Frugal Cooking - Chicken Broth! [Cooking]

2009 Mar 30
What an amazing find at the 168 market the other day! New 168 Market

They sell chicken carcasses 3 for $1!!! And they are huge, and still have a lot of meat on them. I bought 3 bags - so 9 carcasses, and made a huge batch of chicken broth

Part 1 :

Part 2

Part 3 still under production (canning it up today)

2009 Mar 30
Wow! Thanks for the info, zymurgist! In my world, you can NEVER get enough chicken carcasses for stock!
BTW, where exactly is 168 market -- is that the Chinese place near the overpass, on Wellington, near Preston St?

2009 Mar 30
Omnivore's Ottawa - OF User Tips...

You can use the SEARCH Box to find any Vendor / Food, in order to locate their OF Page.

New 168 Market comes up as Vendor # 1106 - their OF Number is part of their URL Address... (oftentimes another poster will give you the direct link, and save you the trouble of doing the SEARCH... such as Zym has done here).

Clicking on the Vendor Link will have the OF Page load... at the top of each Vendor Page is usually a link for both their LOCATION and WEBSITE.

You'll find in this case that the address for New 168 Market is 1050 Somerset Street West.

2009 Mar 30
Omnivore's Ottawa The 168 Market is near the overpass but further west along Somerset - at the corner of Somerset and Bayswater specifically. (It used to be a garage.) I have also been buying chicken carcasses there to make chicken stock with. (Beats buying and boning several whole chickens-;) The meats there are definitely a bargain as are most things there. Further east along Somerset is Kowloon (another favourite) and Manphong (near Booth) has some really fresh herbs at bargain prices. I recently bought a little bag of chilis there for $1 and I also stocked up on other things like ginger, garlic, and lemongrass.

2009 Mar 30
It's actually east of Bayswater. Technically their parking lot is the end of Breezehill.

From 9 carcasses I got :
- 2L of chicken
- 13 x 500ml broth (in the canner right now)
- 3 x 250ml chicken fat (also in the canner)

My total time was over 24 hours but that was with huge gaps of time in between where I was not tending to anything. Total actual time is maybe 3-4 hours.

I'm going to use the chicken and a bit of the broth to make some meat pie for my next episode :-)

2009 Mar 30
BTW, to find them, walk straight in the door and straight to the far wall. This is the meat counter, and the bags of chicken carcasses are on the very furthest left. Other frugal goodies in that general area too

EDIT : Part 3 of Chicken Broth :

EDIT : Part 4 :

Part way through I start canning it, and give a demonstration of my canning procedures, and a bit of a discussion.

Part 5 uploading ...

2009 Mar 30
I love the 168 Market. My favourite experience: I was buying duck legs for confit (cheap as chips there, incidentally). The butcher guy needed to get some from the back, and they were partly frozen in a big lump in a plastic bag. His solution was to take the whole bag and slam it right on the floor a few times, right in front of me, smiling and laughing the whole time. Needless to say, the floor wasn't overly clean. But I was more entertained than grossed out, and the resulting confit was lovely.

2009 Mar 31
How long will the broth last if it's just hand tightened and kept in the fridge? I'm kind of afraid to use a pressure cooker.

2009 Mar 31
I dunno, never done it that way. But if you did a boiling water bath canning method then stored it in the fridge, it should last indefinitely. That means finger-tight the jars, put in the kettle and cover with an inch of water. Boil the whole thing for 45 minutes or so, then let cool.

This is the canning method used for low pH (high acid) foods. As long as you are boiling the broth out of the fridge it should be perfectly safe.

EDIT : I suspect given that this is broth (all liquid) that this would even be safe for storing on the shelf as long as it is boiled before use. But I'm not 100% sure on that.

But as always : READ A BOOK! THIS IS NOT A HOME CANNING GUIDE!

Hope my comments in the video didn't scare you too much :-) That's my goal though - anyone who has not read a book or 4 on home canning really should be scared and should not be doing it until they read something. Especially if you learned it from your grannie.

EDIT : and part 5 :

2009 Mar 31
Monkey Feet - Probably only a couple of days in the fridge... however, months in the freezer.

2009 Mar 31
monkey feet I would echo Food&Think's suggestion of freezing your broth. I periodically make my own broth to use in soups. However most of my favourite soup recipes seem to call for four cups of stock. So I freeze the stock in four cup portions so I can take out just what I need. I also have a couple of smaller jars of stock in the freezer for risottos or other dishes that call for smaller quantities of stock. Just my two cents...

2009 Mar 31
Thank you for all the info! I enjoy using real broth instead of packaged ones. And at work, the chef strains it through a towel so it is very clear. He adds parsley and basil stems, carrot, celery, onion, egg whites and egg shells into the pot.

Do you guys use anything to give it a little more character? Or do you prefer simple?

2009 Mar 31
The towel method is used to strain out the sediment so you get a nice clear broth. (Just a note I use cheesecloth but that's just because my kitchen towels are very thick - too thick for straining broth.) The stock I make is pretty simple with celery, carrots, onion, and a bay leaf. For seasoning I use garlic and ginger. I "suspect" the chef at work uses the egg whites/shells to thicken the stock. However every chef has their own secret stock recipe so I'm sure you will find each kitchen has their own variation and all of them right-;)

2009 Mar 31
I like Pasta Lover use cheesecloth or on occasion have made do with a couple of coffee filters... I don't use a kitchen towel, because my mind can't get around the cleanliness issue... Nothing special when it comes to ingredients just the "bouquet garni" sack that my grandmother taught me.


2009 Mar 31
If you make condensed chicken broth, you may try freezing the broth as Ice cube. They come in handy for cooking and is great to enhance your food taste.

2009 Mar 31
I've been getting carcasses there for a while, the price is great! New 168 also sells chicken feet, which I buy to add into the pot when I'm making chicken stock. They're a great source of gelatin, and add a lot of body to the stock, a trick I learned from Thomas Keller's books.

2009 Mar 31
monkey feet, as mentioned the main reason i do it this way is that my wife prefers a whole different compliment of herbs and spices than I do, so I just do it plain. Though I do prefer it pretty plain with just salt and maybe some pepper. I could have easily put thyme or rosemary into the canner - that's the best time to add it if you do.

BTW, the egg white I assume is a clarifier - brewers used to use the method 100 or so years ago. THere is an old expression "what do you want, an egg in your beer?" which has roughly the same meaning as "if you were in heaven playing a harp you'd want a violin".

Next time I will boil it down 50% instead of only 20%, to give it more flavour and smaller footprint for storage.

2009 Mar 31
To Zymurgist,
I do have time off right now and am just basically messing around in the kitchen, in Chinatown, at John's Quick Lunch, whatever. Would love to connect -- I too have done pressure-canned broth (love my All-American canner), and enjoying curing my own meats. Currently doing duck prosciutto in the downstairs fridge. Easy stuff -- but delicious! Golly, do you have time to get together in the next week or so ...?

2009 Apr 3
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I'm trying to help people come together and share their stories about how they save money while eating healthier. Check it out and at least let me know what you think. recessioneating.blogspot.com/

2009 Apr 5
Nice drive-by there New User 1697 :-)

I picked up another 9 carcasses and this time brined them first. The resulting broth is completely different. Rather salty, of course. But also sweet from the honey, and very DARK coloured because the honey carmelizes with the heat.

Completely different broth altogether but the 2 will compliment each other very well.

2009 Apr 5
Zym - roast the carcasses until dark brown to achieve a dark, non-salty broth. Reduce even further and add appropriate seasoning to create a dark chicken demi-glace. Yum!