Stock

I used the leftover bones from those game hens for homemade chicken stock. There are plenty of reasons to make stock, rather than buying it: Prepared stock at the grocery store is too expensive for what it is, and stock made from bouillon cubes doesn't taste as good. A homemade stock will give a richer flavor to the soups or sauces it's used in (when I was little I was always grossed out by the turkey simmering on the stove for the whole day after Thanksgiving, but the resulting turkey noodle soup was delicious), and will give the stock minerals (calcium, magnesium, and other stuff good for the joints/bones) and gelatin (which is good for digestion).

I've been collecting vegetables in the freezer for the past few weeks. Whenever there was a little left over after using what I needed for a meal, or I could tell I wasn't going to eat all of something before it went bad, the extra got put in a tupperware in the freezer. Celery, onion, potato, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, tomato (just a little, so it wouldn't overwhelm the flavor of the stock), etc. all got saved, instead of being thrown on the compost pile.


I read that raw chicken will make a better stock, but I don't ever buy whole chickens and cut 'em up for parts (though I probably should), so I just used the cooked ones, which works fine. I put the whole carcasses in the stock pot with the vegetables, covered them with COLD water (different flavors come out at different temperatures, so you start with cold to so every flavor gets expressed), and added some fresh rosmary, a few bay leaves, salt, and pepper (peppercorns would've been better, but I didn't have them). Then I brought it to a boil, turned it down to a simmer, and let it sit on the stove for six hours.


After that I strained out all the vegetables and bones, and separated the stock into tupperwares with one or two cups each, so it's easy to use when it's time to cook, and froze all but the stuff I am planning to use in the next week. Two game hen carcasses and leftover vegetables- all stuff that would've gone to waste- made me thirteen cups of chicken stock that I can use in soups, sauces, and for seitan.