Friday Favorite: Homemade Stock
There’s really nothing better than homemade bone broth or stock. It has a depth of flavor that can’t be touched by what you’ll find in a store, even in the expensive organic brands. Bone broths are a deeply nourishing food. They’re also incredibly inexpensive and easy to make yourself at home. If you’re not already making your own broth at home I’d encourage you to start. If you’d like to know more about the history and health benefits of stock read: Broth is Beautiful.
Homemade broth is rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, silicon and other trace minerals in a form that is easily absorbed by the body. Fish stocks contains iodine and thyroid strengthening substances. Your stock will be even more healthful if you add a little acid to the water as this helps extract the minerals from the bones, apple cider vinegar or whey is what we use. Homemade broths also contain glucosamine and chondroiton – which are thought to help mitigate the effects of arthritis and joint pain. It also contain collagen and gelatin which help nourish you skin, joints, tendons and other connective tissues (which means fewer wrinkles, cellulite, arthritis, tendonitis, etc). Why shell out big bucks for wrinkle cream, joint supplements, cellulite cream and vitamin pills when you can simply include bone broths in your diet?
Bone broths are very inexpensive to make compared to the price of what you’ll pay for lesser quality items at the store. You can use bones from roasted chickens or buy pastured bones at local farms and markets. I purchase pastured beef bones from my local farm for $1/pound. These get made into stock for us to eat and the really meaty ones get fed to the dog. I’ve heard that some folks can find bones from their local butcher for free since most people do not want them. Chicken feet and heads are also very inexpensive if you can find a local source. These make the most nutritious chicken broth if you can find them, you can add 3 or 4 chicken feet along with each chicken when you’re making stock.
If you’ve never made broth it’s really quite simple. To make the simplest broth you’ll need bones, water and an acid (like apple cider vinegar, whey, lemon juice, or even leftover pickle juice). To make more deeply flavored broths you can add vegetables and herbs. I like to add a few pieces of astragulus root for it’s immune boosting effect. Here’s some information on the health benefits of astragulus if you’ve never heard about it.
NOURISHING HOMEMADE BONE BROTH
4 to 5 pounds of bone with lots of marrow and preferable a knuckle as well
(use beef, chicken, lamb, duck, pork, fish, or whatever kind of broth you want)
1/2 to 1 pound of stew meat (I usually choose meaty bones like shanks, ribs, oxtails then I don’t need to add the stew meat)
2 carrots cut into 2 inch segments
1 large onion peeled and quartered
2 or 3 cloves of garlic peeled
1 6-10 inch piece of seaweed
olive oil
2-3 bay leaves
1 Tablespoon of whole peppercorns
a few stalks of celery with leaves
a handful thyme and parsley
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or whey
6-8 quarts of cold filtered water
Optional: a piece or two of astragulus root (I get mine from Mt Rose Herbs)
If you want a dark stock roast, toss bones, onions, garlic and carrots with olive oil and roast in a 400 degree oven, turning once, for about 30 minutes or until browned.
Transfer roasted bones and vegetables to large stock pot or enameled cast iron pan. Use some water to deglaze roasting pan to make sure you get all the flavor and add this water to the pot. Add remaining ingredients to pot and cover bones with filtered water. Bring to a low simmer, reduce heat and simmer (between 180 and 200 degrees, which means a bubble coming up every now and then). As scum rises to the top carefully skim it off, it is said that these are the impurities and they cloud the broth.
The general rule is that larger the animal the longer you cook the stock, fish stock need only be cooked for 4 hours, larger animals overnight or for up to 72 hours. There are some people that have a perpetual stock pot which is always simmering on the back of the stove, they add bones as they get them and once a month they fish out all the solids. The stock is then used as needed while cooking. I’m considering starting to do this here at Chiot’s Run.
Fish out bones, removed any meat and marrow and set aside (you can use this for sandwiches or in soups – the marrow is delicious and healthy). Ladle stock through strainer and put in containers. Chill in refrigerator then freeze.
Some recipes say to skim fat, I do not do this. Animal fat from pastured animals is very healthy and will add wonderful flavor and texture to the dishes you use your stock in. If you do skim it make sure you save it and use it in other recipes. Fat is important for the absorption of fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K. Fat also helps us absorb the nutrients in the stock, it boosts our immune system and it helps us build and maintain strong bones and teeth. If you’re a little leery of the health of saturated animals fats read The Skinny on Fats.
I like to reduce my broth to double strength and freeze in wide mount pint jars. This way they take up less room in the freezer. I use a pint of stock and a pint of filtered water to make one quart of broth. You can also freeze it in ice cube trays so that you have small amounts for braising vegetables and sauces.
Once you start reading about the health benefits of bone broths you’ll be trying to add some to your diet every single day. It’s not a coincidence that soup is what has been fed to the sick throughout the ages. By using broth instead of water in many recipes you’ll be upping the nutrition of your food and making your food more digestible. Use stock to make gravy, for braising vegetables, in soups and stews, add some to spaghetti sauce, use it instead of water when making rice and other grains, or even drink it plain. Learn to make a variety of soups and you’ll be able to easily incorporate more stock into your diet. No doubt when you do you’ll start noticing the benefits, glowing skin, less cellulite, fewer colds, stronger teeth and bones, less join pain and greater overall health. I believe adding bone broths to your diet is one of the most important health moves you can make.
Do you make your own stocks and broths? What’s your favorite kind?
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Surprise Harvest
When I was harvesting my garlic earlier this week I got a bonus harvest: potatoes.
