Remember those turkey feet I told you about last week? They finally got to make their big debut today, and although things didn't necessarily go as planned, they turned out to be a lot more entertaining than I ever thought feet could be!
I have been learning a lot about traditional diets this year, and the health benefits that come with eating the foods that have sustained cultures long before Ritz crackers and cheese whiz came onto the market. Over the next year, I am going to be heavily focusing on reinventing our diet to focus more on these powerhouse foods (the traditional foods....not processed crackers and fake cheese). I am excited about it, and looking forward to trying all sorts of new foods and ways to prepare them. One such nourishing food that I am going to master is the art of making a beautiful stock, a powerhouse of nutrition.
The stocks that you buy today in the supermarket have been stripped of the things that make stock such a wonderful addition to the diet. To fill the place of nutrients, chemical fillers are added. Take a look at the ingredient list of Swanson's chicken broth:
CHICKEN BROTH, SALT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, DEXTROSE, YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FLAVOR, FLAVORING, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FAT, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, CHICKEN BROTH POWDER.
Monosodium Glutamate is MSG, corn syrup solids are a dried and dehydrated version of corn syrup (sugar, for all intents and purposes). Hydrolyzed soy protein is MORE MSG, in addition to genetically manipulated soy (which in its unfermented state has been linked heavily to breast cancer). Lets not even get started on what "chicken flavor" means. Yuck.
Even the organic, free range chicken broth that we buy has "chicken flavor" and organic evaporated cane juice added to it. I guess I just fail to see the reason that sugar needs to be added to any sort of stock, other than the fact that processed food makers love to add sugar to anything and everything.
So, I set about researching a better chicken stock, one that would give our bodies valuable nutrients and minerals, instead of MSG and sugar. Turns out that all I needed to do was look back in history a few years, and learn how to make stock the way our grandmothers generation did. It never ceases to amaze me the things that we have given up in the name of progress. Knowing how to make a traditional stock is just one very small part of our rapidly disappearing history.
Our grandmothers and those that came before them (and people still living in traditional cultures today) were on to something. By using every bit of the chicken that they could, including meat, bones and feet, they made a broth that full of goodness. The bones added calcium, and minerals like magnesium, sulfur, silicon and phosphorus in a form that the body can easily absorb. Adding chicken feet to the broth brings in collagen, gelatin and glucosamine, nutrients which are some of the main building blocks to digestive health, and are also wonderful for our joints. Throw in the meat which adds wonderful flavor and nutrients, and you can see why a traditionally made stock can be so essential for good health!
Your stock wont be as quite as full of all this healthy goodness if you don't start with the right ingredients. Pasture raised poultry (or beef/lamb) should always be the first choice, due to their diets their meat and bones are richer in Omega 3 essential fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (a cancer-fighter, fat burner that helps convert fat to muscle, and prevents heart disease). They also have more Vitamins E (important antioxidant and protects against heart disease) and A (vision, immune function, bone metabolism, and skin health), and Vitamin D (protects against cancer and heart disease). You should also use organic vegetables, and never ever use straight tap water as boiling it makes the chemical content of things like chlorine and fluoride more potent and dangerous to consume.
Luckily, we had the best possible carcass to start with, that of our pasture raised turkey from Barefoot Farm and Flowers. Raised on pasture with unlimited access to fresh grass, bugs and other delights, our turkey would be chock full of all the vitamins mentioned above. It was so big that we had to break it into half and separate the bones into two pots. On my wish list for the new year is a big ol' stock pot that would have handled this whole carcass, but for now I had to use two smaller stainless steel pots:
The apple cider vinegar is there because when making stock you should always add a tablespoon or so of vinegar to your filtered water for about an hour before putting the pots on the heat. The vinegar helps draw out the minerals in the bones, and makes them more readily available to integrate into your stock.
Now, here come the turkey feet! When Linda was processing the thanksgiving turkeys, she saved all of the feet for me. What a great friend she is! My plan had been to add the feet to the stock, and let them simmer away adding all sorts of goodness to my brew. I started with 4 feet, two for each pot:
This is what I didn't expect though - they still had all the skin on them. I have seen chickens go through the plucker with feet attached, and the action of the plucker actually peels the skin right off the feet, taking away all the nasty embedded dirt in them. I didn't realize that Linda's turkeys would be put through the plucker after their feet had been taken off, so I had myself some very dirty, and quite ugly, turkey feet to deal with. I wasn't too worried though, I had the Internet at my disposal!! I read that I could boil and then blanch the feet, and the skin would peel right off. So into the boiling water those little turkey tootsies went:
After a few minutes, I plopped them in a nice cold ice bath:
Then, I scrubbed them (and yes, I wore gloves. I am not quite ready to handle turkey talons with my bare hands). And I scrubbed, and scrubbed some more. The skin would NOT budge! I boiled and ice bathed again, and again, but still....nothing. Those were some stubborn turkey feet. Eventually I came to the realization that no amount of scrubbing or blanching was going to get this dirty skin off those feet. I decided to research more ways to get that skin off and not use the feet in this batch. That didn't mean the fun was over though! Killian came into the kitchen to see what we were doing, and (shockingly) he wasn't the least bit grossed out by the feet sitting on the counter. He even wanted to hold one, and have his picture taken with it!
