I use a lot of stock on a day to day basis. I usually create it by steaming chicken necks for the dogs. That way I get stock 'dribble' and the necks are sterilised so they keep longer.
Primarily I use the stock for my daily soup base by adding my speciality unami combo.
But with the passing of one dog and a new addition of another, my routine was shaken about because the new pet loves chewing hard bones.
If you are of the inclination, purchasing bones for dogs -- or for soup -- can be expensive. I guess you are paying for refrigeration and space.
So I've been on a bone hunt. I'm a pet palaeontologist.
You come home with big bones which will go off quickly if not eaten by the canines. Freezing is complicated by their penchant to fuse together. And nothing is worse than an old half chewed bone festering on the back doorstep attracting flies.
So I've been experimenting with my skeletal imports and have keenly taken up making my own bone broth.
What I do is roast any old bones in the oven until they brown. Newly purchased bones. Bones left over from our own meals. Bones donated by other family members.
Bones that used to go out in the trash now get roasted-- again, in some cases -- or even if they had been stewed or fried beforehand.
Then I pile them into the pressure cooker and cover dem bones with water.
Several hours later: Voila!.
Bone broths will cool to a glutinous gelatinous muck. Like jelly. Aspic.
But to get that you need to drain the stock and separate off any bones and meat.
Meat and collagen equals yummy dog food.
Many of the bones will dissolve into a fibrous pith that collapses in your fingers.It's like they've been nuked.
Bones like that maketh yummy tummy dog food.
Any of the cooked and still hard bones go out to the chook pen for picking over and slow break down. You could compost or them -- sort of -- as they are unlikely to attract vermin.
No waste.
(Or you can send them out in the garbage. But since there's no meat they are less prone to fly strike).
As for the bone broth... When I use it I then add the vegetable, herb and spice stuff. Although I do throw in a couple of whole onions and bake these unpeeled before boiling them up with the bones.
'Tis a Vietnamese Pho soup trick.
Bones aren't racist. ANY BONES can be combined in the one broth project. Chicken. Beef. Lamb. Poultry. Pig, Fish. What's leftover from Grandma's funeral...
Burn them corpses at 200C.
Then boil 'em.
Doing this without a pressure cooker seems a bit obsessive to me.
Bone broths taste great and keenly take on the favours you add to them. They are reduced, concentrated and gelatinous -- so bottled up they take up little space in the fridge or freezer.
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I've been thinking about my own stock. I've been too lazy up until now. Seems a shame to waste perfectly good produce though.
Yes. Use all of your dead birds leftover carcasses. Waste not.
Quail stock is a thing.