Broth & Stock... Bone Stock and Bone Meal

Bone Stock and Bone Meal

By Kelly Kindle Cheney

Be the master of the bird and don't waste a thing.

Get your money's worth out of any meat bones. The difference between stock and broth is stock is made with bones, broth is made with meat only. Stock is much richer and will even turn into a gelatin if very concentrated.

After roasting a turkey, chicken or bone in beef or pork cut, remove most of the meat. Or if canning raw pack just get off as much as you can. At this point you can roast the bones for an hour or so; this will deepen the flavor even more but is not necessary.

Place in large pot and mostly cover with water. Add *veggies (carrots, onion, celery) and herbs and salt and pepper ­ no sage as it gets bitter when canned ­ and bring just barely to a boil. Turn down and simmer at least 8 hours or overnight. Strain and refrigerate the stock so the fat can be peeled off. (It will come to the top and harden.)

Toss that sucker in there again with some fresh water and more veggies and seasonings. Rinse and repeat. Okay, don't really rinse, just a figure of speech. I mix all my batches together and give a final seasoning if needed. That way they are all the same strength and you don't have to guess when canning.

Continue this process until the bones are brittle. When you can break them with your hand they have given their all.

Strain several times. You will need to clarify at this point if you want it to look like store bought. I don't bother. 

Pressure can @ 10 lbs 20 minutes pints and 25 for quarts.

Toss the bones in the blender or processor and grind into a paste. Spread out on some paraflex sheets and dehydrate until dry. (You can also do this on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lowest setting and leave the door cracked.) When dry you can whiz again or break up with your hands. Your garden will love you!

Bone meal is $17.00 a pound!!

* I save all my veggie scraps in a zip lock in the freezer. Onion peels give a nice golden color; save all but the root end. If you peel your carrots save that. Celery ­ cut the very end off and save the bottom. If veggies are past fresh eating those are perfect to save too. Just chop into large chunks. Save your parsley stems. All of this adds wonderful flavor. (I roasted garlic tonight and tossed those skins in the bag too!) 

I got 14 quarts of very rich stock and 7 pints of premium boneless meat out of a 25 pound turkey (raw pack) and two gallon zips of scraps. Plus the meal.