Using up the scant remains of a lamb joint on the bone - does anyone else do this?

Bones contain collegen, in the marrow.
So the bone stock is good for wrinkles too.
Boom!!

I used to get bags of chicken carcasses from a local game shop,sadly long gone, cook them in the pressure cooker then through the mincer and then had tubs of healthy food for our labradors, a lot cheaper and healthier than commercial dog food, also used to boil up marrowbones - the stock from that was heaven for soups and stews and the dogs got the cooked bones.

nanna8

All sounds lovely but I have to admit the pussy cats and kookaburras get the very last remains. Not that I buy lamb joints a lot these days, they cost too much here.

A pair of crows that are regular garden visitors soon cleared up the bits of cold lamb fat I’d cut off the remaining meat. There was a surprising amount, and as usual, they crammed as much into their beaks as they could possibly hold, before flying off to enjoy their lunch.

I put any bones in my slow cooker to make stock. Then freeze it. A good source of collagen.

But you need to simmer lamb and beef bones for 10-12 hours and perhaps 4-6 for chicken to release the collagen.

I have always been a user of leftovers etc. Not that there were many when I had a family at home, but brought up never to waste anything. We had an old yacht and sailed up to Hebrides etc. So I bought a HI dome pressure cooker (for £5 in a charity shop) and it was brilliant on all levels. Pressure cooker saved fuel, cooked things more quickly and was safe as if it fell of the stove it was sealed and nothing was spilt. I love to use shin beef for a stew, Some fried onion in first (tastes totally different to raw onion) the green peppers, lots of celery , carrots , turnip and anything else in the vegetable line. Love the taste celery gives.So make sure there is plenty of gravy as it is the most delicious gravy from shin. Then serve casserole with jacket potatoes, freeze another amount for a day when I cant stand cooking, and freeze the rest of the precious gravy in tw lots. Then when I have something less flavourful , so perhaps some ordinary mince I then add the good gravy to the mince with veg etc and hey presto another decent meal. My husband was great but had a fault that I watched out for like a hawk!! If there was only a vey small amount of gravy left he would want to tip it away. Henious crime!! I insisted on it being saved and frozen . Even used an icecube tray to just but small amounts in. They could all come out and be added to give flavour to something . Also I dont like a dry meal, so could just get 2 or 3 icecubes worth of gravy and ping them in the microwave and hey presto good home made gravy just for me!!

All sounds lovely but I have to admit the pussy cats and kookaburras get the very last remains. Not that I buy lamb joints a lot these days, they cost too much here.

I’ve just used up leftover lamb leg … I made some moussaka with the meat and boiled up the bone with onions, carrot and celery plus some fresh rosemary and a couple of bay leaves. After a couple of hours I strained it and added any veg I had to the resulting stock. I’d also soaked some soup mix overnight together with some cannelloni beans which I cooked before, adding to the stock & veg. I also added a couple of lamb stock cubes and seasoning plus a good spoonful of curry powder. Very warming and filling.

Katek we also had strangely green curry. School friends loved to be invited for tea on curry night- no one else had a mother who cooked such an exotic dish.

Hammo

Would this be a bit like making Scotch Broth, Witzend? I love Scotch Broth 😊!

I don’t think I’ve ever made it as such. I rarely use recipes, but make a lot of substantial, main meal soups in winter - pearl barley and/or red lentils, onions, loads of different veg, often inc. celeriac, swede and turnip, as well as carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, cabbage, potato - whatever I’ve got. Green veg go in just for the last few minutes.

When I’ve got stock from a chicken carcass, I use that, otherwise chicken stock cubes. And preferably parsley.

I also make a substantial minestrone, with a tin of chopped tomatoes, ditto of kidney or butter beans, and again a lot of whatever veg I’ve got. Plus of course pasta and always inc. onions, garlic and celery, plus Italian style dried herbs and fresh basil, if I’ve got any.

Nothing wasted here! Not much freezer space, but enough to make delicious meals out of leftovers! Cottage pie, shepherd’s pie, bubble & squeak, curries, stir fries, soups, My Mum would have been very proud. 😊

And the word "Soop" is pronounced as in "hood", not "Soup"!!!

Except she used to simmer it on a VERY low heat for several hours.....

This is more or less the recipe that my Mum used to cook regularly, Witzend. We grew up on it, and then she used to do it for my two daughters, and they christened it "Nanny Soop". They are now 41 and 38 and still have fond memories of it. I wish I could reproduce it, but somehow although I do exactly what I think DM did, it never tastes the same!

Thank you for making me smile!

I always boil up skin and bones, usually chicken, sometimes lamb, occasionally duck. I strip off any bits of meat to add to the stock and freeze in 1/2 pint containers. Always got stock for soups, stews, risotto etc.

