So over the weekend I made chicken stock.
I followed the guide in the Nourishing Traditions
I threw in some onions, celery, and carrots and then I brought it to a boil. It takes a couple iterations to get the burner on my glass-top stove set to the right setting to maintain a consistent simmer for 48 hours, but once you find the sweet spot you can just let it go and occasionally come back and give it a quick stir.
I’m hoping the extra long cooking time will make a richer stock with lots of gelatin than I’ve made before. I’ll bottle this up in mason jars when the fat on top has hardened and then have it for making soups and sauces for a month or so till I have to make the next batch. I put the chicken in small plastic containers in the freezer so I can pull small portions out and put them in soups and such.
It makes an awesome chicken soup, pot pie, and sometimes I even use it instead of water when cooking brown rice. I’ve tried beef stock before too, but there’s just something about chicken stock that makes it extra good.
Saving chicken stock for the brown rice. Now why didn’t I think of that? I live in Japan and you have just exponentially improved my quality of life (granted, it was pretty good before)! Thanks a lot, Brian!
Heya – I’m on the NT yahoo group with you – did you get more gelled stock from cooking it longer? I’ve only had my stock gel once at this point *sigh*. Onwards and upwards…
No, it didn’t get more gelled unfortunately. I’ve only had it do that once too.
It think it mostly revolves around the chicken. This last one was a free range chicken from a trusted source, but still didn’t gel. The only one I’ve had gel was one I got from Meijer and I don’t remember what brand it was now.
The other thing I noticed – and I’m not sure if it’s the chicken or the lengthy cooking – is that the meat was quite tough after cooking. I freeze it and use it to make soup and stuff, but this isn’t very good.
Once in the stock is in the mason jars do you keep it in your fridge ?
I had been putting the mason jars in the freezer unless I was going to use them that week. However, I’ve had so many problems with cracked mason jars that I stopped using them and switched to plastic freezer containers. You can use mason jars, just be sure not to fill them past the curved neck of the jar. When the ice expands into the neck of the jar, it will crack the jar. If you keep the stock a little below that you are OK. However, you are wasting a lot of space in the jar.
I found this link to hot-pack canning chicken stock in a pressure canner:
http://canningusa.com/IfICanYouCan/StockChicken.htm
I do can garden produce and I do have a pressure canner, although I haven’t used it yet. We have a few home-raised roaster chickens in the freezer; usually I roast a chicken, and we basically eat the breasts for a meal; then I tear apart the rest for a casserole or sandwiches, etc. I wonder if it would work to roast and then make stock with the rest, and can that. What do you think?
I haven’t used a pressure canner. I just pour the stock into the jars and then freeze it.
I have used the carcass from a turkey I roasted for Thanksgiving to make stock. It worked great.
The gel comes from breaking down cartilage. I often have stock that gels–I think it’s because I use a pressure cooker and I tend to save bones and such from multiple (farm raised) chickens and make broth all at once.
I roast the chicken, typically, serve it up and save absolutely everything that folks don’t eat. Yes, that means I’m pulling bones off of people’s plates! I figure everything will be sterilized in the pressure cooker. I also hold onto the neck and giblets and throw those in the pot as well.
I save all this stuff in the freezer and then when I have 2 or 3 chickens worth I pile it all in my 6 quart canner with R.O. water and fire it up. I usually keep it at high pressure for at least sixteen hours. (I have a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker that holds its pressure really nicely without any adjustment, once you’ve found the right temperature on the electric burner.) When I’m done the bones are kind of soft–they break when you squeeze them.
The broth is tremendous, and I’m told it’s very good for you, too!
Old post here, I see, but I have a question. Do you keep adding water all through the simmer time? My broth evaporates overnight with my burner set to the lowest setting. Hmm, I just realized maybe I should put the pot on one of the little burners, I usually put it on the large ones to accommodate the large base of my pot. Well, anyway, got anything for me on that? Thank you.
I sometimes need to add water. But if you leave the lid on and it’s a good tight fit, and you make sure it stays at a bare simmer, you shouldn’t lose much.
I’ve actually taken to using a large crock pot set on low. It’s a lot less work and I can do it more often.