Burned a whole batch of stock because I got distracted by a foggy window

I was in the middle of reducing a veal stock last Tuesday at the restaurant and got pulled away to help with a broken ice machine. Came back 20 minutes later and the stock had scorched on the bottom, dark brown and smelling like burnt toast. Had to dump the whole thing down the sink, wasted about 12 pounds of bones and 3 hours of simmering. Anyone else have a kitchen disaster that started with something totally unrelated?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliot_harris253d ago

Man that sucks so bad. I did something similar last month but with a big pot of beef broth at home. Got distracted by my neighbor knocking on the door about a package that got delivered to his house by mistake and by the time I got back the whole thing had this burnt plastic smell mixed with the beef. Had to toss the whole pot which was like 8 hours of work down the drain. The worst part is you can smell that burnt toast thing for hours after even with the windows open. Idk why but it seems like the expensive stocks always get wrecked instead of the cheap stuff. Made me real careful about setting a timer on my phone now even for stuff I think I'll remember.

reeseanderson3d ago

Oh man that's rough... I had a buddy who did that with a batch of chicken stock he was making for his grandma's soup recipe. He left it on the stove to go answer a phone call from his mom and just totally spaced on it. The pan was one of those nice enameled ones too and the bottom got all stained and ruined. He still talks about that burnt smell like it was some kind of traumatic event or something.