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One thing that definitely resonates with me is his mention of sauces when he explains the differences between star ratings. Quite often when I visit a great re

One thing that definitely resonates with me is his mention of sauces when he explains the differences between star ratings. Quite often when I visit a great restaurant I find its a sauce that lifts a dish from the good to memorable. I always thought that was because of the stock made from scratch. This is quite hard to replicate at home- store bought stock cubes add very little depth of flavour to a dish and making stock from scratch, well, unless you have a lot of time on your hands its not going to happen.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>Quite often when I visit a great restaurant I find its a sauce that lifts a dish from the good to memorable. I always thought that was because of the stock made from scratch. Or from knowing exactly what materials or procedures to add to the "school cafeteria" sauce your food service supplier delivers to make it work great with your dish.
arethuza 5y ago
"mention of sauces when he explains the differences between star ratings" That's pretty much my view of bacon sandwiches - without "brown" sauce they are pretty good, but with "brown" sauce they are the food of the gods.
prometheus76 5y ago
Buying a rotisserie chicken and throwing it in an instant pot with some carrots, onions, celery, and enough water to cover it (and some thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves) for an hour or so has surprisingly good results, and is fairly easy to do. Pour the liquid through a strainer. I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it, so I can just grab a couple of cubes when I'm making a pan sauce or soup.
- morley 5y ago
  It's easy enough to start with an uncooked chicken, or better yet, wings for the high collagen content. When you start with a rotisserie chicken, you've a lost a lot of the chicken's flavor to the roaster's drip pan.
  - prometheus76 5y ago
    I prefer the flavor from the already-roasted chicken in my stock, but yeah a raw chicken works just as well. Just needs more cooking time in the pressure cooker. My main point was that making stock at home is a lot faster if you have a pressure cooker.
jasonladuke0311 5y ago
You can make and freeze demi-glace cubes. Cool trick I saw on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERauv-k5wo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERauv-k5wo EDIT: Forgot to add, fish sauce also adds a lot of umami and depth.
rednerrus 5y ago
If you live in a city, go find a specialty grocery store and ask them for stock and demi. They'll get you restaurant quality versions of both items.
- martijn_himself 5y ago
  That's some really good advice. I must give that a try, thanks.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

>Quite often when I visit a great restaurant I find its a sauce that lifts a dish from the good to memorable. I always thought that was because of the stock made from scratch. Or from knowing exactly what materials or procedures to add to the "school cafeteria" sauce your food service supplier delivers to make it work great with your dish.

arethuza 5y ago

"mention of sauces when he explains the differences between star ratings" That's pretty much my view of bacon sandwiches - without "brown" sauce they are pretty good, but with "brown" sauce they are the food of the gods.

prometheus76 5y ago

Buying a rotisserie chicken and throwing it in an instant pot with some carrots, onions, celery, and enough water to cover it (and some thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves) for an hour or so has surprisingly good results, and is fairly easy to do. Pour the liquid through a strainer. I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it, so I can just grab a couple of cubes when I'm making a pan sauce or soup.

morley 5y ago
It's easy enough to start with an uncooked chicken, or better yet, wings for the high collagen content. When you start with a rotisserie chicken, you've a lost a lot of the chicken's flavor to the roaster's drip pan.
- prometheus76 5y ago
  I prefer the flavor from the already-roasted chicken in my stock, but yeah a raw chicken works just as well. Just needs more cooking time in the pressure cooker. My main point was that making stock at home is a lot faster if you have a pressure cooker.

jasonladuke0311 5y ago

You can make and freeze demi-glace cubes. Cool trick I saw on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERauv-k5wo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERauv-k5wo EDIT: Forgot to add, fish sauce also adds a lot of umami and depth.

rednerrus 5y ago

If you live in a city, go find a specialty grocery store and ask them for stock and demi. They'll get you restaurant quality versions of both items.

martijn_himself 5y ago
That's some really good advice. I must give that a try, thanks.