Pork Stock

[Pupsnpullets]

I've often seen recipes for beef, fish, chicken, vegetable etc stock and yet none for pork stock. Does anyone know of the reason for this? I have a slow cooker filled with the juice from a picnic roast which I'd rather not throw out but I'm starting to second guess myself here. Any comments gratefully received.

 

[bigmike&nan]

It wasn't until a dozen or so years ago that pork began to shed the bad rep (pigs eating slop, you want to eat that kind of meat ??) it had - now pork is concidered "the other white meat" and it's pretty good as long as you trim the fat.
As for pork stock, well most classic cuisine would just use chicken stock to make a sauce or gravy for a pork dish. If you want pork stock you need pork bones - just think what goes into making a beef stock and substitute pork bones. For a darker and richer stock roast the bones in the oven first, also you could roast your mirepoix with the bones (mirepoix being the classic combination of 2 parts unpeeled onions, 1 part carrot and 1 part celery). By roasting the bones and vegetables you get caramelization, leaving the onion skins on definitely gives you more color AND flavor in your stock.

Make some bean soup with those drippings in the crockpot. Not the same meat, but when I do my Baking Bag Corned Beef dinner I save the juice and make fabulous soup with all that corned beef and vegetable goodness in the baking bag... Oh man now I got myself hungry just talking... I can't stress enough how great YouTube and the internet in general are for looking up recipes and watching how to videos. Here's a young man making a pork stock using a pork shoulder and a couple of ham hocks. This kid is pretty smart

Good luck.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

Oh thank you! Will check out the youtube.