Summer 2018 Favorites

New, trending product: Bone Broth

Cooks work hard to create stocks and broths. (See “What to do with a Deli Bird")  When family offers to clean up after dinner, I always say, “Never throw away the juice!” If there’s any liquid left over from cooking, it needs to be saved.  It almost always has flavor and nutrition that can be added to tomorrow’s recipe.  You can even pour this juice over ice and drink it!

Most commercial stocks don’t cut the mustard.  Too thin, too much seasoning, too little nutrition and genuine flavor.  “Better than Bullion” pastes-in-a-jar are better than the typical can or box of chicken broth, at least for flavor.

Now there’s Bone Broth.  It is a fad right now among the health foodies.  You’re encouraged to drink a cup in the morning instead of coffee, because a cup has 10G of protein.  There are claims it will help your skin, nails, joints/bones and hair because of the collagen, and that does make sense.

But what a great addition to recipes!  This is the exciting promise of bone broth.

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What is Bone Broth?

Poultry bones or beef bones are simmered at low heat over many hours to coax every bit of collagen and into the liquid.  

Bone broth has a slightly thick, gelatinous feel, thicker than broth or stock.  The flavor is rich and savory, and tastes almost as good as homemade stock, and is available at the more high-end grocery stores like Publix.  (Listening, Ingles?)
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Uses that I have tested:

Rice—When cooking rice, use half Bone Broth and half water.  Rice becomes remarkably tastier with bone broth, it has a nice richness. Next, I’m going to try it with Risotto.  Of everything I tested, bone broth improves rice the most dramatically.  

Ramen—instead of water, use bone broth and you’ve bumped up the nutrition of a humble bag of noodles by quite a bit. I still use the flavor packet, but then, I’ve never accepted the bad press of MSG. Drink every drop. 

Gravy and velouté sauces—so much better than ordinary commercial broth

Grits—Use a mix of equal parts bone broth, whole milk and water to make very smooth and creamy grits.  Use “Hagood Mill” stone-ground white grits.

Braising meats, pot roasts—bumps up the flavor,  makes for a richer, smoother gravy

Pasta—have not tried this yet, haven’t figured out how to do it economically, as these bone broths are expensive, and pasta water is discarded.  But adding a splash to spaghetti sauce or Alfredo is recommended.  
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Any time you add liquid to a recipe is a potential use for bone broth.  But when you have leftover “juice”—don’t throw it away!
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