What does your freezer look like? This time of year, mine is loaded up with homemade bone broth.
The picture above is the top shelf of my kitchen freezer. The container third from the left is actually a full gallon container (you can’t see how wide it is from the picture), so the total is over 3 gallons of stock right now in my freezer. The middle containers are duck stock, the quart container on the far right is fish stock and the container on the far left is turkey stock.
All those containers of stock you see in the picture will last my family of 5 about one month to six weeks.
I use stock liberally – I even cook rice in it instead of water. The kids don’t even know they are eating stock sometimes!
Stock is my secret weapon to keep my family free of tummy bugs that are running rampant through school and the community at large during the winter months.
Homemade stock contains ample amounts of gelatin, which is a colloidal substance that attracts digestive juices to it and prevents gastrointestinal bugs from attaching themselves to the gut wall. Natural gelatin both assists digestion and keeps you well!
Store bought soups and broth/stocks – even if organic – are nutritionless, loaded with MSG (using deceptive and misleading pseudonyms of course) and do not contain any beneficial gelatin.
Making plenty of homemade soups with homemade broth and you have rediscovered one of the most important and delicious ways Traditional Societies stayed well!
Best of all, stock is FREE. All you have to do is use the bones of whatever meat you have roasted, add water and a bit of vinegar, and simmer for 24-48 hours.
Eating well does not have to break the bank!
Don’t have time to make soup?
Try this 5 minute healthy soup recipe that you can make with a quart of frozen bone broth right out of the freezer.
Another super fast soup is this recipe for panata, frugally referred to as bread soup.
I freeze my stock in ziploc bags in 2 and 4 cup increments. I’m horrible about remembering to thaw stock, so I can take it out of the freezer, tear open the bag and place the stock into a pot and it’s thawed in no time.
My husband is the household King of Homemade Stock. Sadly, I can’t stock up (heh) my freezer because we use it almost as soon as we make it.
How do you make fish stock?
Hi Again,
Another question if you have a moment- Do you agree with the food combining principles discussed in Body Ecology? And if so, do you think using meat broth to cook a grain like quinoa, which I use all the time, would be improper food combining?
Thank you!
HI Sarah, I don’t pay any attention to food combining myself. Not saying that there isn’t anything to it .. there might be. I just haven’t found it to be helpful in my own health journey or that of my family.
Here’s a tip I found for storing homemade broth:
Freeze it in muffin tins (regular size). Once frozen, pop the discs out and store the “discs” in a freezer Ziploc bag. Each “disc” equals about 1/4 cup. Makes it very easy to measure out what you need for recipes!
I love that! THANK YOU!! =)
That is awesome! thank you!
Sarah,
I just went to a class by a WAP chapter leader who said that it is not necessary to freeze the broth because the fat rises to the top and seals the broth. Could you comment on this?
Thanks.
Hi Leah,
You certainly should not freeze what you are going to use within a week or so. Otherwise, I really think you should freeze it. Broth will indeed go bad if you leave it in the fridge too long without freezing. You can always reboil it to kill off the bacteria, but I prefer a fresher product so freezing achieves this in my view.
Hi Sarah
I have been making bone broth in my crockpot all this fall and I simmer a good 24 hours The last batch I had to put it in the garage to cook it because the whole family can’t stand the smell. My seven year tells me it gives him a headache. The kitchen and bedrooms are all on the same level so this is why I placed it in the garage. I have even tried starting it late at night so the smell isn’t so strong. Anyone else have a similar experience with it? I use the leftover carcass from roasted chicken and chicken feet. I was always afraid to leave it on the stove overnight but I may go that route. Also my one crockpot cooks really hot even on low. I have to cut the cooking time at least by half for other dishes or it is extremely over cooked. So I am wondering maybe I am cooking it too long in the crockpot? And it isn’t as gelantious as it is when I make it on the stove. When I cooked it on the stove I usually let it simmer about 12 to 16 hours. I have to say the smell isn’t pleasant. It doesn’t matter whether or not I use pastured chickens or store bought the same thing happens. Any ideas? I don’t want to stop making it because this broth rocks! I am just frustrated. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am currently out of broth and really want to make some soon.
