How to pressure cook stocks

How to pressure cook stocks

Preparing stocks with the mind set of a cook and a chemist which will slash the cooking time in halve and produce a stock that is twice as strong. Grind your meat and vegetables as thinly as possible and use the heat within the pressure cooker as gentle as possible. Take care no to let the pressure-cooker contents boil while the stock simmers. Boiling not only stresses the equipment’s but also causes turbulence that emulsifies fats and turns the stocks cloudy. Operated correctly, a pressure cooker can yield stocks that are nearly as clear as a consommé. Solids sink to the bottom, a layer of oil raises to the top, and a thin layer of buoyant particles remain just below the oil.

Prepare ingredients. Grind meat and slice vegetables as thinly as possible; use ratio as recommended. Roast bones or other sources of gelatin in oven. If desired, reserve 10% of raw ground meat to further clarify the stock.

Brown meat in fat directly in the cooker. Oven–browning is also acceptable, but browning in the cooker produces a flavorful fond. Remove meat after it is browned. Be careful not to scorch or over brown the meat to dark brown as this will produce a bitter taste.

Add vegetables and cook until soft. Deglaze the pot with any excess juices. If needed, deglaze the pot further with water or other liquid. “Wine”

Combine all ingredients in pressure cooker. Return browned meat and vegetables to the pot, then add liquids, roasted bones, optional aromatics, and optional reserve ground meat.

Bring liquid in pressure cooker first to a simmer, the skim of all the scum. Cover, bring to full pressure and then reduce heat to an absolute minimum to maintain pressure. Pressure cook at without venting. (15 psi). Remember your Moms pressure cooker which made this solid whistling noise. This is bad, real bad for your clear stock.

Remove from heat and cool until pressure abates. You can accelerate cooling by running cold water over the pot.

Skim off fat, then sieve stock gently. Leave solids on bottom as you decant the stock from the pot to sieve. Alternatively, if clarity is of importance, remove stock with a siphon. Or chill it to solidify fats, poke a hole through the fat, and pour out stock through hole.