As long as it doesn't have eye of newt.

January 26, 2013 11:38 PM

What are your best broth recipes?

Ideally, they'd be flavourful, rich, dairy-free, not stock (meant to be consumed on their own) and can be frozen. I'll try anything from anywhere - though I'm more interested in recipes that hail from outside Asia. I know very little about Eastern European cuisine, for example. Soup/broth with stuff in them (noodles, dumplings etc) also totally count so long as the base is broth.

Basically, your awesome broth recipes: give them to me, please!

posted by zennish to food & drink (9 answers total)

I'm a little unclear on what you're looking for, but one of these should work.

Traditional Pork Pozole Rojo: This recipe makes a pork stock to use as the base

Chicken Pozole Rojo: This recipe makes a fresh chicken stock as a base, but if you're looking for recipes that start with a stock base you can definitely use pre-made broth or stock.

Because I usually have most everything but hominy in the pantry I'll make the soup without it and thicken the soup with corn flour*, masa, or a torn-up corn tortilla or two. Without the hominy it's pretty broth-y, and if you have carnicerías in your neck of the woods you can always add shredded carnitas to the chicken version!

*not corn starch
posted by Room 641-A at 4:41 AM on January 27

This pretty close to what I make as Scotch broth. If you want a bit more texture and flavour, use pot barley instead of pearl.
posted by scruss at 4:41 AM on January 27

Well, technically, broth is just stock that's been seasoned so you can eat it on its own. So you could take any stock recipe and season it to your taste.

That said: check out pho, or anything left over after you have a Sichuan hot pot.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:38 AM on January 27 [2 favorites]

Deborah Madison's vegetable stock recipe overcame by prejudice against non-meat broths.
posted by markcmyers at 6:43 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Plain ol' chicken stock probably isn't what you have in mind, but if you're not blindingly happy with your recipe, try this one. It's stock that eats like broth: Modernist Cuisine's Pressure-Cooker Chicken Stock. (Though I also add a chicken carcass and a little Marmite.)

A pressure cooker is, IMO, always the way to go for stock/broth, unless you're making an absolute ton of it. I can do two quarts in 90 minutes of better stock than I've ever gotten by simmering all day.
posted by supercres at 8:01 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]

Mutton Broth.
posted by Callicvol at 8:03 AM on January 27

Sorry, my cooking terminology's pretty limited, but that pozole rojo and the scotch broth is pretty much what I'm looking for - new flavours and different textures!

And yeah, the seasoning's what I'm running out of ideas for, really.
posted by zennish at 10:10 PM on January 27

This. The all-afternoon version. Simple, delicious, and WILL cure the common cold. No joke.
posted by hrj at 2:07 PM on January 28

My standard answer to broth questions is always my grandmother's chicken broth/soup (we call it soup, but it's basically a broth).

1. In an 8qt stock pot, put a whole chicken (doesn't need to be large). Cover with water to almost top of the pot.

2. Bring to a boil. Skim off foamy rendered fatty yuck. When water is at a boil, stir in one tablespoon salt (skim again if necessary) and 1 cup ketchup (I know it sounds weird. Do it anyway, I promise it's worth it. The result won't taste like ketchup).

3. Once you have the ketchup well-stirred-in, add:
1 white onion, quartered
1 potato, washed and quartered
1 washed bunch of celery hearts, with leaves and root end trimmed off
1 large handful (about the contents of one standard bag) of baby carrots

4. Bring back to a boil, then let simmer for 3-4 hours

5. Let cool for 1+ hours, then carefully strain out chicken and vegetables. Soup will still be VERY HOT! Shred chicken meat and put back into stock (if desired). At this point, you can now freeze the stock in individual batches if you want.

6. To make a meal out of it: Bring stock to a boil (however much you plan to eat in that sitting). Add small pasta (I prefer ditalini or eggbows). How much pasta will vary depending on how much soup you're heating; I think I usually end up doing something like two cups of pasta in eight cups of soup, but YMMV. My mother also likes to add some frozen veggies at this point - peas and carrots, maybe corn - but I'm a purist and don't. Bring to a boil, then simmer until pasta is cooked according to your tastes and the pasta's directions.

7. Om nom nom!
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 8:15 PM on January 29