Chicken Broth

I've been making my own chicken broth lately; for some reason I feel very productive and healthy when I make it myself. :-) So, here's what I do:

I usually start with a whole chicken, my veggie scraps from the week (onion tops, celery tops, tomato peelings, etc.) plus any extra veggies I want, and a crockpot. I put everything in the crockpot and cover with cold water. If I remember, I put in vinegar (helps extract minerals) and soak for thirty minutes. I cook everything for 4-6 hours then debone the chicken. I keep the meat for a meal and place the chicken bones and fat back into the crockpot. I cook this for another 20 or so hours. I strain the broth into jars and place in the fridge. It's extremely easy to skim off fat once the broth has gotten cold. Usually I use some of the broth then freeze the rest either in bags or in ice cube trays. The veggies, bones, and fat that are left over are crumbled/crushed and fed to the dogs. Most of the bones just crumble to pieces after being cooked so long, although a few of the bigger bones are still too sharp and hard and have to be removed.

Why? My broth contains absolutely no MSG. Homemade broth is better, hands down, than store-bought broth. I love knowing all the wonderful nutrients (ha ha, makes me think of Nacho Libre) that are in the broth whenever I cook or make soup with it.

Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade

chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the

body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium,

phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the

broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like

chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive

supplements for arthritis and joint pain. From this site.

Another site has a lot of information about broth. Look on page 3 of the article to find a reason that serving meat with gravy may not be so bad after all. :-)

I think I'm going to buy a whole chicken from the co-op this month and see if the broth actually gels better (as some say it does) with a free-range chicken.

Fat, anyone?

The Weston A. Price Foundation website has lots of interesting information (I actually linked an article on children's health). The president of the foundation is also the author of Nourishing Traditions, one of my favorite cookbooks/information books.
Weston Price was a dentist who traveled worldwide and began trying to find connections between people groups who had the best health (and, amazingly, the best teeth). His findings are quite interesting.
Anyway, this article has an interesting story about an experiment done on lab rats. Scroll down the article to read it. From what the article says, three groups of rats were tested: one group was given normal rat food and water, another group was given Cornflakes and water, and the last group was given the box in which the Cornflakes came and water. Care to guess which group died first?? ;-)
That reminds me, I need to go put my oats on to soak. :-)
1 cup oats (oatmeal), 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons buttermilk---soak overnight at room temperature
In the morning, bring one cup of water to a boil, add oats, and cook for 10 minutes. Add butter, raisins, honey, blueberries, flax seed, or whatever suits your taste. :-)