Chickens: Chicken Stock

[frugal]

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You're welcome. Skin adds flavor and color to your stock and you're correct, it gets strained out.

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All stock is cloudy unlike broth.

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You're very welcome. I'm really not much busier than any other homesteader but thank you for the kind words.

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I always use my stock to taste depending on how I feel and the dish. I generally go with stronger flavors because that's my preference. Experiment!

 

[Clay In Iowa]

Love your posts Frugal.

Always very informative and very interesting. I check in every morning to see what's for dinner. I'm inspired to grow more of my own food and eat better.

Your style of cooking is something I'd love to do but alas time, kids and did I mention time makes it very difficult. I'm slowly getting there though. I started 5 years ago with 10 barren acres in Eastern Iowa. Now there are 3,000+ oaks, walnuts, pines, hard maples etc and a nice group of fruit and nut trees. We had our first home grown organic apples last year. I think one of the three apple trees produced 10 or 12 apples (gotta start somewhere). I'll have a huge garden this year, twice as big as last year and should have a flock of ~40 chickens by fall. All that and about 100 new (to me anyway) canning jars to round out my collection, should make for a fat pantry by winter.

Thanks
Clay

 

[frugal]

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LOL, I raised 5 beautiful daughters and a few strays, I understand time constraints. I cooked with gas in those days.

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Thanks for the kind words!

Your homestead sounds wonderful and very well planned. The first thing I did with the homestead was to plant trees. I didn't even have a garden for a number of years because I was busy planting the infrastructure (trees, bushes, asparagus, etc.) and reclaiming many old apple trees on the property. After the trees were all planted I started on my gardens. When I had enough garden space to grow all my own veggies I added bunnies and birds. After my small animals were producing well I added sheep and goats. Each layer built on the previous layer. It sounds like you have taken the same approach. This is my second and last time building a homestead. It may take longer this way but it works. And instead of just a dream, you now have a homestead, congratulations.

Each year I've continued to add a few trees and berry bushes as well as expand my gardens. I now have a homestead that is becoming self-sufficient heading toward self-sustainability.

I remember the first apples on my new trees, 7 of them! Last year I had my first real harvest from my plum trees, that was special. There's nothing quite like picking fruit from trees that you've planted and taken care of for years.

With all those fruit trees your 100 canning jars will reproduce very quickly!

 

[amarook]

I DID experiment with my turkey stock.

My turkey soup is finally done. I'm calling it 3 day turkey soup. lol! But the wait was worth it.

It's actually more of a chowder as I made it a creamy soup. I kept the carrots and celery, just cut them up finer. Added more turkey meat, added rice, corn, salt, lotsa pepper, half & half, corn starch, some other spices I can't remember right now.

My BF says it's the best ever.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[frugal]

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I always take between 24-36 hours to cook my stock down the way I like it, you just can't hurry the flavor. Your soup sounds delicious and it's even more wonderful when those you love appreciate the hard work. Congratulations and thanks for the kind words.

 

[EweSheep]

Thanks Frugal, keep those posts coming!

I've been hearing on the news yesterday so many city folks are planting gardens in their backyards and their front yards! Yep, FRONT yards! Now I dont know what the city officials have to say about it because not all veggies are "flower" like, eye pleasing plants that would increase your home value.

Now, I have not gotten my garden started, no box or mulch yet or seeds. Zone 4. Now what I should have planted at this time? Planning on tomatoes, cukes, pickles, green beans. Tried to grow peas but they were iffy and there was not enough pods growing and the insects get them before I do.

 

[AHappychick]

My whole front yard is plantings and fruit trees, it may not be pretty but I could care less about what the neighbors think

as a real estate agent I would say that a garden in the front of your property should not cahnge its value in any way. You can see a bit of it on my byc page, for me all I need is my back yard where my ds plays to be pretty with flowers but the rest is for being functual and the front of my yard is where I get the good sunlight

 

[frugal]

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You're welcome!

Last year I began to notice a dramatic increase in gardens around small town Vermont. It seems that people are less worried about what others think and more concerned with what they are eating.

I'm in Zone 4 also and have most of my seedlings growing. My peas will go in the ground around the first week of May.

 

[country lady]

That is not only awesome looking stock but also an awesome wood stove. Could you tell us about the stove? I really liked an old stove I had years ago. It was electric with a soup well.

I am going to make your stock since I buy a good whole chicken. I usually make a broth from the bony parts.

Enjoy your posts!

 

[frugal]

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Thanks for the kind words.

Here's my baby...

It's a Heartland Oval wood cookstove that you should be able to find at most any quality stove shop. Here's a pic of when I first installed it.

and with my thermosyphon hot water system it's cookin'!

I've installed a water jacket and a 42 gallon range boiler (storage tank) and my Heartland Oval wood cookstove is now heating all my hot water. In fact it will produce all the hot water I'll ever need as a by product of using the stove to cook my food and heat my home.

The installation is the same basic installation as found in Hot Water From Your Woodstove:

This is the most dependable method of heating hot water with a woodstove, although not necessarily the most efficient. A thermosyphon system relies on the idea that hot water naturally rises. This tendency moves the water from the storage tank to the stove and back. Because cold water is heavier than hot water, it falls to the bottom of the tank then into the waterjacket (where the fire heats it). Once the water is hotter (and therefore lighter), it rises back into the tank. This may also be called a “gravity-flow” or “convection” system.

If properly set up, thermosyphon systems work without any outside assistance from a pump or from the homeowner.

The lower pipe (on the left side of the stove) brings the cold water from the storage tank into the water jacket where it's super-heated and then flows out from the upper pipe (again on the left side of my stove) back into the top of my storage tank. When water is called for a mixing valve adds cold water to the hot and lowers the temperature to 118°.

Pressure and Temperature Relief Valves
I have 3 PTR valves installed in my system. They safely discharge underneath my kitchen if needed.

Water Temperature & Pressure Gauge
The water pressure coming into the house stays at a steady 15psi with the system being pressurized via gravity. In this picture the temperature is at 95° after being left unattended for 8 hours. During the course of a normal heating/cooking day the water temperature runs between 110° - 120°. With the temperature at 95° mid tank there was plenty of hot water for a long hot shower. I figure the temperature at the top of the tank is about 30° higher than mid tank.

Free hot water is very Frugal—I love it!

Did I mention...Free hot water is very Frugal—I love it!

I added a circulator to their standard installation because I have electricity.

You can see the circulator between the heat shield and the wall.
That's my wood cook stove set-up.

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