Quiet Life Homestead

Challenge Day 4 Making Broth

Some friends of mine when we lived in Michigan taught me this and I have done it ever since.  When you have cooked a turkey or chicken and have eaten the meat off in the first meal (or as much meat as you can easily).  Put the leftover bird in a cooking pot (bones, sinew, meat still on the bones, etc.) with enough water to cover it.  Add things like celery if desired to enhance flavor. Boil, covered in pot until the meat comes off the bones.  If the water boils down, you'll have to add more.  Once the meat falls off the bones, I get another pot, a 9x13 glass pan (just my preference), a strainer, and a pasta grabber (a strained spoon would work - I just don't have one).  I use my grabber and grab the meat little by little (by the way, did I mention to let it cool?) and separate the good from the bad, good meat goes into the 9x13, the bones & other icky stuff I throw in the trash.  I pour the broth through the strainer (to get any pieces I may have missed) and into the other pot.  Sometimes I use this broth right away to make chicken or turkey soup.  Sometimes I put it in freezer bags and freeze it for another time.  After you've soaked your pinto beans, instead of adding water to cook them in, add the broth.  It tastes SO GOOD! 

By the way, I've also made broth with raw chicken.  We sometimes get Angel Food and they always have frozen legs or thighs.  I just pop those puppies into the pot and do the same as the above. 

I've never timed how long it takes to make the broth.  I just start it in the morning and its ready in the afternoon.  I suppose it depends on how hard you boil it. 

chicken broth

{ 07:23, Tuesday, January 9, 2007 } { Posted by mccrjill }

I do that too, except I put a little vinegar in it - it's supposed to leach the calcium from the bones into the broth and make it very healthy. If you boil it a long time, when the calcium is out of the bones, they become very rubbery and you can bend them easily. Happy New Year! Jill

Great idea!

{ 11:06, Tuesday, January 9, 2007 } { Posted by jewlsntexas }

I never thought to use the broth for making pinto beans - or in bean soup. I always make soup after I cook off a turkey carcass. I just posted today about making turkey noodle soup - so this was very interesting to me!