Meet the Producer: Stock Options' Bob Cassidy

Several years ago, Bob Cassidy, proprietor of Portland institution Cassidy's Restaurant and Bar, got to thinking about stock. He wasn't hatching a grandiose plan to sell shares in his eponymous eatery, but rather had a humbler aspiration to start making high-quality stocks for restaurants in the Portland area, "and maybe Seattle, if we got lucky." Why stock? "It's the background of all the food we do [in the restaurant]."

Making Stock, Taking Stock
Cassidy's fresh stocks found a following, but the logistics of the operation were formidable; stock is highly perishable, so it has to be produced, cooled, stored, and delivered with tremendous care. Fresh stock also has to be used quickly, so Cassidy was delivering new batches to his food service clients every two to three days. "Gearing up," he says, "took five times as much money and time as we thought it would." The business necessarily evolved; with the help of an investor who'd previously "had great success in that area," Cassidy took a leap and transitioned to the retail specialty food market. The Stock Options line of small-batch, frozen stocks and demi-glaces debuted at the 2007 NASFT Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

Frozen Assets
Switching his focus to retail clients meant Cassidy had to come up with a new way to package his product. He needed something that would facilitate distribution to and shelving at stores, and that would also extend shelf life to make it convenient for consumers. Cassidy considered using shelf-stable aseptic packaging, but says "I can't get my head around how those stay safe that long." Plus, he didn't want a "cat fight" trying to enter the already saturated stock-in-a-box market. Mostly, though, he explains that when you use really great ingredients, and take a lot of care in making your stock, you just don't want to put it into a box. "That's why we're frozen."

A Passion for the Process
Forget the business talk. What Cassidy really loves to discuss is stock making. The Stock Options headquarters is under 2000 square feet, and "the largest kettle is 125 gallons. That's very small." But what the operation lacks in space, it more than makes up for in quality and attention to detail. Not only are the stocks and demi-glaces handmade, the entire process, down to packaging, is totally manual.

Cassidy starts with carefully sourced ingredients. All of his beef bones come from Painted Hills Natural Beef, a co-op of ranchers producing hormone-, steroid- and antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed cattle. "We get all marrow bones from them [for the beef stock]. As good as the marrow is, often the beef demi wouldn't get as viscous as people like, so we added knuckle bones [to the beef demi-glace]." The chicken bones come from Petaluma Poultry, which produces organic, free-range chicken. Whenever possible, produce is local and organic.

Both the beef and veal stocks are 24-hour recipes. Each batch of beef stock requires about 4 pounds of bones per gallon of water, while the less concentrated veal stock uses 2 pounds per gallon. After a slow roast, the bones are cooked quickly at high heat with vegetables and herbs. Then the stock is "put to bed" for a flavor-enhancing overnight simmer. It takes 5 ½ hours to make a batch of chicken stock, including a 1 ½ hour roast. A roasted vegetable stock and a blond fish stock are less time-intensive recipes, but they're prepared with equal care.

"There's nothing in the stocks except bones, veggies, and herbs. The only sodium in the beef broth is from tomato paste painted onto the bones in the last half hour of the roast." With a bit of amazement, Cassidy explains "we developed a miraculous way to get the fat out" that involves pulling out the bottom of the kettle. "When you work with such good ingredients, you don't want the fat in there to mess it up," so while Cassidy didn't set out to make a health food, he's come to realize his stocks are like elixirs "for people coming back from illness." They're also helpful for those trying to lose weight, or watching their sodium intake. (Cassidy actually thinks that the lack of sodium makes the stocks "taste a little flat" on their own. But any chef worth his or her salt also knows to omit that particular seasoning when stock-making, because as it cooks down, salted stock can easily lead to an over-salted dish.) As for the ultra-rich demi-glaces, they're "pure reductions. No starch, no roux, just a little pork, a little red wine for deglazing."

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