For left-over lamb, there is a brilliant Elizabeth David recipe called Suleiman's Pilaf. She doesn't give exact instructions, and you can vary it.
Fry the rice briefly in dripping, top up with boiling water, season and cook for about 12 minutes. You can put in some cardamoms if you like.
Prepare a sauce of onions, garlic, tomatoes, herbs and spices to taste (I like smoked paprika) cooked in pan with olive oil, currants, walnuts and the bits of left-over lamb (I like to crisp them up in the pan first, in any fat adhering). Mix all together, it should be quite jammy but with the meat and nuts separate.
You can serve the rice with the sauce on top, or mix all in.
She suggests serving with yogurt.

So much about importance of gut health these days and discovered how good broth is for gut. I love soup with bone stock often lentil carrots potato Bone stock is sooo exspensive to buy. Worth freezing any day. The traditional cooking can be unknown to a lot of modern generation

I have very little freezer space so I cook a chicken carcass overnight in the slow cooker. Our local farm shop sells chicken carcasses but you have to be quick to get them. A friend buys them in bulk. I love lamb leftovers cold in sandwiches with mint jelly. I avoid beef unless in casseroles because DH is adamant about roast beef being rare. I prefer not to have a scrap of blood in sight. I love a rib of beef but his watching over it since retirement has ruined it for me. Same with a rack of lamb so I stick to tagine or slow roast whole shoulder.

I also stew up a chicken carcass to make stock, after stripping off any bits of meat. I save veggie trimmings in the freezer in a ziploc bag so I usually have a bag of frozen leek leaves, celery bits, carrot peelings to add to the mix with lots of water. I leave it for maybe an hour and a half and then strain off the broth to use as the base for soup and chuck away the remains of the bones and veggies.

Would this be a bit like making Scotch Broth, Witzend? I love Scotch Broth 😊!

I use all carcasses of chicken, pheasant, any bones from ham, chopped bones, lamb and beef on the bone joints for stock as a base for rich nourishing soups, nothing wasted if I can help it!

Don’t like lamb but I do it with chicken. Roast chicken one day, chicken/leftover veg/gravy with buttered sliced leftover roast potatoes on top to make a pie next day, chicken/leftover veg curry next day, then carcass into a stock pan. Now going to make lentil/veg soup with the jug of rich stock. I had three very tall sons and very little money so not a skerrick of food was wasted. Still like that now with just the two of us.

Cooked bones are dangerous for dogs as they splinter.
Raw bones are fine

DamaskRose

Callistemon21

Yes, sounds like Welsh cawl or Irish stew but made from leftovers! 🙂

We had steak on Saturday night, they were too large to manage so I made Beef Stroganoff from the leftovers. Gently fry onions, then garlic, mushrooms, the steak cut into strips, then add tomato paste, a stock cube in ¼pint water, thicken slightly with cornflour and stir in plain Greek yogurt (I didn't have sour cream). Served with rice and peas.

I could have given you the sour cream Callistemon as I can’t for the life of me remember what I bought it for!
All leftover ideas sound delicious and just what we need on cold days - there was (a thin film of) ice on the birds’ drinking water this morning here in the north east of Scotland!

If you don't remember, can you freeze it DamaskRose?

I usually hope people don't ask me for recipes as they're usually improvised in some way 🙂

PinkCosmos

Witzend - than you for this. We had a leg of lamb for Sunday lunch.

I was saving the bone for the dog but it is currently in a pan on the hob - the bone not the dog

I sometime boil up a chicken carcass and make a broth from it. I usually add onion, celery and carrot plus any other suitable vegetables I want to use up e.g. sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower. I usually add the ready mixed dried soup mix. It has barley, lentils, peas etc. in it. I also add thyme.

I am going to do the same today but using the lamb bone.

I have also made the same vegetable broth without the meat stock and then added a tin of stewed steak towards the end. I tastes nicer than it sounds.

I don't generally add dumplings but they are a very nice addition.

I once gave a big whole leg of lamb bone to a former dog (long gone, RIP Bonkers 🐶). He took it outside and after about 20 minutes I went out to find it gone. I thought he must have buried it (we were overseas and only had a patio with a narrow flowerbed) - but no, he’d scoffed the whole thing in 20 minutes!

Boil a panful of potatoes. let them cool and cut them into cubes. Slice a large onion into rings. Fry them until they are soft, then add the potatoes. Turn the heat fairly low, while stripping the meat from the leg of lamb. Add it to the onions and potatoes and make sure it heats through, but don't let it fry so it hardens.

If you feel the dish is a little skimpy for the number of people eating it, fry an egg for each person.

Serve with Worcester sauce or HP Sauce.