24 Carrot Rabbitry

Homemade broth is frugal, healthy, and can be seasoned completely to your own taste.

Store-bought broth is expensive, usually contains undesirable ingredients, and contains amazing amounts of salt — even the lower sodium varieties.

Expensive:  I do store some store-bought chicken broth, because I do occasionally run out of homemade broth, and it’s a good thing to have in emergency storage.  I can occasionally find store brand broth for 2/$1.  Considering that it would take at least 16 cans to equal what I get from a single pot of broth, it would cost at least $8 plus tax for what I can make for the cost of the electricity it takes to cook it, and the cost of the water I put in the pot.  This is much less than $8, actually more like 25 cents (based on our electricity cost, at about 30 minutes on high, and then 2 – 3 hours on low – medium low)!

Undesirable ingredients:  Most store-bought broths, including some “organic” ones, contain ingredients like monosodium glutamate (MSG), autolyzed yeast extract,, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, partially hydrogenated oils, hydrolyzed soy protein, hydrolyzed whey protein, hydrolyzed wheat protein… what?  What are these things needed for?  They’re not (they are there to improve the flavor and texture, which should tell you something).  And… if you need a gluten-free or milk-free or MSG-free diet, they could make you ill.  Homemade broth contains only what you put into it.

Amazing amounts of salt:  Regular Swanson chicken broth has 860mg of sodium per cup of broth.  Their lower sodium version has 400mg per cup.  Much better, yes, but if you can’t or don’t eat much salt, it’s still too salty.  My mom has congestive heart failure, and, therefore, cannot eat much salt.  When we use store-bought broth in our cooking, we have to be very careful.

Homemade broth also has an amazing flavor that is much superior to store-bought broth.

So, how do you make your own broth?  First of all, you save lots of things you would normally throw away.  That is why I did not include the cost of the items you put into the water in my calculation above.

Eating chicken, turkey, rabbit, pork, or any other kind of meat?  Save the bones, whether raw or cooked!  If it’s been cooked wet for over an hour, like in fricassee, then the bones are pretty much spent and can be discarded.  If it’s a rotisserie chicken, baked chicken, etc., it will work great!  Preferably, the bones will still have some meat on them.  We save some of the skin, too.  On a rotisserie or baked chicken, this will have some nice seasoning on it (this will add salt).  Chicken skin itself actually does have some good nutrients in it, and the broth won’t have much fat (though the more skin and fat you put in, the more fat you will have in the broth — you can take it off easily, though, after freezing).  We pretty much save whatever of it we didn’t eat.  We’ll label a gallon bag in the freezer, and add bones to it (chicken to chicken, rabbit to rabbit, etc.) until it is full.  We will sometimes combine chicken bones with either turkey or rabbit bones, but that’s all the mixing we do.

Vegetable broth can be made the same way.  As you clean the vegetables, any part that is not spoiled, but would be thrown away, can be put into a bag in the freezer.  Herb stems, carrot ends, bean ends, potato peels, celery trimmings, anything.  Rinse and put them in the bag.

When you have a full gallon bag, you’re ready to make broth (or stock, whichever you call it).

Get out a nice, big soup pot.  A dutch oven or something.  Add your bones (straight from the freezer is fine) or trimmings, cover with water, and bring to a boil.  Watch for foaming at first.  Once it’s at a good boil, turn it down to just above a simmer — so that you still see a little bubbling at the top.  Cock a lid on top of it to help some of the steam condense back into the pot.  Check and stir occasionally over the next few hours.  Turn it off, let it cool, and strain it or thoroughly go through it, lifting everything out of the broth with a kitchamajig.  Take the meat off of the bones and save it for soups, pot pies, or dumplings (it won’t be good for much else, as most of the flavor is already in the broth).

Cooled chicken broth waiting to be strained and packaged. It isn't pretty, but it sure will be tasty!

We usually add onion and garlic powder to the water when we make broth.  This allows the broth to be used in pretty much anything, because we add onion and garlic to most things we use broth in.  Broth made from cooked bones will have some extra seasoning, but not too much.

