The day I caught myself salting stock before reducing it

I was making a beef stock for a 40-quart batch of french onion soup and threw in my usual fistful of salt before realizing I'd be reducing it by half over 3 hours. By the time I finished, the stock was so salty I had to dump in 10 more quarts of water to balance it. Anyone else ever ruin a base by seasoning too early?

3 comments

3 Comments

cole_baker1mo agoMost Upvoted

Eh, you probably could've just served it as is and called it "intensely concentrated" or something. Restaurant kitchens are all about drama, half the time.

victor_robinson1mo ago

Read an article a while back where some chef admitted they use smoked paprika in a bunch of stuff just to make it sound fancier on the menu. It's basically a shortcut to make people think you slow-smoked something for hours when you really just sprinkled it on. Your point about the drama is spot on, half the job is just looking busy and talking up the process.

rubyk261mo ago

Yeah, but @cole_baker is right though. Restaurants get away with stuff like that all the time. I once had a line cook over-salt a batch of demi-glace so bad it was basically ocean water. The owner just rebranded it as "salted reduction" on the menu and charged more for it. People ate it up and asked for seconds.