Question and Answers from Mormon Apologetics.org

Occasionally I get emails from people on this board about Food, Cooking and recipes. Does anyone else have questions, curiosities, or even better a recipe you'd like to share???

Chef Matthew

From Lucas_S:

Sure, I've got one. I recently roasted a few chickens for dinner for myself and a few friends, and decided to use the leftover bones and skin to make stock. All the leftover chicken parts went into a stock pot, followed by about a gallon and a half of water, an onion, a few carrots, a few stalks of celery, some peppercorns, and some fresh basil. I brought this all to a boil, then let it simmer until I thought it tasted good, which ended up being about 6 hours. I strained everything out, and then reduced it a bit further, and put some of it away in the freezer for later use, but kept the bulk of it in the fridge to make soup the next day.

Now, I understand that a certain amount of stiffening happens when stock gets cold because of the gelatin released from whatever bones you're using, but this stuff basically turned to jello. Despite being gross looking, it made really good red beans and rice. Is there any way to keep the stock from stiffening up so much?

From Chef Matthew:

Once you reduce it further it started to become glace, which is even better than stock, the flavors are more concentrated. There is 0 problem freezing stock/glace. One of my favorite chefs said she bought a fridge/freezer unit that made ice cubes so she didn't need ice cube trays anymore. So she nows them for her glace (reduced stock). She then pops a block of iced glace out when she wants to make an "instant" sauce. A great time saver. 

I would suggest if you don't like it so stiff to use it more quickly, or don't freeze it. It will keep in the fridge for about a week. However, the more you reduce it, the more concentrated it becomes, thus more jello like. However in my opinion, the better it is. 

If you can get a hold of a local butcher, try to get cow/veal NECK bones. They may cost you a bit more, but they make fabulous veal/beef stock because of all the marrow/gelatin in the neck bones. 

From LDSTORONTO: 

Yes! I'm a fairly decent 'dad' cook, but something that has eluded me for as long as I've been cooking is roast chicken. Every time I make a roasted chicken, the bird comes out looking great, but the breast meat is too dry. I've tried covering it, uncovering it, even cooking it breast-side down. So my question - How do I make a juicy roast chicken?

Thanks!

H.

From Chef Matthew:

Ever have a dry turkey at thanksgiving? Most people cook their poultry to the ungodly temperature of 185 F. YUCK! While everyone says you're supposed to cook poultry to 165 most don't know you should pull it from the oven at 155. There is a thing called "carry over cooking". The protein keeps cooking even though it has been pulled from the heating source because it's still very hot. You need to pull the chicken earlier and let it "rest". Or allow the molecules to settle. I cooked a boneless turkey I got from the Church welfare system tonight for dinner and my wife was amazed at how much juice came out when I cut into it. The reason, I only cooked it till the internal temp was about 155 with the oven at 350 F. Then I let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes before I cut into it. It was freakin tasty with potatoes and gravy! I only regret I didn't take photos to show you. Maybe next time....