We measure out the broth two cups at a time, and pour it into quart freezer bags, squeezing out most of the air.  If there’s fat at the top, we make sure to measure to the bottom of the fat where the top of the broth is, rather than including the fat in the measurement.  We freeze them laying flat.  They don’t get freezer burn.

Bags of rabbit broth stacked in a pan, ready to go into the freezer!

Some people roast their bones and skin in the oven first, and then make stock.  I’ve never tried this, but I’m sure it would give a nice flavor.  I’ve seen where some people freeze their broth in water bottles standing up, then they lay them down for stacking in the freezer.  If you want to remove nearly all of the fat, just heat the bag in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and then scrape off the fat.

Seafood broth can be made from shrimp, crawfish, or crab shells, or fish bones and fins.  The heads and other normally discarded pieces (like the so-called “fat” in crawfish — which is actually hepatopancreatic tissue — that some people discard) will add a lot more flavor, too.

Today, my mom made two big pots of turkey broth, one of chicken broth, and one of rabbit broth.  We just finished putting it all up.  Mom picked through the bones for the meat, and I bagged the broth.  We got something over 30 bags of broth put away, and two bags of meat — one of turkey, and one of chicken and rabbit.  The meat actually was enough that we will get at least four meals out of it! 

Once upon a time, long before either of our children came along, Shay and I worked retail together.  We had one car, so we had the same schedule.  It was an old car, so every once in a blue moon (it was a rare occasion), something on it would go up, and we would have to call in to work and fix the car.  Since it was a 1976 LTD, it was a car we could fix — or, I should say, Shay could fix, while I helped if I could.  It was a good car, so regular maintenance mostly kept it going.

One day, the water pump on the car bit the dust.  We called work to tell them we couldn’t make it, and then Shay began removing the parts from the car that were between him and the water pump.  Reaching the water pump, he began to work on removing it.  That’s when the trouble started.

After a few tries, the first socket cracked.  When it gave way, his knuckles slammed into some hard metal car part.  Undaunted, he put a new socket on his ratchet.

The second socket cracked, sending his knuckles again into that car part.

Then the third socket cracked, bashing his knuckles yet again.

At this, he put the tools down, and announced he was buying a new, GOOD set of tools.  This was a concern for me, because we made very little money, around $800 a month.  What was the difference between the tools he had and a “good” set of tools?  They looked the same.  Was the only difference the price?  After all, these tools had been quite sufficient up to this point.  If these cracked, wouldn’t a similar-looking, more expensive set crack, too?

I had a lot to learn about tools.  Have a heart; I was pretty young.

Somehow, we got to the auto parts store.  I don’t remember how we got there, because we had only one car.  But we got there.  We didn’t have the water pump with us, so we would have to bring it back for the deposit later.  The gentleman there brought out a rebuilt water pump for us, and then Shay (holding his poor hands in front of him, curled up from scratches and bruises) asked for a Blackhawk ratchet set.

On the counter appeared a shiny new set, ratchet and sockets, in their own case.  And they looked just like the ones we had at home that had cracked, except that they had a fancy-schmancy box and said “Blackhawk”.  I eyed them and their $75 price tag with suspicion.

Upon reaching home, Shay popped a Blackhawk socket onto his new Blackhawk ratchet, and, with me standing by and fully expecting it to crack, slipped the socket over the nut that had laughed at him up to this point.

He turned the ratchet with as much force as he had before, but this time, it was the nut that gave way, not the socket.

“And THAT is why you always buy good tools,” Shay declared.

There are tools for all kinds of tasks.  A recent purchase dealt with kitchen tools.  I have always been blessed to have a good set of pots.  My parents gave us a set of T-Fal nonstick when we got married.  Eventually, the surface on the skillets, which were used most often, became worn.  We didn’t replace them with good skillets at the time, because we didn’t have the money.  So we bought some cheap skillets.  Now and then, we would replace the skillets again.

The pots didn’t wear out for a good while longer.  Finally, when my father died, and my mother moved in with us, I threw away my last piece of T-Fal and began using her stainless steel Amway Queen cookware (she became a distributor, as they suggested, for a short time just to buy the cookware, as she got a handsome discount and there was a piece she wanted that she would get as a bonus).

Fast forward to almost two years ago, when we moved in here with my uncle.

