Rabbit Broth/stock

I started talking to Zass in the "start-talking-to-people" chat box (that's the official unofficial name I just gave it. Patent pending about rabbit broth/stock and how to tell if it was done or how to make it less greasy and then figured why not get everyones take on it.

Zass mentioned that you can chill the pot and then skim the congealed oils off the top and that to tell if it was done he just tasted it.

Anyone else have any tips or tricks to their broth they feel like sharing? As for me....I'm terrible at making broth so my only tip is do the exact opposite of what I do. :|

Most of the time my broth has been the water I simmer whole rabbit in when we are making tacos or enchiladas. I then reduce it and use the broth for Spanish rice.

I haven't ever noticed it being greasy... but chilling and skimming the fat off would work great if necessary.

mystang89":m0n6zkjz said:

As for me....I'm terrible at making broth so my only tip is do the exact opposite of what I do. :|

Click to expand...

:lol: Well, what do you do so we know not to do it? Hmm?

I think some people prefer their broth at different concentrations.
Most instructions for stock involve reducing it until it gels, but rabbits seem to make less gel than say...pork joints.
Mine usually doesn't gel.
Sometimes I de-bone whole rabbits, grind them for burger, and use all the bones for broth. (except the heads, dogs get those)
The only "critical ingredients" for me are salt, onions, carrots and a bay leaf. Celery is always added if there is any on hand, and lots of other stuff...I'm a "bit of this, and a bit of that" kind of cook. not so helpful for recipes :lol:

Rabbits don't have as much oil as other animals have, so you might get by just skimming or spooning it off the surface.

I've always seen that rabbits aren't as oily as other animals, especially chicken which is why the first time that I made rabbit broth and then used it in a soup or stew recipe (don't remember which it was,) I was surprised that the entire thing tasty greasy, and not the good kind of greasy. I hadn't used any other oils at all in it so I didn't expect it and it didn't come out good.

I make my broth with the ribs cages and back bones of the rabbits then whatever vegi I get my hands on, bring it to a boil, dump everything into a strainer and then can it. This time I made sure to put the pot in the refrigerator to cool and see if I can skim anything off the top before canning. (Of course I put it through the strainer first still.)

After I cook down my left over bones and remove the bones I add celery, onion and I also add chicken bouillon cubes.

I haven't made rabbit stock yet - but I do make chicken, turkey and beef stock. I am always using leaner organic meat so I never skim the fat - since it provides more taste if done properly, just MHO. Generally when I make chicken stock, the bones are coming from a bird that is cooked on a rotisserie with no added fats, I have no idea if that makes a difference. Since domestic rabbit is leaner than even organic chicken, I don't anticipate any fat or greasiness. My concern, not having processed any rabbits yet, is that it seems like there's not much to their bones! But then, hopefully we will be processing 16+ buns each time, so I'm guessing that I can get some good stock from that many sets of bones!

There are different methods - I've made stock with nothing but the bones, fat and skin and I've made it with added veggies of all sorts (check herbs with a quick google though, there are a couple that turn bitter when slow cooked). I always use some OACV, which helps to pull the good stuff out of the bones. I learned by accident a couple years ago that the longer you simmer your stock, the richer the flavor. I had a huge turkey carcass and only a 12 qt pot, so had to separate the carcass in two piles and process in two batches. The first batch I believe I simmered for 8-9 hours - the soup made with that stock was absolutely amazing. For just being a turkey soup, everyone who tasted it said it was the best soup of their life. By the time I processed the second batch of stock I was so sick of turkey smell (this was a Thanksgiving bird that we were eating for three days, then the stock/soup making began lol) that I only simmered it for four hours. It was good stock/soup, and if I hadn't made the other batch first I would have thought it was wonderful.

Anyway, so I always simmer my stock on low, about 3 on my electric burner (no crock pot for me, it's just not the same) with added OACV and random veggies (or not) for a minimum of 8 hours. I have the veggies in the whole time, then they go in the trash or compost. There's no nutrition left in those veggies anymore, so they are just empty veggie shells. I generally don't add herbs to stock, as they are best (IMHO) added to individual recipes. I have been known to simmer stock on Low overnight, then turn it back up to "3" in the morning for those times that I don't get my stock going until 8 pm - just did that last week. I get an amazing gel from my stock, to where sometimes the soup when cold can almost look like there's no liquid, then when you heat it the liquid shows up - had me pretty nervous the first time that happened!

