After 6 years at Purple Café in Seattle—making beef, chicken, fish, mushroom, and vegetable stocks weekly in commercial stockpots—I learned that great stock requires three things: bones, time, and attention.
No shortcuts. No pressure cookers. Just gentle heat, religious skimming, and patience.
I learned to make stock in culinary school, but I learned to make it *right* at Purple Café in Seattle. For 6 years, we made stock weekly—beef, chicken, fish, mushroom, vegetable—in massive commercial stockpots that simmered for 8 to 16 hours. That aroma of roasted bones and aromatics became the baseline for everything we served.
Stock is flavor currency in professional kitchens. Build deep, rich stock and you can create incredible sauces, soups, and risottos with minimal additional seasoning. Start with weak stock and no amount of salt or herbs will compensate for that missing foundation.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know the exact restaurant process for rich, clear stock that gels when chilled—the hallmark of proper collagen extraction.
Stock is invisible in the final dish, but it’s doing most of the work. A risotto made with good stock needs minimal seasoning. Soup built on weak stock requires excessive salt and herbs to compensate for missing depth.
The collagen extracted from bones creates body—that silky mouthfeel in a pan sauce or the way soup coats your spoon. You can’t fake this with cornstarch or butter. It comes from time and bones, period.
In culinary school, we were taught that stock is one of the fundamental building blocks of cooking. Mess up your stock and everything built on it suffers. Master your stock and suddenly your food has that intangible "restaurant quality" people can taste but can’t identify.
At Purple Café in downtown Seattle, stock wasn’t optional—it was the foundation of our kitchen operations. We made fresh stock weekly, rotating through types based on menu needs and what was in season.
Chicken stock: 8 hours of gentle simmering in commercial stockpots. We used backs, necks, and feet for maximum collagen extraction. The result? Stock that gelled solid when refrigerated—proof of proper technique.
Beef stock: 12-16 hours, sometimes longer for demi-glace base. We always roasted the bones first at 400°F until deeply browned—this Maillard reaction creates the deep, complex flavor that defines brown stock. Skip this step and your beef stock tastes flat.
Fish stock: 45 minutes to 1 hour maximum. Any longer and it turns bitter from broken-down bones. We used fish heads and frames from daily filleting—waste became the foundation for seafood risottos and chowders.
Mushroom stock: 2-3 hours with dried porcini, fresh mushroom stems, and aromatics. This became the base for vegetarian risottos and mushroom soups during our meat-free menu nights.
Vegetable stock: 1 hour maximum. Vegetables extract flavor quickly, and extended cooking creates bitterness. We made this in smaller batches (2-5 gallons) as needed rather than the massive beef and chicken batches.
After 6 years making stock weekly, three rules proved absolutely critical:
1. SKIM. SKIM. SKIM. Every few minutes during the first hour, remove the gray-brown foam that rises to the surface. This is coagulated blood proteins and impurities from the bones. Leave it in and your stock will be cloudy and taste off. Clean stock equals clean flavor.
2. NEVER BOIL. Maintain barely a tremble—tiny bubbles every few seconds, not a rolling boil. Boiling emulsifies fat into the liquid, creating cloudy, greasy stock. The goal isn’t speed; it’s gentle extraction of collagen and flavor without agitation.
3. ROAST BONES FIRST (for beef, lamb, chicken). This isn’t optional for brown stocks. Roasting caramelizes proteins and creates depth through the Maillard reaction. We roasted at 400°F for 45-60 minutes until deeply browned but not burnt. The difference between roasted and un-roasted beef stock is night and day.
Commercial stockpots held the beef and chicken stocks—massive vessels that sat on back burners for the entire workday. Fish and vegetable stocks went into smaller 2-5 gallon pots since we made them in smaller batches.
Skimmers lived next to every stockpot. The repetitive task of skimming foam separated cooks who understood technique from those who rushed.
Fine-mesh strainers lined with cheesecloth caught impurities during the final strain. Never press the solids—let gravity do the work or you’ll force cloudy particles through and ruin hours of careful simmering.
Massive cambros (food-grade storage containers) held finished stock. We’d fill them and immediately start the cooling process.
Ice wands (hollow plastic tubes filled with ice) dropped into hot stock for rapid cooling. Food safety requires dropping stock temperature below 70°F within 2 hours. Ice wands speed this process without diluting the stock.
Large pitchers transferred finished stock from pot to storage. Easier than trying to pour directly from a 10-gallon stockpot.
Save most seasoning for the end—especially if you’re planning to reduce stock or use it in multi-component dishes later. Stock concentrates as it reduces, and early salting creates inedibly salty sauces.
We added aromatics (bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme) in the last hour only. Longer cooking turns these delicate flavors bitter.
Watch bitter vegetables like celery leaves. The leaves contain compounds that become harsh with extended cooking. We used celery stalks only, saving the leaves for short-cooked applications.
