Drawing broth as a basic skill
The recipe that is not a recipe. Why stock is the foundation of cooking.
There are people who cook with stock cubes. That's not a sin — it's a symptom. The symptom of a generation that never learned what broth is.
Broth is water that has been soaked through something. Bones, vegetables, herbs, time. That's it. No recipe, no exact quantities, no timer. Broth is a process, not a product.
A chicken stock: store the carcasses of roast chickens (freezer). When you have three or four, throw them in a large pot with water, an onion, a carrot, celery, peppercorns, bay leaf. Let it steep for four hours on low heat. Strain it. Finished.
What you are left with is gold. Literally — good stock is golden and gelatinous as it cools. That gelatin is the collagen from the bones. It's what makes soup soup and not just hot water with stuff in it.
My father would add that broth is also medicinal. Chicken broth for a cold isn't a superstition — it's anti-inflammatory, hydrating, and mineral-rich. Every culture in the world has a variant: the Jewish Jewish penicillin, the Japanese dashi, the Vietnamese pho.
Stewing stock takes no effort, just time. And you don't have to be there during that time. It's cooking at its most zen: you make something by leaving it alone.
Start it. Save your bones. Buy a large pan. The rest will follow automatically.