What Are You Ingesting?

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Bockwurst with mustard and bread.

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

I'm about to warm up some barbecued chicken I picked up at the grocery store.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Pizza with sausage, pepperoni, fresh basil, double garlic, mushrooms, roasted red pepper, spinach, and sun dried tomatoes.

 

I love the Unlimited Toppings coupon! ;-)

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

I fed Mrs. Prof some bockwurst and sauerkraut earlier today. Surprisingly, she didn't go "bleaugh," even though she said the bockwurst looked "gross" when I pulled it from the jar. Said she'd eat it again!

Reference: http://germandeli.com/Meica-Bockwurst-8pc-720g-25-4oz
http://germandeli.com/Kuehne-Fass-Sauerkraut-Barrel-Sauerkraut-807g

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

Slow-Cooker Bone Stock

The place where I usually do my grocery shopping often puts whole, cooked chickens on sale for $4.30. At that price, I find them hard to pass up. They come either cut up or whole, barbecued, glazed, baked, and fried.

For quite a while, I was just throwing the bones away, but that seemed like a waste, so I started keeping them in the freezer with the intention of making stock out of them. In the meantime, I read about bone stocks -- stocks made my simmering the bones a long time.

Anyway, I take the bones from four to six chickens; put them in my gallon slow cooker with garlic, onion, celery, bay leaves, pepper, and salt; fill the remaining space with water; set it on low; and let it simmer for about three days.

Every twelve hours or so, I give it a stir, break up any bones I can stab with the edge of the spoon, and top off the water. Once finished, I strain it a little at a time through a fine strainer to separate the stock from the unspeakable gudge. Most of the bones have disappeared by this time.

The end result is dark brown and very strong. It needs to be diluted about 100% before you can use it for anything. Once diluted and properly seasoned, it tastes good with a deep flavor, but it's more beefy than chickeny. I suspect the color and flavor are the result of the bone marrow having a chance to dissolve thoroughly.

You can use it the way you use any other stock. I recommend you give it a try. It works on turkey bones, too, or a mix of turkey and chicken.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Bockwurst on a hot dog bun.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

13 hours ago, Xenophon Hendrix said:

Once diluted and properly seasoned, it tastes good with a deep flavor,

What do you do to season it?  I know the general idea of making soup/stock/broth, but the important details always seem to be assumed you already know them.....

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

The last of the bockwurst.

[Scotty 1,061]

ham, cheese and tomato on a crusty bun x2

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

12 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

What do you do to season it?  I know the general idea of making soup/stock/broth, but the important details always seem to be assumed you already know them.....

Well, you taste it and use your tongue to tell you what it needs. Is it salty enough? Could it use some more pepper?

If you were using it to make a stew, for instance, you might want to fry up some more onion and garlic in the bottom of the pot before you add the stock. If you are making something that you want to have an Italian character, maybe you add some basil and oregano.

When you are making the stock itself, you don't want to season it too much. That way, you can use it for a bunch of different things. You could leave the pepper and salt out entirely, but be aware that if you give it a taste that way, it will be vile. There is nothing wrong with it, though. Your tongue is expecting at least a little salt, and if it's not there, it tastes off.

[Xenophon Hendrix 47]

As I was making my supper, I was thinking that maybe I could help out a little more. These are some rough guidelines: If you are going to make bone stock the way I described, use a couple teaspoons of salt, an eighth teaspoon of black pepper, an onion somewhere between a tennis ball and a baseball in size, four cloves of garlic, four to six stalks of celery, and two or three bay leaves. You can also add an eighth teaspoon of red pepper flakes and a peeled carrot, if you feel like it.

Remember to peel the garlic, but you can add the cloves whole, or you can use a couple tablespoons of the crushed stuff you get in a jar. You don't have to do more than peel and cut the onion in half, and cut the celery and carrot into quarters, because it is all going to dissolve away to glop anyway by the time the stock is done.

If you do what I said in my posts, you will end up with a gallon of stock less the unspeakable gudge -- perhaps three-quarters of a gallon by eyeball. When you dilute it properly, it will be about a gallon-and-a-half of stock. You can freeze it in convenient-size containers, either diluted or not, if you aren't going to use it all right away.

When you decant it from the slow cooker, you will have a basic stock that is about twice the concentration you see in recipes. So if you have a recipe that says, "Add a quart of chicken stock," you would add a pint of this bone stock and a pint of water. Otherwise, follow the recipe.

You will still have to adjust the seasonings to taste, though.

[Stature 96]

Cheddar Ruffles (in a retro-look bag)

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Currywurst, although I was stuck using imported German Frankfurters instead of whatever the proper sausage is supposed to be (bit of a debate over that).

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

A few pieces of fried, whitish, fish-like meat and coleslaw from a drive-through window.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Two supposedly fried eggs and a sausage patty from a pre-packed diet food program.

[Daniela 0]

I'm having some very delicious, spicy, pasta~

[PSadlon 88]

Split pea with ham & bacon soup

[Scotty 1,061]

Pepperoni pizza.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Meica Frankfurters with imported sauerkraut.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

cinnamon toast

[mlooney 3,417]

Brown Rice, made with Cream of Mushroom soup instead of water and 2 or 3 cups of PGT tea.   With out milk because my cat drinks more of it than I thought.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

On June 2, 2016 at 3:36 PM, mlooney said:

Brown Rice, made with Cream of Mushroom soup instead of water and 2 or 3 cups of PGT tea.

At first I read that as the tea being added to the Cream of Mushroom soup when making the rice....

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Sadler's brand smoked brisket. Meh.

Mrs. Prof bought it at Sam's Club. Franklin Barbecue it ain't.

[partner555 170]

Curry puffs we bought at the mosque my family goes to.