Monday, September 29, 2014

How to make bone broth and yogurt: a helpful combination


   Today, I want to share how I make bone broth and yogurt in my kitchen. I have been making both of these for quite a while, and have found some techniques that have made the process easier. 


Bone Broth
Why bone broth? It is one of the healthiest substances you could consume. It is essential for healthy tissue and strong bones. Some of the healthiest cultures in the world consume broth daily. Store bought broth is not a substitute, it cannot even be compared to homemade broth in health or taste.

What do you need?
A crock pot
bones
filtered water

 Here is my pot with the bones in it. You can do any amount of bones, I always scrape any leftover juice or fat in from the cooking pan. I have a large crock pot and there are two carcasses in here(one duck, one chicken). This will make me about 4 quarts of stock. Stock can be made with any type of animals bones. The ones I like the best are chicken, pork, and beef.

What if I don't have many bones? Save them in a freezer bag till you have enough from several meals. Waste not, want not, right?

Cost of this- nothing but the energy to make it. You already ate the meat, and just added water. The product you will get is, amazing and delicious!


Cover bones as best you can about 1 inch over the bones. Using filtered water is preferred if you have town water. The chlorine can keep your stock from gelling.






Now turn on high. (If you are leaving for the day or think you might forget to turn it down, just put it on low.) Leave on high for about 2-3 hours. Then turn to low.





Yogurt, a cultured milk product good for your tummy and tasty too.

What do you need?
2-3 glass quart jars with lids
1/4 cup measuring device
yogurt starter
milk


This is the starter I like to use, and this is what I would recommend if you where to buy yogurt in the store for consumption. Carried by our local White Market store. You will quickly see how easy, and cheap it is to make your own. It costs about $5 to buy a quart of yogurt in the store.




Put 1/4 cup of starter in each jar. That's only .31 cents per quart.

The average gallon of whole milk costs $5.
$1.25 per quart of milk, with a grand total of....

 $1.56 per quart of yogurt!







Top off with milk* and stir. Put on the lids and your done.

*I have only made this with raw milk, but don't see why this wouldn't work with store bought. Of course, I can only recommend drinking/using raw milk, but I am a bit of a food snob :-)






The helpful combination: producing yogurt by indirect heat from your crock pot. This is what I do, and what it looks like. This is really important if using raw milk. You are keeping that delicate bacteria and structure of the milk the same and are allowing the new bacterial cultures to multiply.

It goes between the wall and the crock pot. Periodically I will turn the jars, maybe once or twice during the process, and yes, my crock pot is very dirty :-) 

Now all your stock and yogurt needs is time. This process is flexible to your lifestyle and time availability. I generally let both the yogurt and the stock go at least 12 hours It is possible the yogurt will not be ready until 14 hours. You can check the yogurt by turning the jar and see if it looks gelled. The stock can go as long as 24 hours(or longer).
 It's up to you and how strong a flavor you want from it. 


The results
 This yogurt probably could have gone slightly longer, it isn't a super thick yogurt, but the recipe always gels. Our favorite way to have yogurt is with berries in it. We like the small frozen blueberries you can get at the White Market. Make a great snack or breakfast. 


Look how beautiful this broth is! This broth was cooking for something like 32 hours. No need to go that long, but that is what worked with my schedule yesterday :-) 

I use a funnel, and ladle the stock into quart jars, cover and put in the fridge. It will keep at least a month. 

This is a wonderful health food and would be excellent warmed in a mug with some sea salt, you could add a little turmeric, or curry. It gives you the option for homemade gravy with any meal. Soup is my fast food around here. Saute your veggies till soft, add stock and bring to a boil, season to taste. 

If you don't want to make stock, you can still make yogurt this way, just put water in your crock pot and everything else is the same. 

These might seem time consuming, but they really only take several minutes of your time to make. The waiting is the hard part :-) 
Enjoy!

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