Mastering Stocks and Broths
A Comprehensive Culinary Approach Using Traditional Techniques and No-Waste Methods
Mastering Stocks and Broths
A Comprehensive Culinary Approach Using Traditional Techniques and No-Waste Methods
James Beard Foundation Book Award Finalist
A Booklist “Top 10 Cookbook of the Year”
This “exhaustive guide to understanding and preparing stocks and broths” explores the history, science, and fundamentals of this culinary staple—and includes 100+ recipes to try at home (Booklist).
Stocks and broths are the foundation of good cooking, yet information on their use is often relegated to the introductions or appendices of cookbooks. Until now there has not been a comprehensive culinary guide to stocks in the canon, save for snippets here and there. Hard to believe, since most passionate home cooks and professional chefs know that using stocks and broths can turn a moderately flavorful dish into a masterpiece.
In Mastering Stocks and Broths, author Rachael Mamane takes passionate home cooks and innovative chefs on a culinary journey, offering fascinating insights on:
• The importance, fundamentals, and science of stocks and broths
• 100+ unique, zero-waste recipes with stocks as foundational ingredients
• The history of stocks and broths, including the classic French technique and beyond
• The importance of quality sourcing
• The practical and health benefits of stocks and broths
• How to develop, store, and use stocks in a home kitchen
The recipes place an emphasis on the value of zero waste, turning spent bones, produce seconds, and leftover animal fats into practical products to use around the home. Readers will turn to this book when they find themselves wondering what to do with the carcass of a store-bought roast chicken and they want to learn how to make every inch of their vegetables go further.
Perhaps most important to remember: a good stock takes time. This is part of the pleasure―making stocks is meditative and meaningful, if you allow yourself the occasion. Building a stock often happens in the background of most kitchens―a smell that permeates a residence, a gentle warmth that radiates from the kitchen. Readers will be inspired by Mamane’s approach to truly slow cookery and her effervescent love for food itself.
Reviews & Praise
“If you have ever tried to imagine the most definitive encyclopedia on stocks, sauces, and broths, here it is. Mastering Stocks and Broths is wildly practical and comprehensive. Everyone who aspires to see health germinate from their kitchen needs to follow Mamane’s lead. I can’t imagine a single question unanswered in this marvelous book.”—Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm; author of You Can Farm
“Mastering Stocks and Broths is the most thorough book on the subject I’ve come across. Rachael Mamane’s writing is as beautiful, thoughtful, and caring as her approach to food, the table, and her stocks. And I love the intriguing recipes that she has interspersed throughout the book. If one really used this book, one would emerge a truly excellent cook and, I dare say, person. Here is to deep passion and thoroughness. Kudos!”—Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy and In My Kitchen
“Equal parts inspiration and encyclopedia, this fabulous book will be reached for again and again. It truly does contain everything you need to know to let broths and stocks enrich your kitchen with nutrition, flavor, and depth. Mamane’s recipes are truly irresistible, and the science and history she weaves throughout add multilayered meanings to the guidance she provides, inviting you on an adventure with each dish she offers.”—Jessica Prentice, author of Full Moon Feast; cofounder, Three Stone Hearth
“Rachael Mamane takes stock making to a whole new level in Mastering Stocks and Broths, from making a basic stock to the many ways of thickening and flavoring this fundamental ingredient into delicious sauces, gravies, soups, and stews. This book deserves a place in the kitchen of all serious—and not so serious—cooks.”—Sally Fallon Morell, president, The Weston A. Price Foundation
“It’s always been my preference to surround myself with people who are willing to go deep. I’m not really interested in making time for anyone else. By deep, I mean people who work and study hard, people who aren’t afraid to ask questions, people whose enthusiasm for experimentation never wavers, people who, above all else, are willing to sacrifice for the sweet pleasure of slowly obtained mastery. I especially like to read books written by those people. Rachael Mamane is one of those people. In this remarkable tome, she manages to write about bones and broth and stock on four very different levels at once: the spiritual, the symbolic, the technical, and the practical. Maybe I should throw in the political, too. Read this book. Like Rachael’s stocks and broths, it will heal you. It will also bring you into the deep.”—Camas Davis, butcher; writer; owner, Portland Meat Collective