Broth

UPDATE below

One of the main things we eat differently now is chicken. Since we raised our own meat birds we started eating the whole bird instead of just the breast from the store. I was giving my carcasses to a friend for her broth since I thought I didn't use enough broth, heck I don't think I bought any broth for many many years. Then I started actually cooking! So I started saving our bones and decided to try making some broth. I should've done it much sooner! It is so simple and tastes so delicious!!!

I had a really bad stomach ache one day when my parents were here. I'm talking I was laying flat out on the couch and couldn't move kind of ache. My mom made me some homemade soup from the chicken broth and within 30 minutes I was up and walking around again! About a week later I was feeling that same pain coming on so I made myself a bowl of broth and the pain never got worse that day. I had no idea plain broth was so tasty!

To make it, all I do is cut up some celery and onion, enough to cover the bottom of the crockpot, put in 2 carcasses, and cover with water. Then cook on low for about 12 hours. I then strain the broth and put it in mason jars. The first batch I just put in the fridge. The batch I have going right now though I'm going to actually process in my pressure canner so I can keep it on a shelf. I'm also going to use pint jars instead of quart because while I do use broth now, we don't go through it that quick and the last little bit I had in an open quart jar went moldy on me.

UPDATE:
I pulled out my other 2 quart jars of broth from the garage fridge and both had gone moldy. :( Glad I decided to process these. I hate throwing away the celery and onions, it seems like such a waste. I could give it to the chickens but that seems like too much hassle to get it separated from the bones for them. Sorry chickens I'm too lazy for that. So this time I decided to make some chicken noodle soup for DD with them. I did strain out all the bone and yucky parts for her.  I didn't look up any recipes so this is an experiment! I layered some gf pasta on the bottom of the jars, then the celery, onions, and chicken from the broth, some cut up carrots, then broth. I also did 3 jars of just broth.
I looked in my ball canning book for processing time and saw for their broth they said to let it cool and skim the fat off. Oh well, I missed that step. We'll see if it matters.

UPDATE: the broth didn't seal. I think it was because of the lids I was using. They were old ones I found at an estate sale. It didn't really matter though because I tried making red beans and rice that night (I'll post about that experience soon) and needed 6 cups of broth for it. The chicken noodle soup looked good though. The noodles expanded and looked cooked. Luckily those jars were using new lids. DD tried a jar last night and said it was good, only the broth was left when I looked. She did say it needed salt though so next time I'll add some seasoning to it. I love that she can have gluten free chicken noodle soup without all the sodium and added stuff.