Then Mike came over to inspect the feet, and that's when the fun really began:
Those silly boys! They certainly had a great time prancing around the kitchen with turkey toes in their hands, while I remained safe and sound out of reach behind the camera. :)
So, onto the stove my pots of bones went. Most sources online said that in order to get the most nutrients out of the bones, the stock should be simmered on low for up to 24 hours. I figured overnight would be the perfect way to accomplish this, and set my burners to *4* and went to bed. Sigh. I should have known that would be way to high, my only excuse was that it had been a long day, and I was tired when I decided that was the best temp for my stock. I came out in the morning to two pots that had just inches of stock/water in them, and the rest of the bones and meat were high and dry above the water line. I totally panicked, and forgot to take a picture before I got them off the heat and strained the broth in to jars. Next time, I will definitely put them on the lowest heat possible, and stay up late and wake up early to ensure that my precious stock doesn't all evaporate! I also didn't get the chance to add any vegetables, as I had read that they should be added during the last few hours of cooking. I was too freaked out by my rapidly disappearing stock to attempt anything else with it.
I strained what was left, and poured it into some quart sized mason jars. It only made 2.5 worth. :( The color in the picture isn't great, the stock was actually a little darker than that, but you can see a nice layer of fat forming along the top of each jar!
I stuck it in the fridge for a while, and brought it out later than day to use for making some turkey soup. Everything I had read said that a good nutritious stock will gel up, but I really had no idea what that meant. I was so used to store bought stock just pouring right out of the container, imagine my surprise when I poured this thick jelly like stock out of the jar!
You can see that it is very thick and gelatinous...so despite cooking it down to nearly nothing, I succeeded in making a rich gelatinous and tasty stock! I am really looking forward to making chicken/turkey stock again in the future! I have plenty of turkey feet left that are waiting to be scrubbed and another friend gave me a bag full of chicken feet. I am also planning on getting the hooves and bones from our cow when those are taken to the butcher next month, so beef broth is on the horizon as well!
I have been learning a lot about traditional diets this year, and the health benefits that come with eating the foods that have sustained cultures long before Ritz crackers and cheese whiz came onto the market. Over the next year, I am going to be heavily focusing on reinventing our diet to focus more on these powerhouse foods (the traditional foods....not processed crackers and fake cheese). I am excited about it, and looking forward to trying all sorts of new foods and ways to prepare them. One such nourishing food that I am going to master is the art of making a beautiful stock, a powerhouse of nutrition.
The stocks that you buy today in the supermarket have been stripped of the things that make stock such a wonderful addition to the diet. To fill the place of nutrients, chemical fillers are added. Take a look at the ingredient list of Swanson's chicken broth:
CHICKEN BROTH, SALT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, DEXTROSE, YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FLAVOR, FLAVORING, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FAT, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, CHICKEN BROTH POWDER.
Monosodium Glutamate is MSG, corn syrup solids are a dried and dehydrated version of corn syrup (sugar, for all intents and purposes). Hydrolyzed soy protein is MORE MSG, in addition to genetically manipulated soy (which in its unfermented state has been linked heavily to breast cancer). Lets not even get started on what "chicken flavor" means. Yuck.
Even the organic, free range chicken broth that we buy has "chicken flavor" and organic evaporated cane juice added to it. I guess I just fail to see the reason that sugar needs to be added to any sort of stock, other than the fact that processed food makers love to add sugar to anything and everything.
So, I set about researching a better chicken stock, one that would give our bodies valuable nutrients and minerals, instead of MSG and sugar. Turns out that all I needed to do was look back in history a few years, and learn how to make stock the way our grandmothers generation did. It never ceases to amaze me the things that we have given up in the name of progress. Knowing how to make a traditional stock is just one very small part of our rapidly disappearing history.
Our grandmothers and those that came before them (and people still living in traditional cultures today) were on to something. By using every bit of the chicken that they could, including meat, bones and feet, they made a broth that full of goodness. The bones added calcium, and minerals like magnesium, sulfur, silicon and phosphorus in a form that the body can easily absorb. Adding chicken feet to the broth brings in collagen, gelatin and glucosamine, nutrients which are some of the main building blocks to digestive health, and are also wonderful for our joints. Throw in the meat which adds wonderful flavor and nutrients, and you can see why a traditionally made stock can be so essential for good health!