Last year the area where the garlic was planted was used to grow a crop of potatoes. Invariably a few of the tiny potatoes hide in the soil, overwinter, and grow into small potato plants. They never produce heavy yield of potatoes, but you’ll find one or two small potatoes when you pull up the plant.
I ended up with a small potato harvest along with my garlic harvest. Since I happened to making a big pot of beef stew that day, I scrubbed them up and threw them in the pot. I’m always happy for an unexpected harvest of things I didn’t plant!
Do you ever have volunteer potatoes?
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A Bountiful Garlic Harvest
Earlier this week I harvested my garlic. This is now the third year that I’ve grown garlic and this was my best harvest yet. I harvested over 125 heads of 8 different varieties. This year I finally have a large enough harvest that I’ll be able to use some of them to plant this fall, thus saving myself about $30 or more. Since the area that I planted them was an odd shape, I didn’t do a very good job keeping the varieties separate. That’s OK with me, I’ll save the biggest and best heads for planting this fall.
You may be wondering what I’ll do with so much garlic – eat it of course. I use a lot of garlic when cooking because it’s super healthy. I’m also hoping to make some pickled garlic since I finally have enough.
Remember when I talked about harvesting the garlic scapes so that the heads would be bigger? I left a few scapes on to see if it really made a difference. As you can see the one on the left is smaller than the three heads on the right. That was the one with the scape still attached. So not only do you get the eat the scapes in spring, but you end up with more garlic some summer!
All of this garlic was planted last fall. I didn’t really do anything to it this spring but give it a watering with some Neptune’s Harvest . Garlic doesn’t take up much space in the garden, you can even plant it in your ornamental borders if you don’t have space in the your garden. My garlic bed was roughly 40 sq ft tucked in the perennial border by the driveway.
I’m pretty happy that I’ll have enough garlic to last me throughout the coming year. Growing garlic is a great way to save money because organic local garlic can be quite pricey. At our local farmer’s market it averages about $1.50 for each head. If I were to buy all the garlic I grew it would cost me $187.50. Not that I would buy that much garlic if I were purchasing it, but I sure will use it all since I grew it! Looks like we won’t have to worry about vampires this coming year!
How much garlic do you go through during the course of a year? Do you grow it in your garden?
Not sure when your garlic is ready to harvest? See this post for info.
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Cucumbers and Pickles
All of those cucumbers I planted about six weeks ago have started producing. The Monticello inspired teepees have been working well for supporting the vines, they look really lovely now that they’re lush with cucumber and pole bean vines. I have had to train the cucumber vines to grow up the supports. I’m trying to think of a way to improve on this design next year. Last week I started harvesting cucumbers from all three varieties that I’m growing this season. I planted 12 vines of each in hopes of having a large flush of cucumbers for all those pickling recipes that call for pounds and pounds of cucumbers.
So far the ‘Boston Pickling’ are the largest and most productive. One day I harvested enough cucumbers to make a gallon of fermented full-sour dills. I have grown this variety of cucumber from the very beginning of my gardening career. I have always had great luck with them. They even produce a decent harvest is less than ideal conditions, like my shady back garden.
The ‘Solly Beiler’ have been less productive than the Boston Pickling, but the descriptions say they are heavy producers so I’m guessing they just haven’t hit their stride yet. They’re a much fatter cucumber than I expected, even when picked at the recommended small size.
The ‘Fin de Meaux’ seem to be producing nicely, although they’re a tiny cucumber so it takes a lot more to get enough for a batch of pickles (the one in the photo was picked a little big, most of them are much smaller). I’m looking forward to using my recipe for French Cornichon pickles from The Joy of Pickling:. I’m hoping to get enough to to give away small jars of these tiny cucumbers to friends this Christmas. If you have space I’d recommend a few of these as they’re wonderful little cucumbers. I think kids would especially love to eat pickles made with these tiny cukes.
I’ve already been making pickles with my harvests. I have a gallon of full-sour dills fermenting on the counter right now (they smell fantastic). Traditionally fermented pickles are a great way to get probiotics to enhance digestion and nutrient absorption of your meals.
I also have one jar of quick refrigerator pickles in the fridge, they’ll be ready to eat this weekend. They’re always the first kind of pickle I make so I can have pickles to eat right away. My recipe for these quick small batch pickles is posted over on the Your Day blog at Ethel so head on over there if you’re interested. My next batch of cucumbers will be some Crisp Pickles that are a favorite of everyone that tries them, I found the recipe in an old Farm Journal Cookbook given to me by Mr Chiot’s step mom. I’ll post the recipe with photos sometime soon.
I’m hoping that my cucumber vines will keep producing well for the next few weeks, then they’ll be replanted with hopes of another flush of cucumbers come fall. I want to make sure I have plenty of pickles in the pantry for winter as we love eating them with most meals.
Are you a pickle lover? what kind is your favorite: dill, sweet, bread & butter, mustard?
For more detailed descriptions of each of the cucumbers listed above head on over and read this post.
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The First Tomato of 2011
Yesterday evening I was out watering and as I walked by the Tess’s Land Race Currant tomato growing in the side flowerbed a slash of red caught my eye. There were three tiny tomatoes that were ripe and ready to harvest. I picked them and Mr Chiots and I ate them.
They don’t come close to a Brandywine for depth of flavor, but they’re a ripe tomato. Since I haven’t had a ripe tomato since last October this one was quite tasty! I think the next variety that will come ripe will be the Silvery Fir Tree. Hopefully we get to enjoy a few tasty tomatoes before we go on vacation!
Where are you in your tomato season: harvesting, almost there, not even close?
