Liquid gold

[chowmama]

I don't know if it's just that fall is here (or coming, depending on the daily temperatures), but I'm 'turning over' the chest freezer contents, trying to use up the older stock. Turned out I had 2 full and one partial gallon bags of poultry scraps for soup.

So I thawed them. Sunday, I roasted them to get a little brown on them, then simmered them all day with celery tops (saving the parts you eat for, well, eating), some slightly old but not slimy carrots, a large onion and a handful of wilted but still good parsley. Turned out one of the bags held a roast chicken carcass that still had some garlic cloves in the cavity, so they ended up in there, too. Peppercorns, but no salt - I like to salt the final product instead. Sunday night I strained it, cooled it in the sink and stuck it in the fridge.

Today, I got the fat off the top and boiled 2 gallons of free soup into 1 gallon of concentrate, then canned it in pint jars. Each will dilute out into a quart.

I know people say "Well, when you figure in your work", but geez...I have 2 gallons of free soup in the pantry. Now I have to thaw a bunch of chicken drummies and have a Wing Ding. Maybe this weekend. Chinese sticky wings or fried? Barbecued? I haven't mastered the Buffalo wing yet and I don't know if I want to risk it.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I'd kill for space in my kitchen.

A 500 sq ft apt allows me NO ROOM for any of the items you mentioned. My sister and my mom have 2-3 freezers each. If I buy a can of soup I have to rearrange my entire kitchen. I use my oven for storage and I LOVE to cook. It sucks when I read posts like yours.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Same here, although slightly larger space. But I sold 90% of my kitchen

stuff when I sold my house. I don't even have a pot that can hold a gallon. I miss my 6 burner plus griddle, dual oven 5 Star range.

[Retrograde]

3. I use Alton Brown's process for wings

steam them first, then finish them in the oven. It reduces the fat - I find I don't like most deep-fried wings anymore (and I'm a Buffalo native!)

I agree about home-made stock: I make up a big batch roughly every 3 months and can it (since I have more shelf space than freezer space). It takes a whole day, but most of that is just keeping an eye on it when I happen to be in the kitchen.

[Easterncedar]

4. Never thought to can stock

I do love making my own. Just made some. The farmers market has great celery lately. I’ve been blanching and freezing it, tops included of course, for future soup. Canning the stock would save room in the freezer.

This time of year I always get an irresistible impulse to gather and store food for winter. Like a squirrel, I guess.

[Easterncedar]

5. Oh, about wings.

I’m from Niagara Falls, wing country. I bake them until a little crisp and then douse them in
Frank’s hot sauce. I don’t add the diluting butter the traditional recipe calls for, but do add extra heat when I’m making them for myself alone. Easy.

Also celery with blue cheese and sour cream dipping sauce is a must.

[AndyS]

6. "But if you figure in your labor . . . "

Yeah but if you figure in the flavor . . .

You can make a roux with vegetable oil or bacon fat. You can use home made stock or stuff out of a box. It's the subtle little complexities that nobody can quite pin down that make you known in the kitchen.

[Easterncedar]

7. Bay leaf!

Hard to say why, but I find stock is flat without it.