A pantry shelf of jars, tins and bottles — stock

In the pantry · 90 uses

stock

Body, not flavor — that is the part people get backwards. A good stock makes a sauce cling and a soup taste finished; it does not make a bland dish interesting, and it will not save one.

dishes and drinks that need it

more where it is worth adding

49%

of those are under 30 min

The technique underneath this

Pan sauceTurning what stuck to the pan into a sauce. Two minutes of work at the end of something you already cooked.watery · too salty · greasy · broken · bitter
StockPulling gelatin and flavor out of bones and aromatics without pulling out the things that make it cloudy and bitter.thin and watery · cloudy · bitter · greasy

Handling stock

Third-party video. Opens in a new tab — nothing is embedded and nothing is fetched from a video platform until you click.

Reviewed video for the prep and the technique this one turns up in.

What it is usually standing next to

Onion turns up alongside it in about 54% of them, which is a strong lean rather than a rule.

Counted off required ingredients across the whole library. A companion listed here is one these dishes are built from, not one we are recommending.

If you have twenty minutes

Quickest dish · 12 min

Leftover rice egg soup

Egg drop over yesterday's rice, ten minutes and a box of stock. Pour the egg in a thin stream off the boil or you get lumps.

Built on it · 84

Take it out and the dish is something else. Fastest first.

Worth adding · 6

These work without it. They work better with it.

Out of stock?Rank this against my whole shelf Open stock in the Flavor Lab Back to the pantry

Three moves. Then cook.

Start with the meal, not the database.