Bone Broth...

Often, in movies that are set in days gone by, if someone is an invalid and bedridden, a caregiver can be seen carefully feeding broth to the invalid.  For instance, in "Little Women," Jo says to Beth, who is very ill, "Drink up all this good broth."

I never understood that until just the last year or so.  It made no sense to me why some watery soup would be considered nourishment.  Now I understand.  In the past, family cooks understood the importance of broth made properly with bones.  Not only are properly prepared stocks and broths delicious and versatile additions to soups, stews and sauces, they have important health benefits.

In Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, there is an excellent article on the benefits of "Stocks."  I will not quote the whole article here, but will just list a few things that are mentioned.

1. "...the use of homemade meat broths to produce nourishing and flavorful soups and sauces has almost completely disappeared from the American culinary tradition."

2." Properly prepared, meat stocks are extremely nutritious, containing the minerals of bone, cartilage, marrow..."

3. "Acidic wine or vinegar added during cooking helps to draw minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth."

4. "...stock is also of great value because it supplies hydrophilic colloids to the diet... Gelatin acts first and foremost as an aid to digestion and has been used successfully in the treatment of many initestinal disorders, including hyperacidity, colitis and Crohn's disease.  Although gelatin is by no means a complete protein... it acts as a protein sparer, allowing the body to more fully utilize the complete proteins that are taken in.  Gelatin rich broths are a must for those who cannot afford large amounts of meat in their diets."

The article goes on to explain a number of other health benefits of properly prepared bone broth.  So, how can it be "properly" prepared?  Here is how I do it.  Do you recall that last week I ended up with the bones, etc. of 6 roosters that we butchered?  I stuffed all of the bones into my 2 gallon soup pot, covered them with filtered water and added 1/2 cup of raw apple cider vinegar.  I simmered it for about 24 hours, let it cool, strained it through a cotton cloth and refrigerated it.

Here is a picture of what it looked like when I took it out of the refrigerator:

You can see the lovely gelatinous consistency of it, as I am ladling it there.  

We drank some with our breakfast, some is in the fridge and I pressure canned 3 quarts for later.  Sometimes I freeze broth and stocks, but not this time.  Here is a picture of this morning's breakfast... warm, salted chicken bone broth, hard boiled eggs (still warm - so nice!), goat milk and goat milk kefir.  We both used Realsalt in our broth, to taste.  If you are not familiar with unrefined sea salt, please go to that link and see how good for you it can be!

Yes, I do pull back the table cloth when we eat.  Sigh... ;)

This post is linked to the Homemaker Hop #5

Supper. I don't think it can get much better.

Here you see my husband's supper plate. Chicken liver (from yesterday's butchering) and onions fried in kettle-rendered lard, home grown broccoli, a home grown baked potato, real homemade butter and some fresh goat milk.  We are so rich.  And I am very grateful.  This time of year we focus more on what we are grateful for.  I have so much.  A sweet and good husband, a warm home, plenty of food, wonderful friends, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and even though we have our problems, this is still a fabulous country to live in.  I could go on and on about what I'm grateful for, but I won't.  Suffice it to say I am.  Thank you for reading my blog.  I love writing it.

Six "extra" roosters = 1.5 gallons of meat and lots of stock...

My friend, from whom I get fresh eggs, had 6 roosters that needed to be dispatched.  That's a nice sounding work for "killed."  :(  They were taking up space that she needed to use for milk goats through the bitter cold of winter we are expecting.  When I was there last week, she asked me if I'd like to have them.  Inwardly, I groaned a little, thinking of all the work it would entail, but rarely do I turn down free food, so I said I would like to have them.

Fast forward to yesterday.  Another friend and I (she wanted to learn how to butcher chickens) went and brought the poor boys home in feed sacks.  When I took the wiggly sacks out of my trunk, our dog, Badger, was fascinated.

We butchered and prepared them and all six of the carcasses fit in my huge stock pot.  I covered them all with water, and simmered them for about 3 hours.  Then I let it cool for a while.  Next, I removed the cooked chickens from the broth and let that cool enough that I could handle it easily and  removed the meat from the bones.

The bones went back into a 2 gallon pot with more water and about 1/4 cup of raw apple cider vinegar, and it is still simmering.  I like to cook bone broth for at least 24 hours to get all of the lovely minerals and gelatin into the stock.  Here is what it looks like this morning with about 12 hours to go:

I stuffed pint jars with the cooked meat, covered them with the cooking broth, leaving 1 inch of "head space."  The rest of the cooking broth went into a few more pint jars and I processed it all together in the pressure canner for 75 minutes.  (Consult a good canning guide for instructions.)  Here is what we ended up with:

Later, I plan to can the bone broth too, and we will have many nice meals from all of these poor, unwanted roosters.

I have frozen the feet and giblets to use later.  The feet make excellent and healthy stock.  The giblets... ah...  liver and onions, hearts and gizzards braised in butter with salt and pepper.  Oh, yum.

I'm grateful.  It was a lot of work, but with my friend here, and with my DH helping, it was also a lot of fun!  And, hey!  It was "free!"

Thank you so much, Deb.

Just a pretty picture...

