Save your chicken bones to cook up some great stocks to make tasty soups and casseroles.

Before you throw away the bones from the Chicken or Turkey, consider using them to create tasty stocks which can be used in soups, casseroles and other dishes.

Using the bones in this way, ensures you get good value from your chicken or meat joint and the flavours are far superior to most stock cubes and can be tailored to your taste.

Chicken bones and a few simple veg

Stocks are very economical and easy to make.  All you need are the bones, a few veg and a pan.  A few herbs which compliment the type of meat the bones have come from, will add individuality and rich flavours.  You can use your misshapen and slightly “past it” veg as these are only being added for flavour.

For soups and casseroles, where the veg can be used int he recipe, we tie our meat bones in some muslin.  This allows the flavour to come from the bones but makes them easy to remove without throwing away the veg too.

If you don’t have time to make your stock when your chicken or turkey is finished, just put the bones in a freezer bag or container and freeze until needed.

Chicken stock recipe.

You will need: A large pan with lid, Sieve or muslin to strain and another clean container to strain the stock into.  If freezing, you will need some clean containers, freezer bags or ice cube trays.

Ingredients;

Chicken bones and carcass.
2 large carrots, 1 stick celery, 1 large onion – all chopped into three or four pieces.
Water to cover.
Herbs – Couple of bay leaves, 2 teaspoons of mixed herbs and a good dose of freshly ground black pepper.

Place all ingredients in a pan and add water until they are just covered.  Place on the stove and bring to the boil.  Turn down to a simmer and leave for a couple of hours until the liquid has reduced by half.  Be careful not to forget about it or it will boil dry and burn onto the pan.

Once reduced, pour the contents through a sieve, cover and allow to cool or use straight away.

A great way to freeze stock is to use an ice cube tray

Freezing stock

Home made stock freezes well. Simply pour into a container or freezer bag.  Choose something that will hold a quantity that you will require later.  Soups and casseroles will require about half to 1 pint.  Curries and other dishes may require less.

An alternative is to freeze stock in an ice cube tray.  Once frozen, then cubes can easily be transferred to a freezer bag.  You can then use as little or as much as you need.

Wait until the liquid cools before freezing…do not put hot liquids in the freezer.  Always label and date items placed in a freezer.

The same method can be used to make ham, lamb or beef stock, altering the herbs to suit and of course a vegetable stock is exactly the same but without the bones.

Dispose of any bones etc in your usual waste.  Do not put vegetables that have been cooked in meat juices in the compost bin, as they will attract vermin.  Avoid choking hazards by ensuring that dogs. cats and other animals cannot get to the left over bones.

In our goal for self sufficiency, we have introduced a yoghurt maker to the kitchen and the result has been excellent.

We purchased our yoghurt maker from Lakeland, it is very simple, compact, easy to clean and for those not familiar to making yoghurt, contains a simple instruction leaflet.  This unit can make 1.5pints at a time, enough for a family! 

Lakeland Yoghurt Maker

Yoghurt can be made from a variety of milk types, such as pasturised, sterilised, UHT and evaporated.  The Lakeland leaflet states that UHT makes the best but we tried ours with pasturised semi skimmed milk.  My preference will be to use Jersey milk of which we have a few local suppliers in Cumbria.

The standard pasteurisation process is not sufficient to render milk fit for yoghurt making, but simply bringing it to the boil then allowing it to cool at room temperature until it reaches 47 degrees Celcius works well.

Jam thermometer used to check milk temperature

A small amount of starter yoghurt (a couple of teaspoonsfull of natural unsweetened, LIVE yoghurt) is placed in the base of the container and the cooled milk is gently stirred into this, being careful not to stir too vigorously.

Small amount of LIVE starter yoghurt

Gently stir milk into starter yoghurt

The container is placed in the heater unit and switched on.  left for about 7 hours, so ideally overnight, you will have lovely creamy yoghurt to which you can add fruit, cereals or even herbs and spices to make some wonderful dips.

This is certainly a cost saving exercise and the result is just as good as bought yoghurt and will keep in the fridge for around five to six days. When it’s nearly finished you can use a few spoon full to start off your next pot.

Further interest:

The Cottage Smallholder – How to make delicious Greek Style Yoghurt.

About.com - How to make home made yoghurt.

Eat Yoghurt.com - For some great recipes using yoghurt.