Canning Your Own Chicken Stock

Most commercial chicken stock on the market now is sold in those aseptic boxes rather than cans.  As such, commercial chicken stock doesn't have a great shelf life--two years in the best of cases.  However, there is the advantage of possibly being the better choice in earthquake country since there is no glass to break.
If you want to make your own however, because you don't live in earthquake country, or you think being able to control what exactly goes into your stock is important, here's a recipe for you. It's really pretty quick and simple, yet so nice to have to get meals together quickly. 

Homemade Chicken Stock
about 3.5 lbs raw chicken, cut into pieces
16 cups water
2 stalks celery
1 carrot
2 medium onions, quartered
1 tablespoon salt, optional*
8 peppercorns
2 bay leaves


Directions
In a large stock pot, bring all ingredients to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 2-3 hours, or until chicken is tender.  Remove from heat.

Remove all the solids by straining through a sieve or cheesecloth.  Set the meat and bones aside for another use.  Put the stock in the refrigerator until the fat solidifies, about two hours, and remove it.

To prepare for canning, heat the chicken stock to a boil.  And in the meantime prepare your pressure canner, jars, and lids as usual.

Pour the boiling chicken stock into hot jars, leaving one inch of headspace, apply lids and bands, and process:  20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts, at 10 pounds pressure and adjusting for your altitude per your pressure canner's directions.

Yield:  8 pints.

*In this recipe, as in most canning recipes, the salt is optional.  In canning, salt is not a preservative and it is not going to affect the pH.  It is for flavor only.  If you or someone you are preparing this food for is on a low-sodium diet, you can omit the salt and let individuals salt their food at mealtime.

As for the chicken you used to make the stock, you can use it to make dinner.  Casseroles, chicken salad sandwiches, and Hawaiian haystacks are good choices.  You can also dehydrate it to turn it into chicken bouillon.  

Don't throw away the chicken fat!  Like bacon fat, it can be used to saute vegetables and season savory dishes.   If nothing else, drizzle it over pet food.

If you don't have a cat, just toss the bones.  However, if you do have a cat, pressure canned chicken bones work well as an emergency cat food that we have resorted to several times when our daughters failed to tell us that we needed to re-stock the cat kibble.  Directions for this are at the link below.


Links to related posts:
DIY Chicken bouillon
Pressure canning chicken (and bones for the cats)

For further reading:
https://www.freshpreserving.com/chicken-stock---pressure-canning---ball-recipes-br1070.html
https://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/why-you-should-never-throw-away-chicken-fat-0160956/
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/caution-when-using-chicken-fat-for-cooking/
https://www.thekitchn.com/good-question-what-to-do-with-1-66534

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com

The Importance of Being Able To Alter Recipes

Another skill that will become important down the road is the ability to alter recipes.  Right now, I plan for leftovers.  I love leftovers, whether it's being able to have an easy lunch the next day, or making a double batch of lasagna for dinner so that one can be frozen for use later in the month.  But as the reality hit me a few years back, I realized the electricity may not be around forever, or it may not be reliable enough for safe food refrigeration.  I would need to be able to prepare just enough food for the upcoming meal so that leftovers wouldn't spoil and waste precious food.  I'm really going to miss that someday.

That means I'm going to have to be able to alter most of my family's favorite recipes.  It's something we all go through to some extent as children grow and then strike out on their own. When the children were younger and our family was growing, it was easy to simply double a recipe to feed everyone.  But scaling down has different challenges.  How to you go from one egg to one half?  Or what if you have to reduce a recipe to make one or two loaves instead of three?  That's a bit more math than is sometimes easily done in the head.  Well, it was easier when I was younger.

Even if all the ingredients are bulk, reducing the amounts called for can be a challenge.  But when you need to go from one full can to one-half or one-third of a can, that can mean some serious waste.  However, if the canned goods can be replaced with dehydrated or freeze-dried ingredients, the waste is eliminated.

For example:

Instead of doing what I should have been doing one day, I was surfing the web and somehow stumbled upon a recipe for Southwestern Wheat Bread.  I tweaked it a little bit, and it turned out great.  The family all enjoyed the change of pace.  The original-but-adapted-a-little-bit recipe is below.

