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Mastering the Art of Stock Making
Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery
4410 N. Lincoln Ave.
Champaign, Illinois 61822
(217) 643-2314
Category
Hours
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This culinary course is designed to unlock the fundamental building block of exceptional cuisine: stock. Participants will delve into the essential techniques for creating intensely flavorful, clear, and nutrient-rich bases from scratch. The curriculum covers a comprehensive range of stocks, including traditional meat stocks (beef, veal), delicate poultry stocks (chicken, turkey), vibrant vegetable stocks, and the nuanced Japanese stock, dashi. Beyond simple boiling, students will learn the critical differences in preparation, ingredient selection (bones, aromatics, trims), proper simmering times, skimming, degreasing, and clarification methods necessary for professional-quality results. Whether aiming to elevate home cooking or establish a robust foundation for professional culinary pursuits, this course provides the mastery needed to transform simple ingredients into liquid gold.
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Meat Stock Mastery: Execute proper techniques for roasting bones and simmering to make rich, collagen-forward brown beef and veal stocks.
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Poultry & White Stocks: Prepare light, clean chicken and turkey stocks (white stocks) and understand the impact of mirepoix and sachet d’épices.
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Vegetable Stock Versatility: Create balanced, flavorful vegetable stocks suitable for vegan/vegetarian dishes, emphasizing the use of appropriate trims and avoiding bitterness.
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Dashi Fundamentals: Master the quick, precise preparation of traditional Japanese seafood dashi with kombu and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), and a vegetarian version with kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms, for applications in soups, sauces, and braises.
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Storage and Application: Learn best practices for cooling, storing (freezing/refrigeration), and applying different types of stocks to sauces, soups, and risottos.