Stock/broth trivia you don't really need to know, or may already - stock comes from simmering bones in water, broth comes from simmering meat.

Sorry, way more than you wanted to know - I just started the process for what will be 24 quarts of beef stock, so stock is on my brain. Major batch cooking AGAIN this weekend!! <br /><br /> __________ Fri May 09, 2014 11:28 pm __________ <br /><br />

HoppyMeal":2lirz54y said:

After I cook down my left over bones and remove the bones I add celery, onion and I also add chicken bouillon cubes.

Click to expand...

Just curious, why do you add bouillon cubes? Is it because the rabbit bones don't make a rich enough stock? Say it isn't so...

Just curious, why do you add bouillon cubes? Is it because the rabbit bones don't make a rich enough stock? Say it isn't so...

Click to expand...

Rabbit bones make a plenty rich stock, and if your processing it in batches 16 at a time, Comet007, you will have more than enough bones to get a good gel.
I find rabbit stock that gels very solidly usually has too strong of a taste for my recipes. It's too concentrated. More flavor than gelatin perhaps?
Maybe HoppyMeal just really likes the taste of the chicken bouillon.

Ah, good! Had me worried for a second! I will have to play with the rabbit stock - I find even for the chicken stock, when it's that rich, I can sometimes stretch it in a recipe by adding a little water if I want a milder flavor. Otherwise the chicken flavor can sometimes overwhelm the other flavors! But if it's for chicken soup - oh my! I just made an 18 pint batch of chicken with navy been soup this week, and it is SO good, even without noodles because I wanted to pressure can it. I am hoping that I can make rabbit soup in just the same manner!

Comet007":1s1slr7t said:

Stock/broth trivia you don't really need to know, or may already - stock comes from simmering bones in water, broth comes from simmering meat.

Click to expand...

Well! I learned my new thing for the day! And here it is only 6:55. Now I can turn my brain off for the remainder of the day. :bouncy:

So... what is the liquid from a combo of meat and bones called? opcorn:

...and why is it called vegetable "stock" when made from vegis when the pulp of fruit (and I assume vegetables) is called "meat"? Hmm???

meat [meet]
noun
1. the flesh of animals as used for food.
2. the edible part of anything, as a fruit or nut: Crack the walnuts and remove the meats.

mystang89":1s1slr7t said:

I make my broth with the ribs cages and back bones of the rabbits

Click to expand...

mystang89":1s1slr7t said:

I was surprised that the entire thing tasted greasy, and not the good kind of greasy.

Click to expand...

Are you just tossing it in there raw, then? The only time I have ever made stock, it has been from already cooked bones. Maybe you should bake the bones first. That would also cause any grease to melt off onto the cookie sheet or whatever you are baking them on.

broth stock = brock or stroth

Yes. I've always made stroth by just throwing in the bones and meat raw. I made some yesterday and put it in the refrigerator to cool overnight. I checked it out today and skimmed just a very little amount off the top but I still saw little dots of the effervescent shimmering from the oil. I guess we'll see how it tastes when I decide to make something with it someday.

This is to funny - I do think we could argue that the veggies are "bones" as they are in no way "meaty" lol - therefor stock!

I am in batch cooking mode - two large roasts overnight in the crock pot. Six pounds of soup bones in my big kettle overnight to make some beef stock. I just took the roasts out (oh, so tender!), shredded the beef in preparation of drowning in BBQ sauce - looks like I should get at least 16 pints, yay! That was beside the point - I then took the liquid from the crock pot and proceeded to pour it into the kettle where the soup bones are sill simmering - thereby polluting my STOCK! Now I have four pounds of stew meat in the crock pot (I'm lazy, its for veggie/beef/barley soup), and when it's done I think I will just pour the drippings into my stock as well! Or, just use it in the soup, I haven't decided.

Another good point - since I got home at 10 last night and had to deal with groceries and starting the stock/crock pot, I didn't bother to brown my soup bones. UGH. Didn't even think about it - so now I DO have to let the stock cool and skim the fat off the top before I can it or use the stock in my soup. Crumb! Otherwise, yes, it could end up tasting greasy or fatty - though maybe not, because it is organic, grass fed Highland beef, which is very lean!

I ended up using some today in our beef stroganoff and it seemed to turn out good so maybe skimming the top fat off did the trick.