Your stock wont be as quite as full of all this healthy goodness if you don't start with the right ingredients. Pasture raised poultry (or beef/lamb) should always be the first choice, due to their diets their meat and bones are richer in Omega 3 essential fatty acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acid (a cancer-fighter, fat burner that helps convert fat to muscle, and prevents heart disease). They also have more Vitamins E (important antioxidant and protects against heart disease) and A (vision, immune function, bone metabolism, and skin health), and Vitamin D (protects against cancer and heart disease). You should also use organic vegetables, and never ever use straight tap water as boiling it makes the chemical content of things like chlorine and fluoride more potent and dangerous to consume.
Luckily, we had the best possible carcass to start with, that of our pasture raised turkey from Barefoot Farm and Flowers. Raised on pasture with unlimited access to fresh grass, bugs and other delights, our turkey would be chock full of all the vitamins mentioned above. It was so big that we had to break it into half and separate the bones into two pots. On my wish list for the new year is a big ol' stock pot that would have handled this whole carcass, but for now I had to use two smaller stainless steel pots:
The apple cider vinegar is there because when making stock you should always add a tablespoon or so of vinegar to your filtered water for about an hour before putting the pots on the heat. The vinegar helps draw out the minerals in the bones, and makes them more readily available to integrate into your stock.
Now, here come the turkey feet! When Linda was processing the thanksgiving turkeys, she saved all of the feet for me. What a great friend she is! My plan had been to add the feet to the stock, and let them simmer away adding all sorts of goodness to my brew. I started with 4 feet, two for each pot:
This is what I didn't expect though - they still had all the skin on them. I have seen chickens go through the plucker with feet attached, and the action of the plucker actually peels the skin right off the feet, taking away all the nasty embedded dirt in them. I didn't realize that Linda's turkeys would be put through the plucker after their feet had been taken off, so I had myself some very dirty, and quite ugly, turkey feet to deal with. I wasn't too worried though, I had the Internet at my disposal!! I read that I could boil and then blanch the feet, and the skin would peel right off. So into the boiling water those little turkey tootsies went:
After a few minutes, I plopped them in a nice cold ice bath:
Then, I scrubbed them (and yes, I wore gloves. I am not quite ready to handle turkey talons with my bare hands). And I scrubbed, and scrubbed some more. The skin would NOT budge! I boiled and ice bathed again, and again, but still....nothing. Those were some stubborn turkey feet. Eventually I came to the realization that no amount of scrubbing or blanching was going to get this dirty skin off those feet. I decided to research more ways to get that skin off and not use the feet in this batch. That didn't mean the fun was over though! Killian came into the kitchen to see what we were doing, and (shockingly) he wasn't the least bit grossed out by the feet sitting on the counter. He even wanted to hold one, and have his picture taken with it!
Then Mike came over to inspect the feet, and that's when the fun really began:
Those silly boys! They certainly had a great time prancing around the kitchen with turkey toes in their hands, while I remained safe and sound out of reach behind the camera. :)
So, onto the stove my pots of bones went. Most sources online said that in order to get the most nutrients out of the bones, the stock should be simmered on low for up to 24 hours. I figured overnight would be the perfect way to accomplish this, and set my burners to *4* and went to bed. Sigh. I should have known that would be way to high, my only excuse was that it had been a long day, and I was tired when I decided that was the best temp for my stock. I came out in the morning to two pots that had just inches of stock/water in them, and the rest of the bones and meat were high and dry above the water line. I totally panicked, and forgot to take a picture before I got them off the heat and strained the broth in to jars. Next time, I will definitely put them on the lowest heat possible, and stay up late and wake up early to ensure that my precious stock doesn't all evaporate! I also didn't get the chance to add any vegetables, as I had read that they should be added during the last few hours of cooking. I was too freaked out by my rapidly disappearing stock to attempt anything else with it.
I strained what was left, and poured it into some quart sized mason jars. It only made 2.5 worth. :( The color in the picture isn't great, the stock was actually a little darker than that, but you can see a nice layer of fat forming along the top of each jar!
I stuck it in the fridge for a while, and brought it out later than day to use for making some turkey soup. Everything I had read said that a good nutritious stock will gel up, but I really had no idea what that meant. I was so used to store bought stock just pouring right out of the container, imagine my surprise when I poured this thick jelly like stock out of the jar!
You can see that it is very thick and gelatinous...so despite cooking it down to nearly nothing, I succeeded in making a rich gelatinous and tasty stock! I am really looking forward to making chicken/turkey stock again in the future! I have plenty of turkey feet left that are waiting to be scrubbed and another friend gave me a bag full of chicken feet. I am also planning on getting the hooves and bones from our cow when those are taken to the butcher next month, so beef broth is on the horizon as well!