The Queen cookware is still going strong, and we replaced the handles several years ago.  We now have my grandmother’s stainless cookware, most of which is really good as well, but very little of the name remains on the bottoms, so I don’t know what kind it is.  She had a glass cooktop with raised solid elements of cast iron, so I guess the elements wore the bottoms of the pans.

She had some cheap nonstick skillets too, to which I added my cheap nonstick skillets.

We replaced the cooktop last year (I should find my pictures and blog about it), as it was becoming more and more unreliable.  It was also becoming more exciting.  “So… are we cooking on high only today?  Or are we starting well, only to stop cooking when we’re halfway finished?”  It’s not the sort of excitement I want when I’m trying to prepare dinner for two working men, so we replaced it.  They don’t make those cooktops anymore, so we now have a smooth ceramic-glass one.

Needless to say, the uneven bottoms of the cheap skillets became more difficult to ignore with the smooth stove.  I knew I was going to have to break down eventually and get some good skillets.

I finally did it.

Restaurant-grade stainless steel skillets with encapsulated aluminum bottoms by Update International.

I had been told by Shay’s boss of a restaurant supply store that sold excellent cookware for half the price of the equivalents at retail stores, and they sold to the public as well as restaurants.  By the time I was ready to buy some pans, I had forgotten.  So I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and spent some time comparing.  I bought two Emerilware pans (made by All-Clad), in 8″ and 12″, and two Cuisinart pans, in 10″ and 5.5 qt covered saute.  I have to have a 5 – 5.5 qt saute, ever since I had my first one.  It is my most oft-used pan.  I liked the glass lid of my last one, but it doesn’t quite fit this one.  I didn’t want to pay another $20 for the Emerilware one that did have a glass lid, so I went Cuisinart.  I spent about $153 on the four pans.  Ouch.  But I wasn’t buying another skillet that was going to bow or cook unevenly.

I got them home and was so proud of them, until Shay reminded me of that restaurant store.  Oops!  That’s right!  The same quality at half the price!  The next day, I was off to the restaurant supply store.  The skillets I found there were very utilitarian-looking, not pretty like the ones I bought previously (mind you, I didn’t buy for the pretty, that’s just what they had there at Bed, Bath, and Beyond — pretty and more expensive, or pretty and less expensive).  That was okay with me, since I was buying them to use, not to look at.

I wasn’t so sure about the hollow handles, since they didn’t have the air spaces in them that the Emeril and Cuisinart ones did, to keep the handles cool.  A gentleman who worked there told me that he had one of these pans, though, and they did indeed stay cool.  That’s good, since I don’t want to have to do all my cooking wearing mitts.

The sizes were a little different, but I got essentially the same pans I had bought before.  Just without the mirror finish and encapsulated copper.  These have encapsulated aluminum.  The bottoms are very thick, and shouldn’t bow.  They’re actually ever-so-slightly bowed inward when cool, and flatten when they are heated.  I’ll take their word for it; I can’t tell.

These are lower-end “economy” restaurant pans.  That’s no problem.  These are still made to be used repeatedly, all day long, in a restaurant kitchen.  They’re made to be washed in a commercial dishwasher.  They will be almost babied here, compared to what they’d endure at a restaurant.  They should last nigh unto forever.  I spent $75, almost exactly half of what I spent previously, and then returned the other pans to the other store.

So far, these skillets cook and clean like a dream, and they are almost nonstick.  They cook with very even heat distribution.  Let them cool, soak for a few minutes, and everything comes off.  And the bottoms stay flat!  YAY!    Mom and I really like these pans.

Shay was impressed upon seeing the new pans.  “Always buy good tools,” he said.

Yes, indeed.  I learned my lesson long ago, on a car water pump and two different ratchet sets.

UPDATE:  I found some of the writing on the bottoms of my grandmother’s pots and pans.  Looks like they’re mostly vintage Farberware aluminum clad stainless steel:  http://www.adclassix.com/a4/57farberwarecookware.html , and one vintage Revere Ware copper clad skillet (not cheap nonstick, so it’s still here):  http://www.adclassix.com/ads2/51reverepots.htm .  All of these pieces are still, in well-used but good condition, bringing $20 – $40 per piece.