Flash in the Pan

While staying for the weekend with friends, we were helping (OK, my wife was helping) with getting a large dinner party together. Part of those preparations was to be reducing chicken stock for a gravy because the chickens were going onto the grill. Those plans changed the minute my wife and our friend Harriet opened a package of Emeril's All Natural Chicken Stock that they had picked up from the store. Now, please understand that Harriet is a fine cook and frugal and can find a way to make use of virtually anything. But virtually embraces the concept of the odd exception, and that's exactly what this chicken stock became. She and my wife said that the taste was revolting, with a metallic aftertaste. I just took a smell of the open container and would get no closer to the product, let alone actually ingest it. I admire the courage or foolhardiness of the two women. I have a feeling that when Emeril Lagasse cooks, this stock is not in his pantry. At least, I hope it isn't.