Southwestern Wheat Bread
1 3/4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/2 cup cornmeal
4 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups white flour
2 tablespoons oil1 tablespoon salt
1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
1 can (4 oz) chopped olives, drained
1 can (15 oz) corn, drained
1 large onion, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, optional


Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Stir in remaining ingredients and knead ten minutes, adding more flour if necessary.  Let rise one hour in a warm location.  Punch down dough, divide into three pieces, and form three loaves.  Place in greased 4x8" loaf pans and let rise again.  Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes, or until done.

Comments:  The only thing I didn't really like is that it makes three loaves.  It's fine when life is all hunky-dorry and the bread can be frozen for later.  We all really like fresh homemade bread around here, and we like a change of pace, but three loaves of most anything but sandwich bread is a little much to go through.  Unfortunately, when refrigeration is limited down the road, opening cans of green chilies, olives, and corn to use only a third of each to make one loaf of bread isn't going to work well, either.

But there is a workaround, and that is dehydrating the vegetables.  Now I already buy dehydrated onions.  They're easy enough to do at home, but the smell is pretty potent and it's so cheap to buy them at the Home Storage Center.  So that leaves the chilies, jalapenos, olives, and corn.  Frozen corn is super easy to dehydrate.  Buy frozen corn, dump on dehydrator tray, return in 8-12 hours, cool, and package for longer term storage.  With olives, just open the can, drain well, spread them on the dehydrator tray, and check them after 5-6 hours.  Green chilies and jalapenos can be done the same way, or you can pick them fresh from the garden and then dehydrate them.  And this way, it's so much easier to measure out just what is needed for making one loaf of bread.

Southwestern Wheat Bread using dehydrated vegetables

3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons cornmeal
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups white flour
2 teaspoons oil1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dehydrated diced green chilies
1 tablespoon dehydrated chopped olives
3 tablespoons dehydrated corn
2 tablespoons dehydrated onions
1 teaspoon dehydrated chopped jalapenos
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese, optional

Rehydrate the dehydrated vegetables in warm water for 30-45 minutes before beginning to make the bread.  After the vegetables have rehydrated, add the yeast and sugar.  Stir in remaining ingredients and knead ten minutes, adding more flour if necessary.  Let rise one hour in a warm location.  Punch down dough and form into a loaf.  Place in a greased 4x8" loaf pan and let rise again.  Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes, or until done.

Links to related posts:
Quick and Dirty Dehydrating
Home Storage Centers  

For further reading:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-scale-a-recipe-995827
https://www.cookkeepbook.com/how-to-duplicate-scale-recipes
https://mykitchencalculator.com/
https://skillet.lifehacker.com/divide-multiply-or-adapt-any-recipe-in-one-click-with-1730632423

 © 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

1.14.23

Patriots--675; Redskins--0. The Medicinal Use of Lomatium

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on an item you might wish to have available if needed so that a physician can treat you and your family as best as possible.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care.  A qualified, licensed physician or other medical provider should be consulted before beginning any herbal or conventional treatment.


Patriots--675; Redskins--0.  That looks like the scoreboard for one heck of a football game.  And if that were actually the case, I sure wouldn't want to be the Redskins.  Fortunately for the Redskins, it never happened, but something kind of like it did.

Let's change the team names to Other Americans and Washoe Indians.  And while we're at it, let's multiply each side's score by 1,000, so the Other Americans have 675,000 points and the Washoe Indians (still) have 0.  And for good measure, let's change the name of the game from football to life.  That looks like the scoreboard for most of American history, doesn't it?  The whites usually won.

But not always, and in this game, the low score is the winner.  So this time, the Washoe Indians absolutely killed it.

The game edition was influenza.  The years 1918-1920.  The Washoe Indians were living in poverty on the reservations allocated to them.  They lacked money for trained doctors and medical care.  They definitely lacked good nutrition at times.

And yet, they lost not a single person to influenza.  The rest of America, with all their advantages, lost 675,000.  What did the Washoe Indians know?

