Introduction

It is difficult to identify exactly when the birth of American regional cuisine took place.  More than likely, it was an evolved process as opposed to a sudden occurrence.  In the 1970’s American chefs such as Julia Child, James Beard, and Alice Waters began to prepare dishes using indigenous ingredients from their local regions.  The methods and techniques of cooking never changed from their French roots; however, the chef’s philosophy toward food changed and increased the amount of respect given to ingredients which were fresh, in season, and from the local region.  This is a key element and philosophy behind American regional cuisine.  The work of Child, Beard, and Waters inspired many more American chefs, such as Larry Forgione, Dean Fearing, Bradley Ogden, and Stephen Pyles, who carried the philosophy of American regional cooking forward and in turn inspired other young chefs.  American regional cuisine today, even with its short history, is recognized world-wide as a cuisine that is tasty, innovative, exciting to the palate, and appealing to the eye.
One can trace the history of cuisine and cooking to the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans.  Their respective influences on food and cooking were significant.  Many culinary professionals correctly give credit to the Italians, not the French, for the birth of modern cooking during the Renaissance Period.  It was not until Italy’s Caterina di Medici was betrothed to Henry II of France in the 1500’s that the French began to embrace food and cuisine. Caterina di Medici brought her own cooks from Florence.  The Italian cooks had a significant influence on the French; so much so that the very way that French people cooked and dined dramatically changed.
Over the next few centuries, the French led the world in the culinary arts.  French chefs such as François La Varenne, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, and Antonin Carême wrote cookbooks, created new and innovative cooking techniques, and classified hundreds of culinary processes and preparations.  Chefs from the late 1700’s to the early 1900’s such as Auguste Escoffier and Fernand Point continued to refine French cuisine, positioning France as the world’s expert.  In the mid 1900’s French chefs such as Paul Bocuse, Jean Troisgros, Roger Vergé, and Michel Guerard introduced and popularized a new style of cooking called “nouvelle cuisine.”  Up until this time, no other country had made so many significant contributions to the culinary arts. This also explains why so many terms and procedures in this and many other culinary books use French terminology.
From the early 1900’s until about the 1970’s, the cuisine in America’s finer restaurants, country clubs, and hotels was predominantly French or Continental in style, prepared by European chefs who immigrated to America.  This is no doubt one of the reasons why so many French terms are used to describe cooking procedures, foods, and recipes.  Another reason why French culinary terms are predominantly used, not just in America, but all over the world, is that they have evolved into the standards of modern cooking.  The terms used in cooking today are not so much French as they are the common language of food, cooking, and cuisine.

Stocks – The Very Essence of Cooking

Mastering the fundamentals of basic stock preparation is one of the most important tasks for culinarians.  Most culinary professionals define stock as “a flavorful liquid derived by simmering bones, vegetables, and aromatics in water.” One can trace this process back to the very beginning of cooking.  Chunks of meat and bones were combined with root vegetables, aromatics, and water in a goat’s stomach and suspended over an open fire creating the first soup.  Auguste Escoffier, often referred to as the “king of chefs and the chef of kings,” once said “stocks are to cooking what foundations are to a house.”  Today, modern cookware and stovetop ranges have replaced the goat’s stomach and open fire, but the basic process remains similar.  This age-old process has become more scientific thanks to cooking methods that attain maximum flavor extraction, clarity of the liquid, and longer shelf life through proper cooling and storing techniques.
Escoffier taught that the basic component in a soup or sauce is stock or broth, and that without a high quality stock, a high quality soup or sauce cannot be attained.  If stocks are made quickly or poorly, the flavor of any products made with them can have less than desirable results such as weak flavor, chalky aftertaste, and a dull cloudy appearance.  Furthermore, if stocks are made using different recipes or procedures, any products made with them will taste different each time they are produced, since the flavor of the stocks are different. Good quality stock is easy to recognize because it will be clear, possess a very rich color and aroma, and have a sticky, gelatinous feel on the lips.  A stock’s flavor will affect every sauce in which it is used and, therefore, must be carefully and delicately seasoned.
Although many circumstances in today’s foodservice industry necessitate the use of time and cost-saving shortcuts in stock preparation, the added effort to make tasty and wholesome stocks from fresh ingredients is well worth it.  There are a variety of convenience products available, which for lack of a better term create “instant stocks.”  Some are higher in quality than others; however, there is no substitute for the aroma, taste, and body of a well-made stock.  These excellent smells, flavors, and textures enhance any soup or sauce that is made from them.
Properly prepared, stocks can add a consistently high level of flavor and quality to all of a chef’s recipes that use stock.  Since stocks are called for so many times in American regional cuisine, it is very important to always start with the highest quality stock available in order to produce tasty and attractive soups and sauces that are made with them.
Several types and procedural variations of stocks are used in cooking.  Except for vegetable stocks, all stocks contain the basic ingredients of bones, vegetables, aromatics, and water.  Changing ingredients and varying cooking processes produce stocks with unique flavors that are used for distinctly different purposes.

