stock test

I took a flex day and stayed at home today. I needed it as I was starting to feel a little bit bitchy and whiny. My bad. I'm spending today chilling at home doing things for myself and things that I enjoy. I hacve no schedule to follow nor any undesirable outcomes to achieve. I am in my baggy trackies and wearing my 'Harry Potter' glasses that have circular frames. These are my most comfortable pair of glasses that only my family (or one/two friends) has seen me wearing. Since I've got a small nose, lots of glasses slip down the bridge of my nose and I have to constantly push them up. However, these glasses are so big that I don't have to bother. Screw trendy glasses.

In the name of comfort, soup weather creeped up in Canberra a good few weeks ago. Essential to any good soup is good stock. I did a taste test of Campbells, Aldi and home made vegetarian stock.

I made my own stock using a stock mix from Coles/Woolies, containing a fresh potato, onion, celery stick, suede, turnip and carrot. I boiled the mix for about an hour and it was well worth it. The stock was fresh, clean and pure.

I compared my home made stock (far right) to stock purchased from Aldi (middle) and the Campbells brand (far left). The colour tones of each stock differed, but there wasn't anything alarmingly distinct between them.

The Campbells stock was a bit zangy and has a familiar taste - the base of many commercial soups that you get, and canned soups. This one was very salty, so maybe it was the salt that reminded me of commercial cooking. The Aldi stock tasted fresh and 'green'. My home made stock had a 'warm' taste and was comforting. Obviously, you could add different stock ingredients to a home made stock to suit what you like.

My preference would be the Aldi or home made stock. I'd happily use the Aldi version if I was short on time. However, I think I'll try to create my own recipe for home made stock til I find one that suits my tastebuds and soups that I'd like to make.