html

you could always give the veggies a bit of a fry in olive oil before starting the stock, spice up the oil before frying, which is also the secret to a good pasta sause,

also some sherry, port or a sweetish red wine should perk up the stock,

If you feel like you're wasting, do what I do.... I keep a large zip-top bag in the freezer, and whenever I have "trash" veggies, I through them in the bag in the freezer. When the bag is full, its time to make stock.

The great thing is that just about anything is fair game. Carrot skin and trimmed tops, onion skins, celery leaves and roots, potato skins, cucumber skin/seeds, mushroom stems, whatever you have. The only thing I would avoid is garlic or garlic skins.... it tends to not play well with others in stock.

To answer the question: Once you've boiled those vegetables all the goodness has gone. All the little vegetable cells have burst open (hence the mushiness) and released the flavors, vitamins, etc. into the stock.

You can give it to your dog, or try frying it up, etc. - but its really a waste of time. You (or Fido) might as well eat cardboard. The best thing you can do with used vegetable matter is toss it in your compost pile, where what little remains can be returned to the soil.

kongjie said:

Mark Bittman recently noted in one of his articles that a onion, carrot and celery stalk cooked for 20 minutes is a better and cheaper vegetable stock than anything on the market.

I agree. It's cheap and easy, and for recipes that call for vegetable stock or water, it's better than choosing water. It's also something you can do while you're prepping everything for the dish.

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The huge cookbook I referred to in my first post is actually written by Mark Bittman. It's a nice book. I'm sort of looking forward to cooking my first dish but it's also kind of scary. I feel like I'm gonna screw up.. I guess it's not a big deal if I screwed up.

vroddrew said:

The best thing you can do with used vegetable matter is toss it in your compost pile, where what little remains can be returned to the soil.

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I think I'll do this.

Give the poor dog a break and bury that mush in your garden or toss it in the compost. That recycles it. My secret ingredient I sneak into my stock...boullion cubes.

harman said:

The huge cookbook I referred to in my first post is actually written by Mark Bittman. It's a nice book. I

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Great back to basics sort of cookbook. I originally had his How to Cook Everything but then replaced it with How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. The cover is a nicer color.

But seriously, the guy deserves a lot of credit for his minimalist approach. It's very home-cooking friendly and comes at a time when for various reasons we need to be cooking more and eating prepared/fast food less.