What is Chicken Stock?
Chicken stock is made by simmering chicken bones, vegetables and seasonings, such as herbs and salt. This combination is set to simmer for 6-8 hours. The result is a thin broth with a golden color and a meaty, vegetal and comforting flavor, with hints of salt. Chicken broth is used in many dishes and is a main ingredient in soups and stews.
What does Chicken Stock Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Water is a substance and chemical compound made up of hydrogen and oxygen. It is clear, fluid, flavorless and odorless. Water is a necessity in nearly every aspect of life, including cooking, baking and hydrating the human body. Water can be served as a cold beverage, or at any temperature comfortable to the mouth and skin.
Chicken is in the poultry category, meaning it is a bird kept for its meat. Many parts of the chicken are used in food preparation. The breast, wings, thighs and legs are common parts of this bird used in cooking. When raw, chicken is a pale pink to darker shade of pink. The meat must be cooked before consuming and any cooking method can be used to thoroughly cook the meat, including grilling, roasting and frying.
The onion is a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. Shallots are small and mild onions. Vidalias are sweet, while red onions are strong and sharp. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. This skin depends in the color of the onion, as does the flesh. The flesh, or body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Carrots are a root vegetable with feathery green tops and long tapered orange colored roots. Some carrot varieties are purple or yellow, but orange is the most common. The carrot can be up to a foot in length. It has a dense, woody texture that is nonetheless very chewable and non-fibrous. Its flavor is sweet and a bit earthy. Carrots are eaten raw, cooked and used in cuisines across the world.
Celery is a light green vegetable with tall, thin fibrous stalks and green leaves at their tips. They are extremely juicy and comprised of 90% water. They grow in clusters, sharing a base with about eight or nine ribbed stalks. The texture is crunchy, juicy and has a refreshing flavor that is light, sweet and vegetal. Celery can be eaten raw or cooked into soups and other dishes.
Botanically speaking the tomato is a fruit, but in the culinary world it is used almost strictly as a vegetable. Tomatoes are a nightshade plant that grow on tall, thick sturdy stalks. There are many varieties of tomato, but the most common type is round and red. It has a thin skin that covers its extremely juicy and soft flesh. The center contains seeds wrapped in a gelatinous film. The tomato is sour with a hint of sweetness. It can be sliced into rounds and wedges or diced into small chunks and is eaten raw or cooked.
Rosemary is a woody herb and grows on a plant that looks like a small bush. The dense stalks are reminiscent of a Christmas tree, with the many skinny rosemary leaves situated much like fir needles. However, rosemary is a soft leaf and has a very strong aromatic smell. This smell is sharp, yet pleasing and refreshingly green. Dried rosemary smells similar and is dried using air or mild heat. The leaves remain fairly intact and are added to potatoes and meat. The flavor has a quality that could be considered distantly like mint, but sharper and with a hint of bitterness.