Most home cooks boil instead of simmer. Boiling emulsifies fat and proteins into the liquid, creating a cloudy, greasy result. The goal isn’t speed—it’s extraction.
Great stock takes time. Proteins, collagen, and aromatics need slow heat to release flavor without agitation. Rush the process and you get murky liquid that tastes more like dishwater than the foundation of French cuisine.
Walk into any professional kitchen during prep and you’ll see stockpots barely bubbling on back burners. They’re not forgotten—they’re being treated with the respect they deserve. Low, slow, steady heat extracts maximum flavor while maintaining clarity.
Professionals treat stock like an investment—one pot yields dozens of meals. Once you’ve made your own, you’ll never touch boxed broth again. The difference isn’t subtle. It’s the difference between a sauce that coats the spoon and one that slides off like water.
Add bones to a stockpot and cover with cold water by about 2 inches. Heat gently over medium-low—cold water extracts albumin (blood proteins) as it slowly warms, and these proteins rise as foam you can skim off.
If you start with hot water, proteins coagulate immediately and cloud the stock before you can remove them. Cold water gives you control over clarity from the beginning.
Use filtered water if your tap water has strong mineral flavors or chlorine—these will carry through to the finished stock. Quality matters at every step.
As foam forms during the first 30-45 minutes, skim with a ladle every few minutes. Clean stock equals clean flavor. This gray-brown foam is coagulated proteins and impurities from the bones—you don’t want them dissolved back into your stock.
Keep a small bowl next to the pot for discarding foam. In professional kitchens, skimming is a repetitive task that separates beginners from cooks who understand technique. It’s not glamorous, but it’s essential.
At Purple Café, we checked stocks every 10-15 minutes during the first hour. Once the foam stops forming and the surface looks relatively clear, you can reduce skimming frequency. But check periodically throughout the simmer—small amounts of foam may continue to appear.
Onions, carrots, and celery go in once the stock is hot and skimmed—not from the start. Early addition gives bitterness as vegetables break down too much during the long simmer.
Classic ratio: 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot, 1 part celery.
For chicken stock, add mirepoix after 2-3 hours. For beef stock, add after 4-5 hours. This timing extracts vegetable flavor without bitterness or cloudiness from disintegrating vegetables.
Don’t bother peeling vegetables for stock—just wash them thoroughly. The peels add color and flavor. Cut into large chunks (2-3 inches)—they’ll simmer for hours and small pieces turn to mush.
Add aromatics in the last hour: bay leaves, black peppercorns, fresh thyme or parsley stems. These delicate flavors turn bitter with prolonged cooking, so timing matters.
Maintain barely a tremble—tiny bubbles every few seconds, not a rolling boil. The French call this frémir (to tremble). It’s the perfect temperature for extraction without emulsification.
Professional timing guidelines from Purple Café:
Longer isn’t always better—fish and vegetable stocks turn bitter with extended cooking. Chicken and beef stocks, however, benefit from extended gentle extraction as collagen slowly converts to gelatin.
Don’t stir the stock once it’s simmering. Agitation emulsifies fat into the liquid and disturbs the natural settlement of impurities. Let it sit undisturbed except for occasional skimming.
Pour through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Don’t press the solids—let gravity do the work. Pressing forces cloudy particles through the filter and ruins clarity you worked hours to achieve.
Cool quickly over an ice bath to drop temperature below 70°F within 2 hours (the USDA danger zone rule). At Purple Café, we used ice wands dropped directly into hot stock—they cool from the inside without diluting.
For home use, place your stock container in a larger vessel filled with ice water and stir occasionally to speed cooling. Once cooled, refrigerate immediately.
Fat will solidify on top—skim this off before using the stock. That fat layer also acts as a seal, helping preserve the stock underneath.
Pro tip: Never salt stock during cooking. Season when you use it, not before. Stock reduces in sauces, and pre-salted stock becomes inedibly salty when concentrated. This is one of the most important rules in professional kitchens.
Temperature control isn’t just about quality—it’s about safety. I learned this the hard way at Purple Café when a cook left beef stock simmering overnight on too high a burner.
He came in early the next morning (fortunately) to find the entire restaurant filled with smoke. The smell had permeated every corner of a very large space with high ceilings. Smoke alarms for the entire building were going off. The commercial stockpot was destroyed—scorched black on the bottom and completely dry.
If he’d arrived at normal prep time instead of early, the fire department would have been involved. The building alarm system was already triggered. The pot could have caught fire completely.
The lesson: When you set stock to simmer for 12-16 hours, you must verify the temperature is at a bare tremble, not a simmer-boil. "Low and slow" isn’t just for quality—it’s for safety. Stock left unattended must be at the absolute minimum temperature that maintains extraction.
At Purple Café after this incident, we implemented a mandatory check-in system: whoever started a long-cook stock had to verify temperature with the closing cook before end of shift. No exceptions.