They knew lomatium.

The Washoe Indians used Lomatium dissectum, commonly known as fernleaf biscuit root, a species indigenous to the Great Basin of North America.  It is also called desert parsley.  Other species, including Lomatium ambiguum, L. bicolor, L. cous, L. foeniculaceum, L. grayi, L. macrocarpum, L. nudicaule, L. orientale, L. simplex, and L. triternatum, can be used identically.

When local doctor Ernst Krebs noticed that the Indians, with all the strikes they had against them, were not dying of influenza, but the whites, with all their advantages were regularly succumbing, he went to the Indians for help.  And they taught him how to use lomatium.  With that little bit of knowledge, even the patients he felt were beyond hope fully recovered.

Parts used.  Most herbalists use just the roots, but the seeds are actually more powerful. 

Time to harvest.  The roots can be harvested at any time of year.  However, it is easier to identify the plants in the spring and easier to dig them after a good spring rain.  The root must be strongly aromatic, bitter, and oily if it is to be used as an antiviral.  Roots from younger plants are not as medicinal as roots from older plants.  However, the seeds are medicinal no matter how old the plant is.  Keep in mind that if the root tastes good, it's good for food, but not medicine.  And younger roots are more likely to taste better.  Dry the roots for just a few days and then cut them up.  Once dried and well sealed in the dark, they will last several years.

PREPARATION OPTIONS

• Tincture
• fresh root or seeds 1:2 herb to alcohol.  Chop the wilted root as finely as possible.  Add alcohol/water--70% grain alcohol, 30% water.  Let macerate (soak) in cool dark place for 2 weeks.  
• dried root powder, 1:5 herb to alcohol/water.  Then same as above.
• dried seeds, 1:3 herb to alcohol ratio, 50% alcohol.
• dosage is 10-30 drops up to 4-5x per day.  In acute conditions, 10-30 drops per hour.
• Infusion
• This is what the Washoe Indians used.  It worked pretty well for them, just going by the numbers.  The problem is being able to find the root when you need it, especially if you don't know what it looks like in the winter, under the snow.  That's why you want a tincture on hand, just in case.
• Use 1 teaspoon powder in 6 ounces boiling water.  Cover and let steep 10-15 minutes.  Use 3-4 times per day, or more often in acute conditions.
• The above is what herbalist Stephen Buhner recommends.  The following is how the Washoe Indians actually used it.
• Peel one pound of lomatium root.  Boil it in water (no mention as to how long) and skim the oil off the top.  A large dose of the broth was given to those afflicted with the flu over the course of three days.  Within a week, each patient was completely recovered. 
• Wound powder
• Use in conjunction with other herbs, like Usnea, juniper leaf, Oregon grape root, and echinacea root or seed, in equal amounts, to make a powder for treating wounds, diaper rash, and athlete's foot.  
• Cough syrups
• Lomatium is often combined with several other herbs to produce a very effective cough syrup.  According to Ernst Krebs, this cough syrup was more effective than the opiates in use at the time and the effects lasted longer.

The Washoe Indians also used lomatium for treating rheumatism, arthritis, the common cold, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. 

For those who do not have lomatium growing locally (it's only found west of the Mississippi), lomatium is pretty widely available in commercial preparations online.

Contraindications.  Not for use by pregnant women.

Side effects:  About 1 percent of people who use Lomatium dissectum will develop a significant allergic rash.  (Other species do not cause the rash.)  This occurs only with the fresh root tincture, and only if it is taken alone, rather than in conjunction with other herbs.  There is no itching or discomfort with this rash, but it looks bad.  The rash begins within eight hours of taking the tincture.  It covers the whole body and is deep red to purple.  Nothing will make this rash go away, except time, about a week.  To avoid the rash, use the dried root for making your tinctures. 


