A rite of passage, kind of

[klwilliams]

Today I made my first chicken stock. It smells good, tastes good. As soon as it cools off some I'm going to put it in the refrigerator and wait for the fat to float to the top. I see soup making in my near future. I also bought cheesecloth for the first time in my life.

Right now I'm baking a sweet potato using the time-honored recipe of "wash 'em, grease 'em, stab 'em, bake 'em".

Comments

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Love feeling accomplished. I made my first beef stock from bones a couple months ago and felt...accomplished. And it was very tasty.

Cheesecloth doubled up and lining a metal colander nestled in a large old aluminum stockpot is how I strained my broth. It doesn't stay in that pot, since it's aluminum and I gather we're not supposed to use it, but it's just the right size for the job. Before I came up with that solution I made a lot of messes.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

That's more or less how I strained mine, too.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

But being smart you managed without all the "losing-the-broth-down-the-sink and having to clean out all the gunk from the sink as well" stages before getting good at it.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

If you ever find yourself short of cheesecloth, a paper towel or coffee filter works, too. Not as environmentally friendly, but handy in a pinch.

filtering

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

I use my Melitta coffee pot with paper filter for a number of uses that Melitta never thought of.