Carol’s Comfort Foods

Review of slow cookers that are out there on the market by Cook’s Illustrated.   Gives a thorough review of each and makes recommendations at the various price points.

I love to make soups and although I tend to use chicken or vegetable stock most of the time, occasionally I’ll be making a beef stew or beef vegetable soup and need to add some beef stock.  In the past, I have been reluctant to use it, as most of it was loaded with sodium and tasted horrible.  Thankfully, most manufacturers have started to offer lower sodium varieties in all of their stocks, including beef stock.

Recently, when I was at the store and wanted to pick up some beef stock for a stew I was going to make, I noticed a new brand on the shelf “Bold Stock” from College Inn.  I decided to give it a try, instead of the regular beef stock that I would normally use in my stew.  The variety that I picked up was “Beef Sirloin” flavor and the label said that the stock was made with select beef, carrots, celery and onion and would provide a more intense flavor for sauces, risottos and soups.

I used the Bold Stock in my beef stew, instead of my usual stock.  It did indeed provide a more intense beef flavor to my stew and this was accomplished without a heavy sodium taste.  However, there was a distinctive “sirloin” flavor to my stew, one than I don’t get using the normal beef stock.  Although, on the label it says “beef sirloin” flavor, somehow I didn’t think that it would be quite as pronounced a sirloin flavor as it was in the dish.  Mind you, it didn’t taste bad at all, just different and not expected. 

Consequently, I would recommend this product, if you are looking to really enhance a beef dish and want a fairly intense “sirloin beef” flavor in it.  If not, and you are trying to achieve a milder, beef flavor to a stew or soup, I would stick with the regular low-sodium beef stocks that are offered by a number of food manufacturers, including the regular College Inn brand. 

If you really want an over the top dishwashing experience, try Caldrea liquid dish soap.  I recently visited their website and ordered the Basil Blue Sage and Ginger Pomelo dish soaps to give them a test run.  The fragrances sounded lovely and I thought that if you had to be washing dishes from time to time, it would be nice to have a wonderful fragrance wafting up from the sink, rather than the ordinary over perfumed scent of the usual household dish soaps.  However, I was skeptical about how well they would clean and hold up to a sink full of dishes.

The Basil Blue Sage is made from the essential oils of basil, rosemary and sage herbs.  The fragrance is light, not overpowering, but the scent of basil and rosemary definitely are present.  Ginger Pomelo is a combination of ginger, grapefruit and pomelo.  Pomelo is a grapefruit-like citrus, that originates from Polynesia and the West Indies.  

I tested both dish soaps with a sink full of dirty dishes and was pleasantly surprised.  They stand up very well to your typical liquid dish soaps.  Both of them created an ample amount of suds, had good lasting power, and cleaned the dishes very well.  The only difference that I was able to discern is that you have the lovely fragrances of the soap drifting up from the sink as you wash the dishes and they leave a lingering herbal scent on your hands, long after you’ve finished washing the dishes.

Obviously, there is a price that you pay for dish washing luxury.  Each 16 ounce bottle of liquid dish soap is approximately $9.00  Although, this is significantly higher than the brands you routinely purchase at the grocery store, every once in awhile, I say if we’re standing over a hot sink of dirty dishes, we deserve it!  If you agree, Caldrea has a wide variety of high end products that can be ordered online or are available in a limited number of retail shops throughout the country.