From the hoop house for our lunch salad.  :)

I don't understand this sauerkraut!

Normally, sauerkraut can take quite a while to ferment.  Something was different this time.  I know I made it a little differently, but it was just a matter of a few days before it got done.  The way to tell if it's done is to taste it, and if it tastes like sauerkraut, it is done!

I used a "Pikl-it" jar, which is very handy, but it can be done other ways, too.  I had a rather large head of green cabbage, so I shredded it in the food processor, put it all in a stainless bowl and added 3 Tablespoons of sea salt.

Next I mixed it up with my hands and then let it sit and wilt for 30 minutes.  Normally, at this point, people "pound" the kraut to get the juices flowing.  I didn't do that.  Instead, I just kept squishing it with my hands until it was nice and juicy.

Then I packed it in the jar, put on the lid, added the water to the airlock and let it sit on the counter.  It was done in about 4 days!  Oh, and I also added a couple of Tablespoons of  Carraway seeds.  It really added a nice flavor.  This will keep for a long time in the refrigerator and is rich in lacto-bacteria and enzymes and such.  I love sauerkraut.  Fortunately, my DH doesn't.  ;)

This post is linked to Traditional Tuesday #27 and Simple Lives Thursday #122

Using Lentils wisely...

 Sprouted Lentils

Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with the account in Genesis of Esau, the elder son of Isaac.  He sold his birthright to his younger twin brother, Jacob.  "...And Jacob sod pottage; and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, 'Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint... And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.  And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright."  Genesis 25: 29-34 (The Holy Bible.)

I find this story intriguing.  Esau was "a cunning hunter; a man of the fields," and Jacob was a "plain man, dwelling in tents."  Plain, in this context, comes from the Hebrew for whole, complete, perfect, simple, plain.  It is not hard to visualize the scene.  Esau comes home and he's been out hunting and it's hot and he's tired and hungry and sees his brother with this nice yummy bread and lentil stew.  He says, "I'm starving!!  Gimmee some of that food!"  I suppose we could be critical of Esau, since he sold his priviledges, but if you've ever eaten some well-prepared lentil stew, you might have a little compassion for poor Esau.  ;)

Here is a link to the nutritional profile of lentils. This humble and ancient food is incredibly nutritious.

My friend blogged about lentils and she states that lentils, if sprouted, contain all of the essential amino acids.  They are inexpensive, readily available, and very versatile.  Think lentil soup, lentil stew, lentil burgers, as an addition to other soups and stews, as a "meat stretcher"... they are wonderful and we love to eat them!  I like to keep some cooked, and frozen in small amounts to add to dishes so that it's convenient.

Lentils only take about 1/2 hour to cook, however, it is worth the extra step to sprout them as this improves the nutritional profile, deactivates the anti-nutrients that can interfere with mineral absorption, and to me, sprouting also improves the flavor and texture of lentils.

They are Very Easy to Sprout, and all it takes it a little foresight and planning.  Here is how I do it ~

Pour 1# (about 2.5 cups) of dried lentils into a colander.  Rinse them thoroughly, and pick over them to check for any little stones or other contaminants.  Pour them into a stainless or glass bowl and cover very well with cold water.  Let them sit in the water for 8 hours.  Drain through the colander and rinse them.  Leave them in the colander, which you will set back into the bowl and cover with a plate to keep things out.  Every 8 hours or so, give them another good rinse.  They will probably be sprouted within 36 hours.

At that point, you can cook them in more water and freeze them cooked, or you can freeze them raw, or just add your sprouted lentils to whatever dish you are making with them and simmer until they are tender, which won't take very long.  Look at the picture above.  See the cute little sprouts coming out?

My personal favorite way to enjoy lentils is to cook the sprouted lentils in some nice rich homemade stock, until they are tender, and then season with Realsalt, freshly ground black pepper and plenty of butter.  SO good.

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday #121 

Odds and ends...

I just I thought I'd post some pictures of some of the things I've been up to the last couple of days...The time change has me waking up earlier.  Early for me, anyway.  :)

When I save up 4 gallons of goat milk, it's time to make cheese!

 ...and wash the empty jars:

 Cutting the curd:

 Draining the curd... I LOVE making cheese, now that I know what I'm doing.  It was hard to learn.

 It's all in the press now:

I made a 3-loaf batch of long, slow - rise whole wheat bread:

I had been saving up leftover fats from cooking for quite a while.  I also had several small jars of salve I had made that was not up to par, and so I combined all of that together to make soap.  Here the fats are melting:

The water and lye ~ ALWAYS add the lye TO the water, not the other way.  If you add water TO the lye, it can explode!

Here I'm mixing the soap with a hand-held blender:

And now it's at "trace."

 

Here is the soap after I cut it into bars today.  It will be interesting to see what it's like after it cures for a while.

I tried sprouting some broccoli seeds...

but the seeds must be old, because they didn't do too well.

I ate a yummy banana:

While I was looking at pictures of newlyweds on our fridge.

A trip to the hoop house resulted in things for a nice salad:

And I started a batch of sauerkraut in a Pickl-It jar:

I really don't have any new recipes to share with you right now.  If you have any questions about any of these things, just leave me a message!