Thursday, December 5, 2013

Poultry Broth As Mom Might Have Done It

My mom was part of the generation of Americans born during The Great Depression and, like most of that group, it affected how she thought about things.  Growing up hungry resulted in her making the most of available food items such as getting 3-4 meals from Sunday’s pot roast.  I’m confident many of you born around the same time as me had a similar experience.

I don’t recall Mom making broth often or how she did it but I knew her and believe she would have made it something like this.

For thanksgiving, our turkey gravy was made from stock that was made from roasted turkey wings.

The crock pot stuffing was made using the meat from two rotisserie chickens and the meat from the above wings.

The scraps from the chickens and the wings went into a plastic bag along with the giblets and back from the spatchcocked turkey and all went into the fridge on Wednesday.

After our Thanks giving dinner, the meat was removed from the turkey bones, then, along with the skin, they went into a 16 quart pot along with the bones from the bag in the fridge, got covered with water, and simmered all night with a lid on the pot.

The next morning, after cooling, we removed the bones and meat and strained the broth.  


We ended up with 8½ quart bags of tasty liquid that we labeled as Herbed Chicken Broth – since it had the herbs from the turkey skin and other flavors from the chickens and wings.

Bev also picked about a quart of meat out of the scraps for our dogs so very little edible stuff went into the trash.  I’m pretty sure some good things from all of our parents got passed on to Bev and me.

One last round of baking (cookies) with Meme, Matthew, and Sophia.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/29/13 meal date                                           


10 comments:

  1. My parents were from the Depression era too and taught me to use and take care of everything. Great job with the broth Larry & Bev. I don't believe you let one tasty morel getaway. Matthew & Sophia are adorable helping their Meme bake cookies.
    Sam

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  2. My grandma was the same way... nothing ever went unused. I think because of the conveniences we have these days, people don't hesitate to throw things out that they could be using.... this is great reminder for us all!!!

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  3. Larry, My best food memory from my grandmother was her frying up fresh cake donuts! Wow...they were sure good! Hats off to you guys for making your own chicken broth! Ours comes from Swanson...the lazy wastrels source of broth! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  4. My folks are the same way. I love making homemade broth - it tastes so much better than store bought!

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  5. I never thought of putting broth in ziploc bags. We just had turkey soup with our 2 carcasses.

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  6. I woulld be on of those. And I have so many habits passed down from those Depression habits. One that always sticks out is reusing tin foil after it was rinsed dried and saved in a drawer. And by the way, those wing tips you had me save in the freezer made the best chicken broth. :)

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  7. My grandma saved everything and used it until it couldn't be used anymore.

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  8. I think we can from the same kind of background, Larry. Two days after Christmas I made a huge pot of stock and froze containers of it for future use. I have a large container in my freezer where I save leftover vegetables for the stock pot. My German parents and grandparents grew up during the Depression and never wasted a thing. As far as I'm concerned that stock is liquid gold.

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  9. My mom, being a WWII survivor (Germany) taught me that it wasn't nice to waste food. I love a good turkey dinner, but I also love a good turkey soup. I never, EVER waste the carcass. There is nothing like homemade broth. Yummy!

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  10. I don't remember my mom or grandmother making stock either and I think it's because you and I never noticed since they were just doing it so often.

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