Cooking Techniques for Stocks

When preparing stocks, always select the best types of bones.  For beef or veal stock select the shank, femur, and/or knuckle bones from young animals.  These bones have the highest amount of natural gelatin, which enhances the clarity and consistency of the stock.  For the best flavor extractions, cut or purchase the bones approximately 3-4 inches in length.  For fish stock select bones from flatfish such as flounder, sole, or halibut whenever possible because they will provide a rich flavor.  Try to avoid using bones from fatty types of fish such as salmon, tuna, or swordfish.  They have extremely high fat content and distinctive flavors that will not yield the neutral flavor desired in a good quality stock.  For chicken stock, neck and backbones from larger birds will provide additional richness and extra flavor.  When preparing chicken stock, the addition of 3-4 raw chicken feet per gallon of liquid will significantly increase the gelatinous consistency associated with high quality stocks.  When using only beef bones for a stock, it is recommended the cooking time be extended from 6-8 hours to 10-12 hours in order to extract the maximum amount of flavor from the bones.
Always start stocks with cold water.  Blood and other impurities are dissolved in cold water.  As the stock slowly heats the impurities will coagulate and rise to the top making it easy to remove by skimming the surface.  If a stock is started with warm or hot water, the impurities will coagulate immediately and become suspended throughout the stock causing it to become cloudy.
Deglaze your roasting pan with approximately 1-cup (237ml) of the liquid you are using for the stock.  Many chefs use wine to deglaze the pan.  We believe that while wine will add additional cost to the stock, it will not add any significant flavor to the finished product.  If the flavor of wine is desired later in a sauce produced from the stock, the wine should be reduced and added at that time.
Try not to overpower your stock with unnecessary seasonings.  Let the natural flavors prevail.  Remember that a good quality stock should have the flavor characteristics of its primary ingredient; i.e., beef, chicken, fish, or vegetables.  Do not add salt as a seasoning to stocks.  Since stocks are used for a variety of purposes, it is impossible to determine how much salt should be added.  If stocks are salted, other flavoring agents containing salt, such as mustard and soy sauce, cannot be added later.  Furthermore, if a stock is preseasoned with salt, any reduction of the stock will result in an overly salty flavor.
Make sure to frequently skim the impurities from the surface of the stock on a regular basis (depouillage).  The skimming process will enhance the stock’s clarity and overall flavor.
Stocks should always be simmered slowly.  Simmering is recognized by the very small bubbles slowly rising to the top of the liquid while it is cooking.  Do not let the liquid exceed 185ºF (85ºC).  Never let a stock boil, as it will surely become cloudy.  Take great care not to stir the stock during the simmering process because it will cloud the liquid instead of yielding the desired clarity of a quality stock.
Stocks should be strained very slowly and carefully in order to remove all the impurities and retain the clarity of the finished product.
Degreasing a stock can be done with a ladle after the cooking process has been completed and the stock has been strained. If the liquid is still hot, allow the stock to settle a little before attempting to degrease it.   The fat can also be removed after the stock has been thoroughly cooled.  This method is sometimes easier as the fat will rise to the surface and congeal, and can generally be removed from the stock in a single piece.  Some professional chefs leave the fat cap on the chilled stock believing that the fat cap serves as a protective layer and increases the shelf like of the product.
Most important, do not treat your stockpot as a catchall for food scraps.  Attaining a consistent flavor is highly dependent on using the same ingredients and proportions each time stock is prepared.  If the proportions of ingredients used in a stock recipe change, the flavor of the stock will change as well.  Remember, to produce a high quality stock, the ingredients that are used must also be high in quality.

