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Seafood stock

post #1 of 6
8/31/08 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 
Hey All,

Great site. I need a little help. First time making seafood stock. I roasted at 350, 5 cloves garlic whole unskinned & quartered, 3 large white onions unskinned & quartered and 7 celery ribs cut in 2" pieces. Came out great. Added this to 3-4 gallons of water and 5 pounds of shrimp shells & .5 pounds of lobster shells. Brought to boil, turned down to low and simmered 4-5 hours. Looked and smelled great. Recipe said go 8 hours for really good stock. At about 6-6.5 hours, noticed a distinct "ammonia" smell up close. Is it okay or did I cook it too long? All help appreciated.

George

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There are three kinds of people in the world, those that can count and those that can't.
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post #2 of 6
9/1/08 at 5:52am
On occassion when dealing with seafood ,including shellfish, if it is starting to go bad or is bad you will get amonnia type aroma. Dont know if you started with frozen or fresh shells? And if frozen or fresh how long were they out without refrigeration. At times you may also get an Iodine aroma, this however does not mean it is bad, it is inherant in shellfish.
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post #3 of 6
9/1/08 at 7:58am
Thread Starter 

shells

We have saved the shells for 4-5 months. After we peel them, they are put in ziploc bags and frozen. We saved about 5 lbs of empty shells. They were taken straight from the deep freeze to the pot. Thank you for the help.
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post #4 of 6
9/1/08 at 8:14pm
How did it end up tasting? One can take a cup or so of the stock, put it in a small pan and reduce by half or so. If the reduced bit tastes okay, save the whole batch. If not, well, my condolences on your loss.

On a related note I've been incorporating shrimp stock into more of my shrimp dishes instead of just chucking the shells into the garbage. A change for the better, in my opinion.

mjb.
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post #5 of 6
9/2/08 at 1:24am

shrimp stock

I was a saucier for years in a major hotel- sometimes you may get a slight amonia but it should not be very strong. However, I have never made a seafood stock, even lobster that went anywhere near that long on the fire. For shrimp and lobster simmer 1 hour or so at most! Try that next time and see if it does not improve the end result. :chef:
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post #6 of 6
9/2/08 at 1:59pm
4-8 hours seems quite excessive for a seafood-based base. That's obvious for a fish base but even with shellfish shells it seems much.
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