In the past year I have taken up a new hobby as a result of being a bit of a fanatic with knowing what it is that I am putting into my body, well that and I am also feeding a two year old trying to make sure her nutrition is what it needs to be. We have been on a quest for a few years now to take processed food out of our diet. As a result I have started canning. A lot of it has been trial and error, my husband made the wonderful suggestion that I start a blog to share the information that I have learned as I go along. At first I thought he had lost his mind, I am a stay home Mom taking care of a very active and inquisitive two-year-old girl (Salem), and I have also recently gone back to school to finish my MBA. So of course I thought he was mad because where was I going to come up with the time for that? And who will read it? I don’t know but the idea would not leave my head. So I am going to go ahead and give it a try. I will try to put out here how I use what I can, as well as what/how I can. I will gladly share my recipes as well as mistakes and successes. I will pretend that others will read this, but if nothing else it will be a great way to keep track of what I have learned. My hope is that I can create a forum where I can learn from others as well as share what I learn. I will try to put the recipes out here for others to use, and any recipes would be welcome as well.
Today is my birthday and it just happens that it was the day I had set aside to make a new batch of chicken broth. OK so I know… I am a dork, but I am ok with that J. This is only my second batch of chicken broth, but I am determined that I will not the same mistakes this time. OK so I will explain, the first time I made chicken broth I panicked because I had been told that you need to make sure you get ALL the fat out as possible otherwise the seal can break and the broth goes bad. As a result I not only got rid of the fat, but about half of my broth as well L. So this time I am going to be a little smarter. I cook the broth as directed (for about 2 hours) and then strain it. To make sure I can get all the fat off I then refrigerate it so the fat comes to the top and hardens (make sure to cover it otherwise your refrigerator will stink to no end). I will take the fat off tomorrow after it has fully cooled. The part I didn’t quite get the first time was that after you skim the fat off the top you are supposed to cook the broth for an additional two hours. This takes care of the gelatinous texture and makes it more liquid. Last time due to my mistakes I only ended up with 7 quarts, if I had been smarter I think it would have been about twice that. I will let you know how it goes.
