The Longevity of Stew Broth

October 14, 2017 3:47 AM

I have a question about stewing, casseroles, braising etc. So, you cook a lovely casserole and don't thicken it up so after extracting all the chunky bits there's a lot of sauce left. So you put that in the fridge and then a few days later you think, oh, time for more lovely stodge so you cook up the next one with the leftover sauce as a base and add more stock and other stuff and hey ho, eat the chunky bits, put sauce in the fridge ad nauseaum. Except minus the nauseaum bit because how long can this go for, if you are scrupulously refrigerating the left over sauce in between goes? Forever? (I love stews).
posted by h00py to Food & Drink (2 answers total)

Best answer: Master stock (鹵水 or 高汤)

The defining characteristic of a master stock from other stocks is that after initial use, it is not discarded or turned into a soup or sauce. Instead, the broth is stored and reused in the future as a stock for more poachings sometimes for up to 100 years. [...] In theory, a master stock could be sustained indefinitely if due care is taken to ensure it does not spoil. There are claims of master stocks in China that are hundreds of years old, passed down through generations of cooks in this way.

posted by XMLicious at 3:55 AM on October 14, 2017 [10 favorites]

There was some good discussion about the safety of repeatedly reheating meat stock in a recent previous AskMe. In general, stock is an extremely good breeding ground for bacteria, and keeping it for any length of time in the danger zone should be avoided.

General consensus seems to be that ten minutes at the boil will both kill active bacteria and deactivate any botulinum toxin. Botulinum toxin is extremely no good. You definitely do not want to consume botulinum toxin. Do not skip this step.

There's also a bit of good chat in that thread about the safety factors of putting hot things into your fridge. Re-using stew is a great and time-honoured process, and can be done safely, but has some pretty negative possible outcomes if not done safely.
posted by spielzebub at 6:07 AM on October 14, 2017 [5 favorites]