223 boring recipes

Microwave veal roast rubbed with garlic and pepper, cooked on an inverted saucer to stay out of the drippings. Simple technique with timing charts for rare, medium, and well-done.

Nothing says comfort food like grandma's cookin'. I have simplified the process with canned beans but feel free to use a comparable amount of fresh. I also replaced the lard in Grandma's recipe with (marginally more healthy) butter.

A culinary school-style white chicken stock made from blanched bones, mirepoix, and a classic sachet of herbs and spices. Simmered for hours and strained into a clear, clean-flavored foundation for soups and sauces.

Traditional French onion soup starting with homemade beef bone stock simmered for 3 hours, then finished with caramelized onions and melted Gruyere. This from-scratch version takes patience but delivers deep, rich flavor.

Classic white veal stock simmered for 4 hours with veal bones, leeks, carrots, and peppercorns. A foundational French kitchen staple that sets into a rich, gelatinous stock for sauces, soups, and braises.

Rich, deeply roasted brown veal stock simmered for 12 hours with carrots, onions, celery, garlic, and bay leaves. This restaurant-quality base stock is the backbone of French sauces, braises, and soups.

Homemade lamb stock from leftover leg-of-lamb bones simmered with celery, carrot, onion, tomato, and herbs. The kitchen-fundamental that turns a roast carcass into the base for stews, soups, and sauces.

Classic chicken stock simmers chicken bones with carrots, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme, and peppercorns into a rich golden broth. The foundation of soups, sauces, risottos, and braises.

Hearty Italian wedding soup simmered for hours with beef shanks, tiny meatballs, vegetables, tomatoes, and small pasta shells. Topped with grated Parmesan for a soul-warming bowl.

Old-world chicken soup built from carcasses and a marrow bone, simmered with parsnips, carrots, celery, and served over noodles with fresh parsley. Pure comfort.

Rich pheasant stock from roasted bones, red wine, juniper berries, and aromatic vegetables. Deep wild game flavor for sauces and soups.

Lima bean soup simmered low and slow with smoky ham hocks, ham bone, celery, and green onions. Classic Southern bean soup served with Mexican cornbread.

Pease porridge is a traditional British split pea soup simmered with a ham bone, turnip, potato, celery, and fresh herb sprigs. A thick, hearty potage that's been warming kitchens for centuries.

Bone marrow onion sauce with dry sherry and beef broth, pureed until silky smooth. A rich, old-school European sauce for roast beef, made in the microwave.

Slow cooker ham and bean soup with diced ham, a leftover ham bone, dried beans, and chopped vegetables seasoned with onion soup mix and Italian herbs. Set it and forget it for 7 hours.

Old-fashioned beef vegetable soup built from meaty soup bones, loaded with potatoes, carrots, cabbage, green beans, peas, and rice. One pot, one hour, and enough soul-warming goodness to feed the whole family.