Exploring The Best Bone For Making Best Stock

Bone is defined as substance that forms skeleton of the body. It is consist of calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate . It has many functions, they support the body structurally, protect our vital organs and allow us to move. they also provide an environment for bone marrow, where the blood cells are created and act as a storage for minerals, particularly calcium .There are 4 types of bone that are long bone which has long and thin shape . It include the bones of the arms and legs (excluding the wrists, ankles and kneecaps) and short bone which has squat and cube shape. it include the bones that make up the wrists and the ankles, flat bone which has a flattened and broad surface. it includes ribs, shoulder blades, breast bone and skull bone irregular bone that has a shape that does not conform to the above those three types . it include the bone of spine ( vertebrate ) .

The bone of veal, beef & chicken are common used to prepare stock. Discarded and cartilage bones of animals and poultry are best for stock . The flavor of the stock comes from the cartilage and connective tissue just like bones. connective tissue has collagen in it that gets converted into gelatin which thickens the liquid. stock that made from bones are need to be simmered for a long time than stock made from meat. pressure cooking method is also applied to shorten the time to extract the flavor from the bones . Always use bones from younger animals as they have more cartilage that is rendered into gelatin and giving the nice viscosity in the stock . if you wanna extract the most flavor in the shortest cooking time, so cut the bones into small pieces . It is also considered that the combination of meat and marrow bones gives the stock a rich flavor, but do not forget to trim the fat from the meat as you can .  

Here, we will learn about the using of bone for producing good stock . The bone are often used for preparing stock are mentioned below .

⦁ Joint bone : The body where two or more bones are met is called joint bone. cartilage covers the surface of a bone at  joint . joint bones is the best for preparing stock because joint bone is covered with the cartilage at the end of the joint and cartilage is consider to be the best for stock because the collagen in the cartilage thickens the liquid and providing flavor . joint bones are found in many areas of the body such as the knees, elbows, ankles, nose, ears, ribs, neck and back bones, feet, knuckle bones .  The below image credit to 

⦁ cartilage : It is found in between the joint of the bone such as the knees, elbows, ankles, nose, ears, ribs, neck and back bones, feet, knuckle bones . cartilage cover the ends of the bone at joint. In stock, we can use almost any bones, but It is best to used cartilage bones for preparing stock because the collagen in the cartilage thickens the liquid and providing flavor . cartilage is an essential  structural component of the body. it is act as supportive framework of the body. cartilage is a soft and flexible connective tissue with living cells arranged in bundles or pairs . it is softer and more flexible than bone .There are three main types of cartilage are elastic cartilage which is found  found in the ear and epiglottis, Fibro cartilage which are found in special pads known as menisci & in the disks between spinal bones and Hyaline cartilage that are  found in the larynx, nose, ribs and trachea .  The below image credit to superbutcher.com

⦁ chicken carcass :  The bones and cartilage frame of the chicken after removing all the other parts such as  breast, drumstick, thigh , wings is known as chicken carcass  It is left over skeleton of the chicken. It is also called soup cut . There is usually little amount of meat left on  it but it depend upon the cutting skill of butcher .  The below image credit to cottontreemeats.com

⦁ Discarded Bone : Discarded bones is a leftover, useless and unwanted bone. It is used to prepare stock because certain types of bones are prized, but it is cheap. The below image is the discarded bone of chicken .  The below image credit to meatstockexchange.com 

⦁ marrow bone : marrow bone  means bone which has marrow inside it  and bone marrow is the spongy tissue which is found inside the center or middle of most of bones such as our hips and thigh bones . It is found in any kinds of bones, but more found in the long bone . bone marrow has a soft, sponge-like texture and a rich, buttery & meaty flavor . There are two types of  bone marrow that are red and yellow . Red marrow contains blood stem cells that  produce red ,white blood cells and platelets . The function of red blood cells is to carry the oxygen, white blood cells helps to fight with infection and platelets helps for clotting blood . Yellow marrow which is made mostly of fat .  The below image credit to sweetmercyfarms.com and yosotypepad.com

Reason of using marrow bone  

• Bone marrow is full of collagen which helps to  thickens the stock and make more flavor-full when it is cooked and dissolved into liquid. Tt is gluten-free thickening agent .
• Bone marrow stock is healthy and economical way to build up your immune system and increase the good bacteria in your gut .
• Collagen is a kind of protein that is healthy for our hair, skins, nails, bones and joint .
• Bone marrow makes stem cells, which produce platelets, white and red blood cells . The platelets that helps for clotting blood , The white blood cells that fight infections, make up the body's  immune system and The red blood cells that carry oxygen to our body .
• marrow provides vitamin A, vitamin K2, minerals like zinci iron, boron, manganese and selenium as well as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid .

Fish bone : Bone of the fish are different than other bone like chicken, mutton, beef, veal, therefore we discuss about fish bone separately . The skeleton of fish is either made of White fish bone is used to prepare  fish stock. The bones basically include the head, spines, ribs and tails of mild, non-oily and white flesh fish such as bass, cod and snapper, but you can use bones and heads of any appropriate fish such as tilefish, halibut and cod .  Don't use oily fish because bone of oily-fish such as salmon, mackerel or tuna are too fatty and will make your stock greasy and unpleasant . The fish bones should be cleaned of any blood and gills because these will add nasty, bitter taste and  could up the stock and make bitter in taste .

Chef notes 

• The best bone for the any kinds of stock are joint bones, marrow bone, cartilage bone .
• Blanch the bones prior to use for stock because blanching bones assist to rid impurities that causes cloudiness in stock, although some chef feel that blanching process causes flavor to be lost. therefore , it is also suggested to rinse the bones in chill water and then place in a cooking pot and covered with cold water .
• Always add bones with cold water to make stock because certain proteins, most notably albumin will only dissolve in cold water and albumin helps to clarify a stock.  therefore starting a stock with cold water helps release the albumin, producing a clear stock.

Contact Information
Author : Chef BBS
page : Culinarian Institute

Web : foodphotographing.com

Email : culinarianinstitute@gmail.com