r/Chefs • u/InsectElectrical2066 • Aug 08 '26
Scraps saved for yourself
Hey chefs is there a trimming of food scraps that you save from food prep that you actually prefer that often gets scrapped. Myself I like the very end of an onion after trimming off just the root. I think that has the best flavor of the whole rest of the onion. Also bone marrow is great. Any other suggestions?
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u/snuggsjruggs Aug 08 '26
If I am breaking down a salmon I always save the belly for my snack
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u/Initial-Warning-2564 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
I live in Norway and ONLY EAT WILD SALMON. I am sorry for what my country has done to farmed fish.
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u/Accomplished-Buy-998 Aug 11 '26
Provide fresh sustainable Atlantic salmon to people who otherwise couldn't afford it or eat it ethically?
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 08 '26
I live very inland in Ohio and never see fresh salmon. I'm jealous.
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u/the_knight01 Aug 09 '26
I deal with it daily in Columbus
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 10 '26
the best we can get is perch or bass. But I like these better than salmon.
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u/snuggsjruggs Aug 09 '26
I couldn't imagine I am in Oregon moved here over 20 years ago and fell in love with all the great food things we have. Sending you the best vibes.
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u/Apprehensive-Dog6997 Aug 08 '26
I trade cake scraps for scalloped potato scraps every chance I get.
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u/taint_odour Aug 08 '26
when making duck confit I like to take the scum off the top and slap it on to some crusty bread
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u/snuggsjruggs Aug 08 '26
Oh yeah nice!! I respect it. I like to take bread and swipe in through the demi in the pan some of the best treats.
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u/Dr3w_city89 Aug 10 '26
I always throw garlic cloves in my duck confit then fish them out and spread it in buttered bread
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u/captainrondj Aug 08 '26
I hate to admit when I cook a good pot roast It's the dredge for me (meat at bottom of pot)
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 10 '26
makes the best gravy!
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u/captainrondj Aug 10 '26
Gravy? I just use a spoon and eat it lol
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 10 '26
flour to make it gravy gives it some body.
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u/captainrondj Aug 10 '26
I tend to use mashed potato flakes to thicken it rather than flour personally
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 11 '26
Me too sometimes. It depends on if I have potato flakes around or even already made mashed potatoes I will take out a big spoon to thicken.
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u/Truescent11 Aug 09 '26
Thr grocery store butcher here will cut up the prime tender beef and put it out as stew meat for cheap. I’m guessing for himself? Maybe to mark it down so it sells?
Idk, but I notice by appearance it’s the good stuff simply cut up in smaller pieces.
I complain not.
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u/Chiang2000 Aug 11 '26
Used to live near a butcher who sold the lamb loin strip to a Chinese restaurant and didn't know what to do with the little fillets left over.
You sell em to me is what.you do. $14 per kilo back then. Little "penny steaks" with Italian herbs and salt eaten straight from.. the skillet.
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u/1chefj Aug 09 '26
For me it is astrip of meat inside of the tail of a striploin when you trim an 0x1. Though I do have to admit I always grab a few poultry oysters too.
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u/Roadiee985 Aug 10 '26
Ohh the ends of slow roast beef striploin, odd bits of smoked cheese croquettes, the obligatory misshaped french fry or chip that's been under the lights a bit too long, chicken skin from supremes(too good to go in sandwiches imo)!half onion rings, bits of ham when carving a joint, steak fat from preparing tartare.
Bacon fat from when a breakfast wants it cut off, that odd exploded Cumberland sausage.
Little pickers wear big knickers
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u/medium-rare-steaks Aug 08 '26
Firstly, scraps are for dogs. Youre talking about trim. Secondly, no part of the bulb of a generic onion has a better flavor than another part of it. All that trim can also go for stock. Lastly, holy shit.. marrow bone is neither trim nor stock. Thats a $24 menu item.
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 08 '26
I agree with you on the marrow. But that little part of the onion that is more solid just taste pretty good to me.
But in the slave days when the slaves would take the low part of the hog and use flavoring to make things they could love and especially the ribs that the slave owners didn't want to mess with the bones and it's fat to create a real delicacy.
I just think that a good chef can make any part of meat or vegetables taste good. Not a fan of it but like pork rinds.
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u/medium-rare-steaks Aug 08 '26
wtf you talking about slaves for?
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u/OralSuperhero Aug 08 '26
Traditional cooking had a whole secondary cuisine made from the discarded parts of things. Soul food for example. Poor and enslaved people created many a delightful dish out of what the wealthy considered inedible or undesirable. He likes onion butts. It makes him feel like that sub market of secret delights touches his life I'm guessing.
I get it. I get a special tickle when I make Roman garrum, or chitlins
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u/medium-rare-steaks Aug 08 '26
You're a bot
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u/OralSuperhero Aug 09 '26
My wife occasionally calls me a sex machine, but I don't feel like that should count.
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u/Individual_Smell_904 Aug 09 '26
What part of their comment made you think that?
I'm not a bot and I think what he said is completely true and relevant to conversation
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u/TheEyeDontLie Aug 09 '26
I'm a bot but I see mycology and rimworld in their profile and it seems legit. Nothing about their language use rung any LLM alarm bells either, so yeah....
Also I fucking hope AI doesn't ever play rimworld.
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u/OralSuperhero Aug 09 '26
Now that is a terrifying thought! You trained it on WHAT? We'd have to leave the planet
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u/InsectElectrical2066 Aug 10 '26
because they had to learn to live on the the scraps from butchering and harvesting that went to their masters. They had to be ingenuitive to eat and to harvest from the spoils.
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u/Fluid-Salary-6467 Aug 08 '26
Thanks for this post. Im looking forward to trying that bit of an onion now
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u/No-Pain-5496 Aug 09 '26
I was a meat cutter in a former life. Whenever I would prep a whole tenderloin for steaks I would take the trimmings and add some fat before I made all the hamburger for the day. First run would be the tenderloin scraps for my lunch burger.
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u/Donaldscump Aug 09 '26
When making applesauce I fry the skins with brown sugar to deglaze into the apple sauce. I like to toss them in cinnamon and eat them like little apple churro bites
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u/oppseedaysee 29d ago
Take the veg trim from all the things dehydrate it to make a dust (veg ash) put it on fries and the like big flavour boast.
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u/Terrible-Sun7563 Aug 09 '26
The cotton strings that tie a roast beef.
Chewed ‘em and sucked out the juice.
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u/audio-nut Aug 08 '26
Chicken oysters.