Waste not, want not
27 03 2008
I don’t know what it’s like at your house, but at mine if dinner doesn’t include meat people think I’m out to starve them. Honestly. So what’s a mom with limited budget to do? A good place to start is with saving everything and using it all. Stock is a great example. I was shocked to learn recently that not everyone makes their own stock. Do you know how much salt is in a bouillon cube? Last I checked (a month ago) the price of boxed organic chicken stock was $3.99 per quart. A quart really doesn’t go far, you know? So here’s what I do:
Every time I peel veggies or clean fresh herbs the trimmings go into a gallon sized plastic bag in the freezer. Parsley stems, potato peels, onion skins, bits of garlic, mushroom stems: everything! If you want chicken stock then you need another bag for meat. Making wings? Wing tips go in the bag. Cooking a whole chicken? The gizzards and neck go in the bag. The carcas goes in a second freezer bag that includes cooked leftovers that don’t disappear quickly enough: no one wants the last turkey drumstick? In to meat bag #2 it goes.
When you’ve got two gallons of frozen vegetable trimmings and 1-2 gallons of the frozen meat, buy a couple (or more) of those little chickens (not the roasters) that are often on sale for .89 cents per pound. You can roast or boil them: whatever you like. (I usually roast three - one for sandwiches tonight.) The point is to take the meat off and save for later. Put your frozen ingredients in the ‘frig overnight so they’ll thaw a bit.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday is usually good for me) the four gallons of leftovers plus chicken bones from last night go in a big pot. Cover with cold water. Let it sit for an hour or so (you want everything at about the same cold temp so that the water draws out flavors). Throw in a few bay leaves, a few cloves of garlic, some peppercorns and bit of course sea salt. Put the cover on your pot at an angle so that some steam will escape and bring water to a boil. As soon as it boils turn it down to a simmer. If you want a clear broth remove the foam that rises to the top within the first twenty minutes or so (this isn’t necessary and I don’t usually bother).
Stir every once in awhile, but otherwise that’s pretty much it for the next four to eight hours (let it go a few hours longer if all your meat and bones were raw to start). The house will be warm and smell great all day. When you turn the pot off, strain the solids and reserve the liquids (of course!)…walaa! Homemade chicken stock.
So now you’ve got a giant pot of stock and the cleaned meat of two chickens. What can you do with it? I’d make two meals this week and freeze the remaining stock.
Chicken soup: heat a little olive oil, throw in diced carrots, onions, mushrooms, sweet peppers (or whatever is in your vegetable bin). When carrots soften, add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add cooked chicken and some fresh herbs, give it a few minutes to heat, then enjoy.
Chicken in gravy on rice (or on noodles or toast). Self explanatory, right?
Freeze leftover stock in quart sized (or smaller) bags. You likely have enough to get you through a month’s worth of recipes where you add just a bit of chicken stock to the pan.
This has easily cost less than $10.00. What a deal, eh? And you know what they say about mom’s chicken soup…
apologies for the code - trying to break into paragraphs here is proving to be an annoyance! anyone else know how?
As far as the code goes–first question is–are you typing on a Mac? (A friend of mine has problem with wordpress code & paragraphs on her Mac. It’s a shared blog, so I usually have to go back in and fix the paragraphs. Wish I had a better answer than that if you’ve got a Mac.) If you’re not typing on a Mac, then most likely you’ve typed the paragraph codes while you’re on “visual” editing, instead of on the “code” editing tab. I just tried it on a test post of mine, and what you’ve got above is exactly what mine looks like.
Are you copying and pasting the text, and then the paragraphs don’t come out right? That happens to me sometimes, and you can “clean up messy code” or “clear formatting” which usually clears it up for me. When you’re writing/editing your post, on the “visual” tab, there will be the various buttons (for bold, italics, etc.). On the far right is a button that has “show/hide advanced toolbar” and the button has a dotted line with a break and then two dotted lines below it. Click on that and a second toolbar appears underneath that first toolbar. There will be a little white “eraser” button and a little broom which will clear formatting and clean up messy code, respectively. (You have to select the text you want before you click these buttons, for them to work.)
Anyway, usually when I just type stuff, hitting enter automatically makes the paragraph division show up; but if it doesn’t, then putting the code in — under the “code” tab — should probably fix it.
Ok, now that I’ve helped you, it’s your turn!
I’ve wondered about the peelings and things. One of the main reasons I peel vegetables and discard stems and other remnants is because of the pesticides (or sometimes they’ve gotten a little old, or even have bits of mold–of course, I buy in bulk, so don’t always get things used while they’re the freshest…). Anyway, I’ve always wondered if I made stock from veggies, wouldn’t I just be putting all of the “bad” stuff I’ve just cut off into the broth? Or does boiling it kill everything and make it usable? I didn’t want to make my family sick, just to save a little money on broth, y’know.
Thanks,
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Guess what? I am using a Mac! But I did (finally) figure it out. (In case your friend would like to know: type in text editor and save as html, then copy and paste to wordpress.) I appreciate all your help though.
As for the peels: good question. I can’t say I honestly know the answer. But I do know these things: I buy direct from my local farmers whenever I can (and I buy in bulk, in season and freeze what can’t be used right away - were talking bushels of corn cut from the cob here - which is excellent thrown in soup and stews!). I grow what I can (which is limited to containers these days). I always wash veggies first. Produce that’s “on it’s way out” (but not “gone’
makes excellent tasting stock (better than fresher ingredients - mushrooms especially). Any restaurant that makes homemade soup and their own sauces is highly likely to be making their own stock. And my family has never once in the 25+ years I’ve been making it (probably once a month), gotten sick. It may be psychological, but eating homemade chicken soup actually makes people feel better!
I don’t like what’s put on and in our food either. If I could afford 100% organic, that’s what I’d buy. It’s more expensive but there’s no reason this recipe can’t be all organic.
Thanks for the question. We should all be concerned with our food supply these days, I think.
Ok. Thanks! I’ve always been just a bit worried about boiling peelings. I guess I’ll try it and see!
And I’ve sent that tip on to my friend, so hopefully that will help her be able to post by herself.
Kathy
I do exactly the same thing as you do for stocks. My freezer always has stuff waiting to go into the pot. Thrift is a virtue, and home made stocks are not only thrifty, but taste better than those nasty cans and boxes of stock.
Jeff
I forgot to mention how much better it tastes! And I’m impressed: who’d have thought a gentleman named masteroftheuniverse could cook?
ps: nice to see you checking in…