Waste Not Want Not

Most home cooks throw a ton of flavor into trash or the disposal. The easiest way to obtain the flavors you love is to save the scraps you are currently throwing away. With this article I want to throw out some simple ideas of how to save, extrude and use the flavorful scraps. I am going to present to you several things I use all the time.

The way to extrude flavor is to take those scraps, add a little wine to it, roast it and add to your stock pot. However, you need to have a keen eye on what to collect and that is pretty easy. Simply put, you can collect everything and freeze it or keep in the fridge if you are going to make stock in several days. I understand there is limited time and storage space, but this doesn’t really take much time or space with a little planning.

Let’s talk about a few simple techniques to use all the time.

Seafood technique

Typically, I will get the seafood with the shells, then I will prepare the seafood and save the shells. For this instructional technique, I will use shrimp.

Shrimp base ingredients

the shells from one pound of shrimp

1 can of tomato paste (6 ounce)

1/2 cup of your favorite white cooking wine (I like Fetzer)

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning

Shrimp base preparation

1. In a bowl, add wine, herbs and shells

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

3. On sheet pan, pour the mixture from the bowl and spread out evenly

4. Place pan in the oven, and cook for 35 to 45 minutes or until shells begin to turn black and crispy

5. Once cooking is done, either place mixture into stock pot or store for later in your freezer. Typically, I would store the raw shell ingredients, then do this preparation the day we are making the stock.

Meat Technique

For this technique, I am going to use beef tenderloin trimmings

Beef base ingredients

Trimmings from one beef tenderloin

4 stalks of large chopped celery and/or celery trimmings

1 large onion sliced, and/or any onion trimmings

3 carrots, largely chopped, and/or any carrot trimmings

1 tablespoon of thyme

1 tablespoon of parsley

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

1 teaspoon of Worchestshire sauce

1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

1 bottle of your favorite red cooking wine (I like Fetzer)

Beef base preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

2. In a bowl, add beef, wine, herbs, vinegar and sauces, and mix thoroughly

3. On a baking sheet, spray with baking spray, and spread mixture out evenly.

4. Place in the oven for minimum of 45 minutes or until beef looks crispy

5. After the mixture is finished cooking, remove from the oven and let cool

6. Either add to stock pot for making stock or to a storage container for a later date.

Note: you can use any beef, pork or lamb trimming to make stock

Vegetable technique

This technique is the easiest, just take a bag and store all of your vegetable trimmings and freeze them. Any time you have juice from cooking a specific vegetable that you would throw out, it is a good idea to store it in your freezer. When you need to make a soup, stock or sauce, pull out the bag and the desired vegetable juice you saved and start your creation.

Poultry Technique

This technique is really more about storing and not prepping. After you have eaten the rotisserie chicken, roasted a whole chicken or turkey, store the carcass for up to 3 days and start making your stock by using the leftover bones and fat.

Save like a pro!