Stock Making: Basic Fresh Vegetable Stock

Basic Fresh Vegetable Stock

At it’s most basic, stock is just water that has been infused with flavour. How you make your stock is as individual as you like. I will tell you how I make mine, then you can adapt it to your own taste.

You will want your stock to be

  • Flavourful: Make sure you get the ratio right between the ingredients and the water. As a rule of thumb you can assume a 2:1 ratio, that is twice the volume of water to stock ingredients.
  • Clear: Clear stock is pure stock. This achieved by simmering ever-so-gently. Boil your stock and you will boil the impurities into it making your stock cloudy.

Ingredients for a basic fresh vegetable stock

To make a basic, fresh vegetable stock – the base for almost all variants of stock you will need to prepare (what the French call) Mirepoix. This is a mixture of onion, celery and  carrot. The ratio for your Mirepoix should be:-

  • 50% Onion
  • 25% Carrot
  • 25% Celery
  • 200% water

Method for a basic fresh vegetable stock

  1. Chop your Mirepoix into approx 1cm pieces and place them in a pot.
  2. Add the cold water and bring to a very gentle simmer.
  3. Simmer, partially covered for 45 minutes
  4. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes
  5. Drain.

As you simmer your stock, the impurities will rise to the surface in the form of a thick(ish) foam. Skim this off and discard.