Homemade Fish Stock

A beautiful, rich, fresh homemade fish stock is one of the easiest things in the kitchen to do! And if you are making chowder, fish soups or all sorts of fish-based dishes, packaged or granular stock cannot compare. Some people are afraid a ‘fishy’ odor will overpower their home and shy away from making this, but actually the scent of this when it’s cooking is like the best chowder you’ve ever gotten a whiff of. When I make the stock I can hardly wait to make a recipe with it because the smells hold all the promise of something fantastic.

Of course you need some fish parts to make it, and if you’ve caught your own fish, please read my post How to Clean, Scale, Fillet and Skin a Fish for how to get those parts on your own. If you can buy tails and bones from the fish store or supermarket, use those. I recommend using the tail, head (gills removed) and bones from a white fleshed fish, not an oily fish like a mackerel.

A standard 8 quart soup pot and about three to four pounds of fish parts will yield about eight cups of fish stock. The poundage of the parts isn’t exact - here I’m using the head (gills removed), tail and spine from a 29″ Striped Atlantic Sea Bass. If you can only get parts from smaller fish, go for multiple tails and bones. If fish parts aren’t available, use small whole bony fish, but still remove the gills. Using the skin in your stock is fine but scaled fish is best because straining out scales can be tricky.

Ingredients for Fresh Fish Stock: (makes about 8 cups)

• 3 to 4 pounds fish parts, gills removed from head if using.
• Water to cover parts in 8 quart soup pot
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and rough chopped
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and rough chopped
• 2 ribs celery chopped, or leafy middle section of celery
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns

How to Make The Fish Stock:

Combine all ingredients in your soup kettle and slowly bring it to a very slight simmer on medium low heat uncovered. As a few bubbles start to break through the surface, begin to skim any foam that rises to the top.

Continue to cook the stock, skimming foam occasionally, on very low heat, with just a few bubbles breaking the surface. Do not bring the stock to a boil! The slow cooking is the key to an outstanding fish stock because it allows the maximum amount of collagen to be extracted from the fish, and will keep your stock clear as well. The collagen extracted from the fish parts and bones during the slow cooking is what makes the stock almost like jello when it is cooled, but it melts down right away when heated.

Cook for an hour in this manner and when done strain the stock, discarding the vegetables and bones. You’ll find that very little water is evaporated, and you can continue to reduce the strained stock further if you wish, but again on very low heat. No salt has been added to the stock - I never add any to it until I’m making a recipe with it and then add salt as the recipe calls for.

The lovely stock will be very brothy when you are done, and will thicken only when chilled. Allow the stock to cool before putting into containers and either refrigerating or freezing. It freezes beautifully, and I love having a good supply on hand of the frozen to get me through the winter! Any sediment left will settle at the bottom of the bowl by the time the stock has cooled so it is easy not to include that in your containers.

If you’d like a great recipe for using homemade fish stock, try my Hearty Fresh Fish Soup recipe!