Importance of Stocks

Good quality stocks are quintessential to make amazing sauces. As well as their role in soups, stews and sauces, stocks add a final flavorsome blast of moisture to many dishes from stir-fry to pork pies. A stock is a flavored liquid base for making a sauce, stew, or braised dish.

There are two main styles of meat and poultry stock, a white stock (fond blanc) is prepared by placing the ingredients directly into the cooking liquid. In a brown stock (fond brun) the ingredients are first browned in the oven.

• Sauces made from a white stock are called white sauce.
• All sauces made with brown stock are always called brown sauces.
• Brown stocks are used for gravies, meaty soups and rich stews and white stocks for lighter dishes and sauces.

Stocks are the bases of almost everything we do. In French stocks are appropriately call it a fond (base). Chefs usually create stocks on a regular basis as they use meats for other dishes or they buy large quantity of bones to make them for several days.