Triple Strained, Egg Washed Chicken Stock | Recipeish | Gustus Vitae

by Frankie Scanlon March 27, 2021

Yield: About 8 Cups of stock.
Time Estimate: 6 1/2 Hours, including 5 1/2 unattended..
Storage Notes: Can be kept refrigerated for 4 days, frozen up to 6 months.
Difficulty: Easy.

Homemade stock can sometimes be a little...full bodied. While there's no comparison in quality, taste, and nutritional value as compared to stock bought at the Super, it can sometimes be overly salty, or come with unwanted flavors for the dish, sauce, or soup you're making.

By triple straining through cheesecloth, and using several egg washes to clarify the stock (the same technique winemakers often use), you'll have a stock that is 'pure' - no fats or suspended solids, and most importantly, a stock that tastes like the essence of chicken-ness, if that's a thing.

Ingredients

3-4 Lbs reserved chicken bones
1 Full tin California Sea Salt
2 Large white onions
4 Large carrots
6 Large celery stalks
3 Eggs
About 15 feet of muslin/cheesecloth

Directions

Remove reserved bones from freezer, and empty into your pressure cooker.
Peel and rough chop onions and celery, trim ends of celery and cut into 1" wide pieces, and add all three to the pot.
Pour over California Sea Salt, and fill to 1" from the brim of of your pressure cooker. This should be around 9 Cups or so.
Seal, and bring up to one bar. Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking at one bar for 5 hours.
Remove from heat, and allow to cool and depressurize - around 30 minutes.
Pour contents of pressure cooker into a colander above a large bowl, and discard bones and cooked vegetables.
Fold three layers of cheesecloth over another large bowl, securing with rubber bands.
Pour over contents, then return contents to the pressure cooker.
Over a small bowl, separate white from yolk, reserve yolk if desired for another purpose (carbonara pasta is always lovely).
Whisk white with 1/4th Cup cold distilled water, and pour in stock.
Bring up to a boil, then remove from heat, and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
As the white congeals, it attaches itself to loose fats, and bits of veggie and chicken. Spoon off anything floating on the surface, then again set up a 3 layer cheese cloth, and strain.
Repeat process with egg wash, boiling, and straining 3 times.
After the final strain, taste for seasoning. I prefer to leave slightly under-salted, giving me more flexibility to adapt to whatever dish I end up using it with.
Pour off into mason jars, and label with a date. Allow 1-2 hours to cool before adding to the fridge, and if freezing, allow an overnight in the fridge and at least 1" of headroom from stock to top to prevent it bursting.
Pro Tip: After a night chilling in the fridge, pour stock off into ice cube trays, and freeze. Pop the cubes into a ziplock bag, label with date, and return to the freezer. With these smaller portions, you can use just a bit when you need it to quickly make a sauce, add depth to a soup, or whatever you'd like for a single meal, without defrosting a whole mason jar.