It has been at least a few months since I harassed you guys about making your own chicken stock. I believe in this the way I believe that margarine is the devil and bread that doesn’t go stale is not worth eating. Which is to say, very strongly.

I would never, never, never want the lack of homemade chicken stock to keep you from cooking something, but I really do want you to try making it at least once. Making your own chicken stock is both a productive way to use chicken parts and carcasses that you might otherwise throw away AND good stock provides a depth and richness that is hard to get another way. You know the difference between a tomato and mozzarella salad with fresh summer tomatoes and one with winter grocery store tomatoes? That’s the kind of difference you get with real stock. You can still cook with just alright ingredients, and it is still worth doing, but it’s easier to cook with good ingredients.

I also want to say this about chicken stock: there are recipes that make beautiful, crystal clear stock, and that is lovely. You don’t have to do that. You can make really good, somewhat cloudy stock that takes very little active work.

My recipe is here, and once you have the stock, America’s Test Kitchen has some nice suggestions for storing it below.

americastestkitchen:

How To Store Leftover Stock

The appeal of freezing stock flat in bags is that you can store and stash them very easily. Line a coffee mug with a quart-sized zipper-lock bag (this keeps the bag open so both hands will be free for pouring). Fill the bag almost to the top with room temperature stock and seal it. Repeat until all the stock has been placed in bags. Stack the bags flat in a large, shallow roasting pan and freeze. Once the stock is solidly frozen, the bags can be removed from the pan and stored in the freezer wherever there’s room.

Read more: 4 Amazing Stock Tips