Why stock is not water, and how it changes the whole dish.
3 min read
Why stock is not water, and how it changes the whole dish.
Chef Islom Qurbonov believes: the difference between homecooking and restaurant food often comes down to one word - stock.
At home, we are used to cooking with water. In restaurants, water is replaced with stock - and it is not just a whim, but a fundamental principle. Water dilutes flavor. Good stock enhances it. It penetrates every layer of a dish works as an invisible amplifier - makes sauce deeper, risotto richer, braised meat more intense.
Kurbonov recalls coming for a degustation to an unfamiliar restaurant and trying their stock. "Is it... water?" - was his first thought. It was in that moment that he realized: even the most basic element of cooking either elevates a dish, or ruins it.
The advice is simple: start making stock in advance. Chicken, beef, vegetable - any kind. Freeze it in portions. And next time you will be making sauce or risotto, replace water with stock. You will feel the difference from the first bite.
author:
Islom Kurbonov
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