Experienced Cooks Know That Great Soup Starts With Great Soup Stock

Is there anything better on a cold, blustery, winter day than to be greeted with a hot bowl of soup? Actually, it can get a lot better if that soup happens to be homemade by someone who knows the secret of creating great soup.

It only makes sense that an important step is to try and use the freshest ingredients available. However, good cooks the world over have always known that the real secret is that great soup starts with great soup stock. The most expensive cut of beef or vegetables straight out of the garden will not make up for poor stock and, conversely, a truly great stock can go a long way in compensating for lesser quality ingredients.

Because of the importance of the stock, experienced cooks know that soup is not a spur of the moment creation, unless one is fortunate enough to have some stock tucked away in the freezer. The longer the stock simmers on the back of the stove, the better it gets, and many cooks pride themselves on taking days to get to the results that they want.

One very popular method for producing an excellent base for a wide variety of different soups is through the use of the turkey carcass that most families simply discard after the Thanksgiving or Christmas feast. Hardly anyone, especially that once-a-year carver who slices the holiday bird, manages to not leave a lot of meat on the bones. All of that leftover turkey meat, combined with the simmering of the carcass, makes a wonderful soup stock. This is one secret that is becoming so well known, in fact, that there is now more and more competition between family members over who gets the remains of the bird this year.

Is it possible to make a decent bowl of soup with stock from a can or even a bouillon cube? Yes, it can be done. Will it ever rival that steaming bowl that got its start with a stock that was lovingly nurtured for hours, if not days? What do you think?

In the end, most things always come back to basic truths. A great soup starts with great soup stock.

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