Making your own broth

Heres something that im not sure if its been covered or not. Im sure theres a few atleast that make thier own broth and put in a jar or freezer bag and freeze it for future use. Ive been makeing mine for the last 6 months because of health reasons and have gotten pretty good at making chicken broth, because chicken is reasonably cheap and hits the spot on a cold winter befor i hit the hay. I seen a deal at aldis food store the other day on chicken legs, 14 of just the legs alone and not the thighs for a 3$ price so bought them. I added some chopped celery and onions, im an onion man-the more the better. I boiled them until you can take the bone out of the meat freely, by then the skin just slides off and goes to the dog and the meat is still in portions and not starting to really seperate too smaller pieces. I deboned it, took the meat and put that into a plastic food saver and then found the right coarse black pepper and the right amount of salt then simmered it down to the right density of taste. The broth turned out so good and rich that i could thin it down about 30% and still end up with a real good tasting broth, guess what, its about half gone. Out of those 14 legs I got about 2 full quarts of very good tasteing broth. Theres got to be a few dozen ways to make broth so whats yours.

I always freeze our whole/rotisserie chicken bones throughout the year, and then boil a huge batch of broth with them and the leftover turkey bones from Thanksgiving and salt. Once the broth is made I make some into soup right away, and save the rest for later. I usually will smoke a Turkey for Thanksgiving and that makes the broth a lot better imo. This broth is WAY better than store bought, and is very versatile in it’s uses. It’s great for broth soup, part of the base of creamy soup, or in gravy’s.

When we oven roast a chicken I keep all the bones and skin. These will get bagged and frozen until I have three or four quart freezer bags full of them. Then I thaw them and roast them until everything is nice and browned up. Then I add a couple quarts of water to the roasting pan and simmer them for a couple hours, then discard everything but the broth. I stir the chicken parts during the roasting and the simmering. I’ll pour the cooled broth into a large bowl and allow to get cold in the fridge so the fat comes to the top and can be lifted off. I’ll make soup or continue cooking the broth down to make gravy. Turkey is done the same way only more water.

When I bone out the pork shoulders I use for my sausage making I bag and freeze the bones. When I want to make pork gravy I take the bones out and roast them just like the chicken or turkey bones and finish the same way. I’ll cook the pork broth down to a thick brown substance in the fry pan and then add water back to make the gravy. This caramelizes the blood and juice from the pork bones and has an intense flavor. This is my favorite gravy.

I add no salt or any vegetables while making the broth. If I am making soup, the veggies will add the flavor. For gravy I want nothing but the flavor of the caramelized meat juice. I salt and pepper the gravy at the table.

I PRETTY MUCH DO THE SAME THING WITH TURKEY BONES. I especially love the turkey grilled over charcoal for this. I always throw leftover meat when I boil up the bones. I make my own soup starter and add that for a vegetable soup, or with the turkey its just a turkey soup. always add noodles. I very seldom use chicken for some reason.??? in the freezer section of most stoers they have packages of the old style homemade noodle my grandma an mom use to make. them are much more gooder!!!!!!!

I do this with beef bones when we order a 1/4 or half.

Here’s a good noodle recepie for those looking for one. This is one my mom made when us kids were at home. Put Flour in a bowl and theres no measurements just the amount you think will make the quantity of noodles you want. Next make a depression in the center of the flour and drop in eggs, yolks and all then mix. When you get twards where the mix is just about ready to roll out you either add more eggs if the dough is still too stiff or add more flour to make is less wet. Keep doing this until you get the firmness you’ll need to roll the dough out. Flour the surface your going to roll out on and then put dough on it and roll out. Add a pinch of salt if you want. When you get the dough rolled out then flour the surface of it generously to keep the noodles from sticking together when cutting them into the size you want. Just roll up the dough and then cut to width, you dont have to roll the dough up before you cut, you can cut them too the width right then and a pizza slicer works good if your not going to roll them up before you cut them, this lessens the chance the noodles will stick together when trying to unroll them. Immediately after cutting into noodle width unroll the noodles then either let dry for awhile or put into broth right then, both ways make good noodles. This is a fail safe way to make noodles. When I roll my dough out i like a thicker noodle so i don’t roll them out so thin. At about an 1/8th too 3/16ths thick and about 3/4″ too an 1″ inch wide these are good hardy noodles, I leave my noodles as long as the diameter of the dough i just rolled out, some are 15″ long and a fork full. These are good noodles for sure and very simple to make, nice big thick and wide noodles. Make sure you have about twice the amount of broth you think you’ll need because these soak up alot of it.

Sounds like the same routine my grandma did.

I typically buy some pasture raised whole chickens and part them out myself. I save the backs and scraps and freeze them. When I get 2-3 of these I use an Alton Brown broth recipe for chicken broth. I freeze the broth in 1-2 cup portions for making soup and other delicious stuff.

This is one of the most healthy foods out there.

This reminds me, I got some soup bones with my freezer beef I need to make into broth too.

@mossydan, if you like broth and are ambitious enough, you should try this recipe for pho. It’s incredible. Go to page 11 in this thread. http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/whats-for-supper/page/11/

Ya Gill, you know you’ve made good broth that when you put it in the fridge over night the next morning it solid gell like Jello, the taste is incredably rich and at that point you can skim the fat if you want and then still thin it down 30% and still get better tasting broth then in a container in the stores. I think one of the reason its not as thick as home made is because it hard to pour jello out of a box, you could a can by cutting the whole lid off like on a can opener, good broth just don’t pour out of a hole in a box or can

Most always all the bones that I smoke or have seen my grill, I turn into stock.

My daughter is into making bone stock/broth and she says that she knows the aroma and flavor difference. What is produced here at her birth home versus Comox British Columbia her home now, she says she cannot reproduce. She is to be the knowledgeable healthy one? I have no idea why mine has a taste/smell that she cannot achieve, really I don’t know why not!

We do a lot of these with our insta pot. Initially I wasn’t a fan of it as the meat in dishes seemed to plain vs the grill and it kinda sat for a year, but for the last year we have been hooked on broths and soups from it. We love the pho broth soups in the winter. Basically the same recipe as biggill posted, but a little simple. I have the spices mixed up a few at a time and they go in a big tea bag. I then get the butcher to slice a few pounds of what ever steak is on sale and vacuum seal in small amounts. I keep the steak bones from summer grilling and grab a few soup bones when I think of it at the grocery store for the base in the freezer( you can use them few times). With an instant pot I can make a whole bunch of this in about an hour which is perfect for a weeknight and some lunches. I think making all of these broths are so much better than what you can buy or get in restaurants as it seems I can match the taste, but do it with so much less sodium!

mossydan wrote:

Ya Gill, you know you’ve made good broth that when you put it in the fridge over night the next morning it solid gell like Jello, the taste is incredably rich and at that point you can skim the fat if you want and then still thin it down 30% and still get better tasting broth then in a container in the stores. I think one of the reason its not as thick as home made is because it hard to pour jello out of a box, you could a can by cutting the whole lid off like on a can opener, good broth just don’t pour out of a hole in a box or can

Yeah, mine always end up as jello. That’s the collagen. Pretty damn healthy stuff. It’s a sign you did it right.

I’ll sometimes save the fat for making a roux for gravy.