Jenny, turn down the heat (it should just barely simmer) and make sure you use a lid. Are you using good quality chicken? I know that when I don’t use grassfed beef bones to make broth it kind of stinks a lot more.
Sarah,
I have used both pastured chickens and the regular chickens from the grocery and they both had a strong odor. This fall the bone broth I made was mostly from pastured chickens. It must be my crockpot is too hot. Even on low it boils. I don’t remember this happening when I did it on the stove. I never went a full 24 hours on the stove because I was too afraid to leave it unattended. I suppose I could try it and see if there is a difference.
I think it is your water. It isn’t your chicken or your pans because you are using different ones. My husband and I buy our water because we don’t have a good filter system right now. We have never experienced this smell you are talking about before. My husband this week took chicken off the bones and left the remains in the sink. I didn’t notice right away because I worked a close to open so the chicken bones were in the sink for a period. We had a little bit of water collect in the bottom of the dish over the 12 hour period it sat. I went to add water to wash the dish and about passed out from the smell, literally. My husband has done this to me before and it has never, never smelled like this before. We never had unfiltered water sit with the chicken bones before. The smell of our horrible Florida water in combination with the chicken seriously almost made me sick. When I have dumped the filtered water over the bones and even let them sit, we have never gotten such a smell. We sound like messy people and for those two days we are! We both work 30 hours in two-three days. We don’t have time for dishes those two days, so excuse our grossness here. I got to thinking about it and if we cooked our chicken for any period with that water, our whole house would sink up. You may have a good filter system in place but maybe something about it is causing an odor…. You could buy water at walmart or something just to experiment.
Hi there Sarah
Do you have some good recipes on your site to use stock in besides for soups. I love your posts and thank you for reminding me that I can use the turkey and duck bones as well not just beef, chicken and fish,
Hi Sarah, I have a question – is it safe to freeze raw chicken/beef bones if they have been previously frozen? (That is the whole bird or cut of meat (with the bones) have been previously frozen, I cut the meat out to use and refereeze the bones?) I often don’t have enough bones to make stock and must have a way to save them until I have enough. We all have heard we mustn’t refreeze previously frozen raw meat or poultry. Is this true for bones?
Also, how do I make stock in the crockpot?
Thanks for your post! I love homemade stock but don’t make it often enough.
Thank you for such a wonderful blog! Sarah you mentioned Miso for soups. Do you recommend a certain brand? Also, are soups to be made only with organic chicken? Probably a stupid question but sometimes my budget is tight.
Hi Carol, make your chicken broth with the best chicken that fits in your budget. If it is regular store chicken – so be it, just be sure to skim off all the foam that comes to the stop as the broth is coming to its very first boil (see my videos on this to see me actually skimming the broth). I like Miso Master brand for my miso (brown rice miso).
Thank you Sarah! I feel so awful when I can afford organic. I have learned from my dear old grandmother that the “scum” on top of anything coming to a boil should be removed. 🙂 So I have been doing that since I can remember. I will look up the Miso you use. All i have seen is Edens in my health food store and a brand in the cooler but not sure of the name.
Hi Sarah,
I’ve recently discovered your blog and have already made the lentil soup and banana fritters — both hits!
A quick note on msg in stocks: I am a big fan of homemade stock; however sometimes I don’t keep as much as we need and have to buy some in a pinch. I was in Whole Foods the other day trying to figure out which broths did not have msg, and an employee told me that none of the products in their store contain msg as a policy. So while I completely agree that store-bought broths are infinitely inferior to homemade stocks, it’s not true that all store-bought stocks contain msg.
Thanks for a great blog!
Bethany
All store stock has msg in it unless it is real stock that is made the right way and then it would have to be in the frozen section. Good luck finding that kind of stock in the store. The problem is that folks don’t even know what msg is or how deceptively it is labeled using many many aliases the trick people into thinking its not there. With all due respect, that store employee was clueless.
When I am out of stock and need a soup base, I use fermented miso paste. It imparts a slightly different flavor to your basic soups, but it is delicious and healthy.
Sorry, but I wouldn’t trust what a Whole Foods employee told me. They have led me astray several times about the source and ingredients of food in their store. Even had me eating regular cheese for over a year when my diet forbids all cheese except yogurt cheese. Do your own research!