Last spring I bought a 23-quart Presto pressure cooker at the recommendation of Judy Laquidara. I have used it much more than I guessed I would! I am now in a routine of making turkey or chicken stock and canning it, and using it just about as fast as I can make it. I thought I'd tell you about how this helped this Thanksgiving.
We had a 20-pound bird which I roasted unstuffed this year. I rubbed herbed olive oil beneath the skin and roasted it breast side down and it came out very nice and moist. Barry carved it, doing a great job of boning most of the meat as he went, so after dinner, instead of having to face my usual after-dinner chore of boning the rest of the meat, that part was done for me. I emptied the roaster into my Presto pressure cooker. I have developed the habit of keeping a freezer bag handy in my freezer into which go all the vegetable scraps we produce - onion skins and root ends, carrot and parsnip tops, potato peelings, even apple cores and in this case a pineapple core. I dumped that bag into my pressure cooker, too, and then I filled the pressure canner with hot tap water to the maximum fill line. I cooked all that for an hour at about 15 pounds pressure, then let it cool down on the back porch. I drained off all the broth, threw out all the other stuff, chilled the broth further so that I could easily defat it, then canned the broth, again in the pressure canner, at 11 pounds pressure, 25 minutes (quart jars). I should probably can some pints because sometimes we don't need a whole quart of broth.
Extracting all possible flavor from the bones of the bird makes me feel thrifty. :o)
How many quarts of broth did you end up with? When I've opened a quart and didn't need it all, I just poured the extra into a plastic container and froze it, then used it when needed next time. There are so many times that broth is better than water and I sometimes forget and use water when I could be using broth.
ReplyDeleteI ended up with 10 quarts, plus a nice tall mugfull that I reheated in the microwave and just drank.
ReplyDeleteI used to freeze all our broth but found I didn't use it because by the time I decided to use it, I didn't want to wait for it to thaw. It was you who inspired me to start canning it instead.