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Do you make home-made chicken stock?

(41 Posts)
MelissaSM Tue 05-Jun-12 06:34:12

Making stock is easy and basically free and so much better than the canned or boxed junk you buy at the store. Every non-vegetarian cook can find a use for chicken stock. Vegetarians can easily substitute vegetable. The uses for this sort of miracle base are myriad, and keeping some available is not only convenient, but it can save money. Here are some things to make with poultry stock, in case you are in search of healthy cooking ideas. You may read this article: Save time and money and eat well with chicken or vegetable stock

personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2012/05/30/chicken-stock-vegetable-stock/

MrsJamJam Tue 03-Apr-12 19:30:13

Always feel a frisson of guilt if I throw away a chicken carcass, but there is only so much stock the freezer will hold!

jack Tue 03-Apr-12 19:23:13

Have just left sick bed to check bugs. Yes! Freezing cooked rice works really well and it has taken me nearly 100 years to work this out.

Does anyone listen to Ed Reardon on R4? (6.30pm-7pm). Have just lolled (as in laughed out loud) with my whisky mac. The script is brilliant.

Too ill to listen to The Archers. And I'm not that "bovvered" even when I'm OK. It is so slow that you only have to listen to about three episodes a year to keep on top of the plot.

I have been waiting for years for Jennifer to have a tantrum. But she never does. Wimp! (Sorry. Wrong thread)

jeni Tue 03-Apr-12 19:16:49

notso don't even think it let alone use it!

Notsogrand Tue 03-Apr-12 18:55:53

I only found out a few months ago that the problem with rice, is that being tiny individual grains once cooked, it has masses more surface area for the bugs to multiply on.

So now, if any cooked rice is not served up, I immediately put it under running cold water, drain, and either fridge or freeze it. As long as it's either hot or cold it's safe and can be re-heated without problems.

Stock from turkey bones makes the most delicious stew and is one of the best things about the food from that festival in December. (Daren't utter the C word yet shock)

jeni Tue 03-Apr-12 18:18:38

I'd have one of those if I'd got any whisky in, but as the only time I drink it is when I have a cold I haven't got any sad

jack Tue 03-Apr-12 17:57:23

Me too. The third in a month. Have had to cancel bridge tonight. Throat too sore for all the chit-chat! But I have managed to knock up a chilli con carne for tomorrow so DH has something easy to spoon into a bowl for me.

Meanwhile we'll finish off yesterday's soup for supper. And the medicine DH always gives me when I have a cough/cold/asthma is Whisky Mac. I might have mentioned this before!

jeni Tue 03-Apr-12 17:29:03

Only that that I've got a cold! That's a bug!

jack Tue 03-Apr-12 16:46:38

Thanks Carol. Any other tips about bugs?

Carol Tue 03-Apr-12 13:04:31

Your mum was right about stock and rice jack. Both gather bugs if you don't take care.

jack Tue 03-Apr-12 12:55:22

The most exciting thing about stock (in my humble opinion) is that once it has been chilled you can (a) skim off all the fat and (b) be reassured that the broth is wonderfully beneficial to one's health.

DH has just said he heard someone on the wireless say you shouldn't boil stock. Nonsense. My mother taught me to boil stock to get rid of bugs. She also said you should re-boil it every day if you have an on-going stock-pot - for the same reason I imagine.

Oh dear. I do miss her so much.

She also said beware of rice. Not in its newly pristine condition. But rice that you heat up again. So I only re-heat rice once, if at all. Funny how mothers have such a huge influence on our lives, even when they're dead.

artygran Mon 02-Apr-12 20:21:01

I have loads of chicken, and ham, stock in my freezer - trouble is, I don't always remember to use it for anything! I prefer to make soup out of chicken carcasses, because I know I'll always eat it. Chicken broth, with plenty of celery and carrots, is my all time favourite food.

Carol Mon 02-Apr-12 19:59:13

Yes, I always use the carcass and boil it with celery, onion and carrots, and perhaps a few herbs, until I am sure it will be like jelly when it has cooled and been refrigerated.

I use it for all sorts of recipes, but it makes great chicken and sweetcorn soup, or chicken chowder.

Libradi Mon 02-Apr-12 19:55:50

Yes Jack I always use the chicken carcass to make stock. Sometimes if the carcass is small I pop it into the freezer and wait until I have another to make stock with. I just add onion, carrot, leak, celery or whatever I have in the fridge and simmer. I use it as a base for soup or I reduce it and use it to go into a curry. Not so sure about the left over sponge cake though grin.

Butternut Mon 02-Apr-12 19:52:57

Yes, I do jack - even though I'm a demi-veggie. Makes great stock. smile

jack Mon 02-Apr-12 19:46:08

I cannot bear to throw away a chicken carcass (even if it's quite small) and always make stock to add to leftover veg or fresh veg or beans or virtually anything edible that needs recycling. So we usually have delicious soup on the go.

My mother always made stock, so she was my mentor. But we all thought she had gone a bit far when she put a big slab of left-over sponge cake into the soup. Yet it turned out to be utterly delicious. Egg, sugar and flour. A top chef could do worse than follow suit.