{ STOCK } A hundred years ago, when French chef Auguste Escoffier (perhaps the most august of chefs) codified classical French cuisine, cooking was based on the production and use of stock—the rich, savory liquid produced by simmering animal matter, bones, and vegetables in water for a long time Meats were braised in it, vegetables were glazed with it, soups and stews were built on it, and it was reduced into rich sauces Stock was made from chicken, duck, turkey, beef, veal, pork, sheep, you name it If it had four legs or feathers, it’s good bet that its bones and scraps would eventually find their way into a simmering pot These days, stock isn’t quite as essential Cooking is lighter, and many restaurants get by with just chicken stock At home, I use chicken stock exclusively, and my wife has yet to complain that my food just isn’t French enough For many recipes, even a good canned broth will just fine, though you want to make sure that it’s low sodium so that you can control the salt level yourself Most regular canned stocks or broths are too salty to reduce into a sauce There’s still one place where a great stock is pretty much essential: soup Like show dogs and children, soup can only be as good as the stock it’s made from Unfortunately, as anyone who’s ever worked in a restaurant can tell you, making stock is a slow business It can take hours to extract flavor and break down the connective tissue from a pot of chicken bones and scraps This isn’t a problem when you’re in the kitchen all day anyway: just keep a lazy eye on the huge stockpot on the back burner simmering away for six hours But for a home cook? Forget it A couple Sundays a year I’ll give in and throw together a really traditional duck or veal stock, but for the other 363 days, I wanted to figure out a faster, better way What’s a Chicken? As usual, I started with the basics, and in this case, the basics are a chicken Once you’ve stripped away the feathers and the cluck, a chicken is actually a remarkably simple beast in culinary terms Its matter can be divided into roughly four different parts: • Muscle is what we think of as the meat on the chicken It’s the fleshy stuff that twitches and makes the bird go, and it can be further divided into two categories: slow twitch and fast twitch • Slow-twitch muscles are meant for sustained movement— i.e., the legs and thighs that keep the chicken standing, walking, and bending down or up Because slow-twitch muscles are aerobic (they require oxygen to function), they are typically dense with capillaries carrying oxygenrich red blood cells That’s why they appear to be darker • Fast-twitch muscles are used for short bursts of intense energy—they’re the muscles that are found in chicken breasts, used to power the wings when a frightened chicken needs to escape from a dangerous situation ... in and throw together a really traditional duck or veal stock, but for the other 363 days, I wanted to figure out a faster, better way What’s a Chicken? As usual, I started with the basics, and... roughly four different parts: • Muscle is what we think of as the meat on the chicken It’s the fleshy stuff that twitches and makes the bird go, and it can be further divided into two categories: slow twitch and fast twitch... Slow-twitch muscles are meant for sustained movement— i.e., the legs and thighs that keep the chicken standing, walking, and bending down or up Because slow-twitch muscles are aerobic (they require oxygen to function), they are typically