Industry Accepted Cooling Procedures for Stocks and Sauces

Stocks and sauces should always be cooled following one of the industry-accepted cooling techniques.  Never place a hot liquid directly into a refrigerator without cooling it first.  Placing hot liquids directly into a refrigerator exposes the refrigerator’s contents to unnecessary and undesirable food safety hazards.
In the past, a water cooling technique for handling hot liquids that placed a full pot elevated with bricks in a deep sink basin and cooled them by continually filling the sink with a flow of cold water was an acceptable cooling technique for hot liquids.  Today, with modern HACCP standards that have been adopted by the foodservice industry, the water cooling technique is no longer appropriate.  The temperature of typical tap water is not cold enough to cool a large quantity of hot liquid in the recommended period.  In addition, this technique uses large quantities of water, which is both wasteful and expensive.
There are three different industry accepted cooling techniques.

Ice Bath

• Transfer the hot liquid to a clean container made of stainless steel or other conductive material for rapid heat disbursement. (Plastic is not considered a conductive material.)
• Place the container in an ice bath.  When selecting an appropriate container, the more surface area that is exposed to the ice, the quicker the liquid will cool.  Elevating the container from the bottom of the ice bath promotes water circulation and will aid in reducing the total cooling time.
• Stir the liquid frequently while it is cooling in the ice bath.  The hot liquid, while in an ice bath, will naturally chill from the outside in.  If the hot liquid is not stirred regularly, the center of the liquid will not cool quickly enough to eliminate opportunities for food safety hazards.
• CCP Cool the stock or sauce from a temperature of 140ºF (60ºC) to a temperature of 70ºF (21.1ºC) or lower within 2 hours.  Cool from 70ºF (21.1ºC) to 41ºF (5ºC) within an additional 4 hours – for a total cooling time of 6 hours or less.
• When a temperature of 41ºF (5ºC) is reached, the liquid can be covered, labeled, dated, and stored immediately under refrigeration.

Quick Chill Paddle

• Transfer the hot liquid to a clean container made of stainless steel or other conductive material.  An ideal container is small in diameter and tall enough to submerge as much of the ice paddle as possible
• Submerge an appropriately sized ice paddle (a long, cylinder-shaped bottle made of plastic that is available in a variety of sizes, which is filled with water, sealed, and frozen) into the hot liquid.
• Stir the liquid with the paddle frequently during the cooling process.
• The use of an ice bath in conjunction with the quick chill paddle can greatly reduce the cooling time.
• CCP Cool the stock or sauce from a temperature of 140ºF (60ºC) to a temperature of 70ºF (21.1ºC) or lower within 2 hours.  Cool from 70ºF (21.1ºC) to 41ºF (5ºC) within an additional 4 hours – for a total cooling time of 6 hours or less.
• When a temperature of 41ºF (5ºC) is reached, the liquid can be covered, labeled, dated, and stored immediately under refrigeration.

Blast Chiller

• This cooling method uses a costly piece of equipment resembling a refrigerator.  Blast chillers provide one of the quickest and safest methods to properly cool hot liquids as well as other food items.
• Transfer the hot liquid to a clean container made of stainless steel or other conductive material for rapid heat disbursement.  Large, shallow containers will allow hot liquids to cool the quickest.
• Place the item(s) to be cooled in the blast chill unit.  The blast chiller circulates super-cooled air around the item(s), usually cooling below 41ºF in 90 minutes or less.
• CCP Cool the stock or sauce from a temperature of 140ºF (60ºC) to a temperature of 70ºF (21.1ºC) or lower within 2 hours.  Cool from 70ºF (21.1ºC) to 41ºF (5ºC) within an additional 4 hours – for a total cooling time of 6 hours or less.
• When a temperature of 41ºF (5ºC) is reached, the liquid can be covered, labeled, dated, and stored immediately under refrigeration.