On Stock

What's setting your cooking apart from a restaurant's could be as simple as stock. Homemade stock, that is. And the best thing about it? You'll be saving money, as stock - I'm talking chicken in this case - requires just a few inexpensive ingredients and some you'd otherwise be throwing away.

I'd been shying away from making stock and storing bones from roasted chickens away in the freezer. But one lazy Sunday I decided to try my hand. And I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is and the results. It's simple: just roughly chop whatever root vegetables you have and drop them in a big pot with the chicken bones and some herbs. Season and cover with water. Let it bubble away for about three hours, strain, skim fat off the top and serve or store. That's it - really!

If you're an avid recipe follower, here's a good one for Jamie Oliver's chicken stock. Some other ideas: In addition to freezing chicken bones until you're ready to make stock, you can also freeze your stock in containers until ready to use. So next time your soup, risotto, braised meat or other dish calls for stock, I hope you'll drop the box and try making it yourself. Let me know how it works for you!

Homemade vs. Store Bought

If you're a fan of Food Network's Ina Garten ("Barefoot Contessa"), you've probably heard her talk about the importance of using "good" olive oil and cheese or how homemade stocks can lift a soup from good to amazing. But most of us don't live in a gorgeous home in The Hamptons with a big, blooming herb garden and a pink-loving male florist for a friend. So for those of us who enjoy eating well and cooking but have a limited budget, what's best: homemade or store bought?

It's a deceptively tough issue to address. If you're looking at it solely from a taste and quality perspective, it's simple - homemade trumps all. But what about cost? I've always thought that making staples from scratch was more cost effective than buying from the grocery store. But after tinkering a bit with an ice cream maker, I've found that's not always the case. With all the dairy and add-ins that go into homemade ice cream, it's often cheaper to purchase your favorite flavors.

As it turns out, I'm not the only one who has been ruminating on the subject (phew!). Check out this article from Slate by Jennifer Reese, in which she breaks down the cost of six different homemade recipes versus the generic, storebought equivalent. She considers factors like ingredient cost and energy use, but leaves out time because she takes it "as a given that everyone knows better than to quit their job—any job—to take up cracker-baking."

Reese's findings are pretty interesting. In a nutshell, she found that the answer depends on the item. Cost-wise, homemade yogurt won by $0.75 per quart, while homemade cream cheese was was about double the price of a generic brand.