For home cooks making overnight stock: Use your lowest burner setting, verify it’s barely trembling (not actively simmering), and consider setting a timer to wake up once during the night to check. Better yet, make stock during the day when you can monitor it.
Always start with cold water. Hot water coagulates proteins immediately, trapping them in the stock before you can skim them. This creates cloudy stock that can’t be clarified later. Cold water extracts proteins slowly as the temperature rises, allowing you to skim them cleanly.
This step separates mediocre beef stock from restaurant-quality brown stock. Roasting bones at 400°F for 45-60 minutes creates the Maillard reaction—the caramelization that gives brown stock its deep color and complex flavor. Don’t skip this.
Vegetables break down over long cooking, releasing bitter compounds and clouding the stock. Add mirepoix 2-3 hours into chicken stock, 4-5 hours into beef stock. Add delicate aromatics (bay, peppercorns, herbs) in the last hour only.
A rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid, creating greasy, cloudy stock. Maintain barely a tremble—tiny bubbles every few seconds. This gentle extraction creates clear, clean-tasting stock with proper body.
Let gravity do the work. Pressing forces cloudy particles through your strainer, undoing hours of careful skimming and gentle simmering. Patience at the end preserves clarity.
Stock sitting at warm temperatures grows bacteria rapidly. Use an ice bath or ice wands to drop temperature below 70°F within 2 hours. This isn’t optional—it’s food safety.
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Stock lasts 5 days refrigerated in sealed containers. Fat will solidify on top—this is good. It acts as a seal, protecting the stock underneath. Skim off before using.
For longer refrigerator storage, bring stock to a boil every 3-4 days, then cool and refrigerate again. This kills bacteria and extends safe storage.
Stock freezes for 6 months without quality loss. Freeze in portions you’ll actually use:
Ice cube portions: Freeze stock in ice cube trays, then transfer cubes to freezer bags. Each cube is roughly 2 tablespoons—perfect for adding to pan sauces or deglazing without thawing an entire quart.
Quart containers: For soups, stews, and risottos. Leave 1 inch headspace at the top—stock expands when frozen.
Reduction: Professional kitchens often reduce stock by 50-75% before freezing to save space. This creates glace de viande (meat glaze) that’s intensely concentrated. Reconstitute with water when needed, or use small amounts for incredible flavor boosts.
At Purple Café, we simmered chicken stock for 8 hours, beef stock for 12-16 hours, and fish/vegetable stocks for shorter periods (1-2 hours). The timing depends on extracting maximum collagen from bones without bitterness. There are no shortcuts—proper stock requires gentle simmering over many hours.
Skimming removes coagulated blood proteins and impurities that cloud stock and create off-flavors. At Purple Café, we skimmed religiously every few minutes during the first hour. Clean stock equals clean flavor—this repetitive task separates professional results from cloudy home stocks.
Stock uses bones for collagen and body, creating a rich liquid that gels when chilled. Broth uses meat for flavor but lacks the body and gelatin that stock provides. Stock is the foundation for sauces and reductions; broth is more commonly used as a soup base or consumed on its own.
Yes, once. This second batch is called "remouillage" in professional kitchens and yields a lighter stock perfect for soups or cooking grains. The bones won’t have as much flavor or collagen left, but you’re still extracting value. Don’t attempt a third batch—there’s nothing left at that point.
For brown stocks (beef, lamb), yes—roasting at 400°F for 45-60 minutes caramelizes proteins and creates deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. At Purple Café, we always roasted beef and lamb bones first. For white stocks (chicken, fish), no—you want lighter, cleaner flavor without the roasted character.
Stock reduces as it simmers, concentrating flavors including salt. If you salt during cooking and later reduce the stock for a sauce, it can become inedibly salty. Always season stock when you use it, not when you make it. This gives you complete control over the final dish.
Boiling emulsifies fat and proteins into the liquid, creating cloudy, greasy stock. The goal isn’t speed—it’s gentle extraction. At Purple Café, we maintained stocks at barely a tremble (tiny bubbles every few seconds). One cook left stock boiling overnight and nearly burned down the restaurant—temperature control matters.
Five days refrigerated in sealed containers, or six months frozen. At Purple Café, we stored stock in massive cambros with ice wands for rapid cooling. For home use, cool quickly in an ice bath, then refrigerate. Freeze in portions you’ll actually use—ice cube trays for small amounts, quart containers for soups and sauces.
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Professional Chef • 24 Years Professional Kitchen Experience
Professional chef with 24 years of restaurant experience including Pizzaiolo at Purple Café, Kitchen Manager at Mellow Mushroom, and line positions at Feierabend, Il Pizzaiolo, and Paragary's. A.A.S. Culinary Arts from Seattle Central College, B.S. Business Administration from University of Montana. Every product tested through real professional kitchen use or extensive long-term home testing.
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