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Friday, January 20, 2012

Foody Friday: making broth

Whenever I make a chicken, turkey legs, or bone-in roast, I also make some broth for later use. It's a money-saving trick that takes less effort than opening a teeny tiny Campbell's can.
My broth after an over-night cooking.
If I plan to cook some broth-worthy meat, a few days before I'll be cooking it I start saving my veggie scraps: carrot and parsnip tops, ends of green beans, tops of onions, celery leaves, even kale stems. I just throw them all in a bag in the fridge.
After cooking the meat, I save bones and scraps and toss them in the crockpot. If you cooked your meat in the crockpot, you don't even half to wash it first. This week I cooked turkey legs, and we ate some, but the rest I saved for use in turkey tetrazzini. After deboning the legs, I just put the bones in the crockpot along with all my veggie scraps (note - you may add the skin for flavor, but it will add a lot of fat to the broth). I add water up to the top, and season a little.
For turkey or chicken broth, I add salt, pepper, and perhaps sage, thyme, or majoram, plus some coriander seed.
For pork, I add whole mustard seed, salt, tiny bit of crushed red pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.
For beef, I add salt and pepper, rosemary, and a dash of worcestershire sauce.

Put the crockpot on low, cook overnight. In the morning turn it off and remove the lid to let it cool while you go for a run. When you get back, drain it through a colander into storage jars. I use jars that hold about 2 cans' worth, or as much as I'd use in a recipe. If you plan to freeze the broth, use freezer-safe jars. Let cool in the fridge and skim any fat off the top when it has hardened. At this point you can taste and correct seasoning. Incidentally, if you like vegetable broth, you can just keep a container for scraps in the fridge at all times, and when it fills up, make a broth.

6 comments:

  1. Anything that says crockpot has my name all over it! Sounds great, thanks.

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  2. wow thanks for this as a newly domesticated girl I have no idea how to do this. I am going to be bookmarking :)

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  3. You are such a good Southern girl! From the Northeast! I love this and I usually do something similar, but usually only around Thanksgiving when I have extra meat.

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  4. I bought my husband a crockpot for Christmas (of course it was me who wanted it so it made total sense to give it to him). I didn't realise I could do soups in it. You've just given me heaps of scope for when winter rolls around.

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  5. Recently stumbled upon your blog and am enjoying it. I love the practical, money saving tips. I will try the broth idea and when I go out for my run not only will my laundry be done washing and ready for the dryer but my broth will also be cooled and ready for the freezer. Going back to a past posting about not buying bagged scallions because you didn't get the free rubberband. Just a few days before reading it I bought bagged scallions at Target because of the great price. I thought to myself, good thing they are so cheap because I won't get the free rubberband. Kind of funny that a rubberband would get so much thought.

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  6. I made chicken broth with a rotisserie chicken for the first time and it was divine. I made chicken noodle soup with it to have as I am recovering from this surgery. it's been delicious. Well, I can't actually taste anything, but my mom told me it was delicious. :)

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