Links to related posts:
Book review--Herbal Antibiotics
Book review--Herbal Antivirals
Usnea
Juniper
Berberines
Echinacea

For further reading:
https://med.unr.edu/Documents/unsom/history/greasewood-tablettes/gwt-summer-2012.pdf
Herbal Antibiotics, p 373


© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

10.16.23

Magic Mix Soups: Creamy Chicken Noodle and Cheesy Potato and Broccoli

Magic Mix is really pretty versatile stuff.  We've already covered how it makes a fabulous substitute for cream of whatever in a can.  (Actually, I think it's way better, so it's not fair to call it a substitute.  That suggests it's not as good as the original.)  However, you can also just skip the part of making the soup substitute and go straight to making a creamy soup.  And you can do it really quickly.   

Cheesy Potato and Broccoli Soup

1 cup Magic Mix
2 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup sour cream
2-3 baked potatoes, diced
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
1 teaspoon salt
Garnishes--bacon bits, green onions, additional shredded cheese

Combine Magic Mix and water in saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.  Stir in remaining ingredients and heat through.  Ladle into soup bowls and garnish, if desired.

Family reviews:  Husband thought it was a bit on the rich side.  I loved it and had seconds.  And I really loved that it was very quick to make.  The kids weren't around to try it.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

8 cups water, divided
3/4 cup Magic Mix
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon
1 pint canned chicken
2 cups sliced fresh carrots (or 1 cup dehydrated + 1 1/2 cups water)
2 cups chopped celery (or 3/4 cup dehydrated + 1 1/2 cups water)
3/4 cup chopped onion (or 3 tablespoons dehydrated + 2/3 cup water)
4 cups uncooked noodles

In a large pot over medium-low, whisk Magic Mix into 2 cups water until smooth, stirring until thickened.  Add remaining water, bouillon, chicken, vegetables, and noodles.  Cook until vegetables are tender.

Links to related posts:
Dry Milk
Magic Mix 
Banana Cream Pie with Magic Mix
Magic Mix Beef Stroganoff and Cheeseburger Mac
Magic Mix Fudgesicles
Coconut Oil for Butter in Magic Mix 

 © 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com

Pressure Canning Beef

Last month I provided a review of and links for the latest (2015) USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning.  I thought my edition was the next most recent, from 2009, but as I looked at it this morning I saw it was from 1994.  (!!!)  And I also was reminded, by means of a little sticker on back, that it was free from my state cooperative extension office. So if you have yet to obtain your own hard copy, and if your state or local office is close, you might see whether they have copies already printed and free for the taking.
Anyway, there have been a few changes from previous editions, and some of these changes involve the canning of beef.

While the directions for preparing beef using the hot pack method have not changed, things are a little bit different for the raw pack method, which I have always favored.  As has been my experience, and as the Guide notes, "[t]he natural amount of fat and juices in today’s leaner meat cuts are usually not enough to cover most of the meat in raw packs."  If using the raw pack method, which is still safe and acceptable, the meat at the top of the jar may not be covered by the meat juices.  As such, it's going to turn dark and may appear less appetizing.  Some may think it has spoiled and is unsafe to eat.  And that may be reason enough to start using the hot pack method.  It's certainly something worth considering.


For both raw pack and hot pack methods, fill jars with strips or cubes of beef to one inch below the rim of the jar and add salt--one teaspoon per quart, one-half teaspoon per pint.

• For raw pack, do not add any liquid.  Liquid is never added when canning raw meats.  The meat produces its own juices.  
• For hot pack, add boiling water, meat broth, or tomato juice.

For both methods, wipe rim of jars very carefully with vinegar.  Most say to just use hot water, but when dealing with foods that may have fat on them, vinegar will cut that fat and make for a better seal.  Put on lids and bands and process per instructions for your particular canner and your altitude and jar size.  Pints are processed for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes; the variations in the processing directions are for the amount of pressure necessary depending on your style of pressure canner and your altitude. 

That's all there is to it.

When times get really interesting, and when cooking fuel becomes expensive either in terms of money or of time spent gathering, and time for preparing food becomes even more scarce than it already is, being able to preserve foods and having those foods ready to eat will be really invaluable. 

And even more invaluable will be having learned how to do this before the crisis hits.

Links to related posts:
Canning Hamburger
Canning Bacon 
Canning Chicken
Canning Ham
Canning Pork   
The Complete Guide to Home Canning review

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com