“A good broth will resurrect the dead.” A South American proverb.

“Indeed, stock is everything in cooking. Without it, nothing can be done.” French chef, Auguste Escoffier 1846-1935.

“Soup is a healthy, light, nourishing food good for all of humanity; it pleases the stomach, stimulates the appetite and prepares the digestion.” Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1755-1826, famed epicure and gastronome.

“Make thy food medicine and thy medicine food.” Hippocrates.

It is now cold and flu season and nothing tastes better or feels so comforting as a bowl of soup.  Homemade soups are just the thing, too, for cold, snowy days.  Served with crunchy whole grain bread or crackers.  Not only is homemade soup delicious but it is also good for you. On the Mayo Clinic’s list of cold remedies that work– “Chicken soup may be soothing because of its possible anti-inflammatory and mucus-thinning effects.”

But I’m talking homemade soups made with real homemade broth from bones, the foundation of a good healthy soup.   Canned broths are okay in a pinch, perhaps when you have the flu or a bad cold and just want to get something hot and tasty into your stomach.  However, canned broths are loaded with sodium.  Even the low-sodium varieties are not as good for you as homemade.  The whole factory canning process removes nutrients and then artificial ones have to be added back in, not to mention the cost. It’s so much better to make your own and keep it in the freezer.  I just use the zip bags or if you have a Food Saver®, first freeze in a container.  Then put the block of frozen broth in a plastic bag and seal.  Label and date and toss back in the freezer.

Therefore, the thing to do is to learn how to make stock yourself and freeze it for later use.  I know it sounds time-consuming, but while the stock is simmering away you can be doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, shoveling snow or playing with the grandkids.  I know, you work and finding time to cook is so hard.  Yet, let me tell you, for this it is worth making the time or use a crock-pot to make your stock while at work.  The house fills with amazing aromas.  You know what good, healthy things you put into the soup stock and your family will love it.  No one in my house will even eat canned soups anymore.

Plus, making your own stocks and broths is so economical. Making your own stock costs just the pennies it takes to heat up your pan, especially when you use leftover bones and scraps from vegetables according to Jenny at Nourished Kitchen.  In these hard times, any place you can save money is a good thing.  Especially with the traditional holidays coming up.  Save your turkey carcass, your beef bones and ham bone in the freezer.  Then use them to make your soup base.  First of all, the bones and marrow add calcium and other minerals to your broth.  I always save the bones from a whole chicken, even the ones I buy already cooked from the store.  You’d be surprised how much meat you can still get off an already stripped carcass.

Sometimes a local butcher will give away “doggie bones” for free or check your local market for inexpensive ones to buy–chicken, turkey, veal, beef, ham and pork are great choices.

Other good nutrients from bone according to Jenny Stewart of Nourished Kitchen:

• Gelatin–natural gelatin from the bones adds protein to your broth or stock.  Gelatin is good for your hair and nails as well as your joints.  It also helps the lining of your intestines.  The use of gelatin as a therapeutic agent dates back to the ancient Chinese.  Hooves, feet and heads are the most gelatinous part of an animal, often why calves’ or pigs’ feet are used in making stock.
• In addition to calcium, your broth will contain magnesium, phosphorus and other trace minerals that are more easily used by your body.  (To get these nutrients add a little cider vinegar to the broth.  The acid helps to leach them from the bones which may be why so many cooks add tomatoes to their beef soups.)
• Broth made from bones contains chondroitin and glucosamine.  Great for healthy joints too.

What are the health benefits of making your own stock?  Here’s a list from kitchen steward, Katie Kimball:

• Boosts immune system
• Aids digestion
• Increases efficiency of protein use
• Provides easily digestible minerals, including calcium
• Can improve symptoms of: joint pain, common cold, peptic ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, muscle diseases, infectious diseases, jaundice, cancer, food allergies, colic, maldigestion, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, pain and inflammation, cramps, muscle spasms, delusions, depression, insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, anxiety, palpitations, hypertension, high cholesterol, allergies.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop also touts the health benefits of making your own stocks for homemade soups. All three writers emphasize it is the bones that add the nutrients to your stock or broth.

Stock or broth begins with bones, some pieces of meat and fat, vegetables and
good water. For beef and lamb broth, the meat is browned in a hot oven to form
compounds that give flavor and color–the result of a fusion of amino acids with
sugars, called the Maillard reaction. Then all goes in the pot–meat, bones,
vegetables and water. The water should be cold, because slow heating helps bring
out flavors. Add vinegar to the broth to help extract calcium.

Heat the broth slowly and once the boil begins, reduce heat to its lowest
point, so the broth just barely simmers. Scum will rise to the surface. In the scum are impurities, alkaloids, large proteins called lectins.One of the basic principles of the culinary art is that this  should be carefully removed with a spoon. Otherwise the broth will be ruined by strange flavors.

Two hours simmering is enough to extract flavors and gelatin from fish broth.
Larger animals take longer–all day for broth made from chicken, turkey or duck
and overnight for beef broth.

Broth should then be strained. The leavings, picked over, can be used for
terrines or tacos or casseroles. Perfectionists will want to chill the broth to
remove the fat. Stock will keep several days in the refrigerator or may be
frozen in plastic containers. Boiled down it concentrates and becomes a
jellylike fumée or demi-glaze that can be reconstituted into a sauce by adding
water.

Recipes (from Sally Fallon Morrell at Weston A. Price Foundation)

Chicken Stock

1 whole free-range chicken* or 2 to 3 pounds of bony chicken parts, such as
necks, backs, breastbones and wings
gizzards from one chicken
(optional)
2-4 chicken feet (optional)
4 quarts cold filtered water
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and
coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 bunch parsley

*Note: Farm-raised, free-range chickens give the best results. Many
battery-raised chickens will not produce stock that gels.

If you are using a whole chicken, cut off the wings and remove the neck, fat
glands and the gizzards from the cavity. Cut chicken parts into several pieces.
(If you are using a whole chicken, remove the neck and wings and cut them into
several pieces.) Place chicken or chicken pieces in a large stainless steel pot
with water, vinegar and all vegetables except parsley. Let stand 30 minutes to 1
hour. Bring to a boil, and remove scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat, cover
and simmer for 6 to 8 hours. The longer you cook the stock, the richer and more
flavorful it will be. About 10 minutes before finishing the stock, add parsley.
This will impart additional mineral ions to the broth.

Remove whole chicken or pieces with a slotted spoon. If you are using a whole
chicken, let cool and remove chicken meat from the carcass. Reserve for other
uses, such as chicken salads, enchiladas, sandwiches or curries. Strain the
stock into a large bowl and reserve in your refrigerator until the fat rises to
the top and congeals. Skim off this fat and reserve the stock in covered
containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

Beef Stock

about 4 pounds beef marrow and knuckle bones
1 calves foot, cut into pieces (optional)
3 pounds meaty rib or neck bones
4 or more quarts cold filtered water
1/2 cup vinegar
3 onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots,
coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
several sprigs of fresh thyme, tied together
1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed
l bunch parsley

Place the knuckle and marrow bones and optional calves foot in a very large
pot with vinegar and cover with water. Let stand for one hour. Meanwhile, place
the meaty bones in a roasting pan and brown at 350 degrees in the oven. When
well browned, add to the pot along with the vegetables. Pour the fat out of the
roasting pan, add cold water to the pan, set over a high flame and bring to a
boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen up coagulated juices. Add this
liquid to the pot. Add additional water, if necessary, to cover the bones; but
the liquid should come no higher than within one inch of the rim of the pot, as
the volume expands slightly during cooking. Bring to a boil. A large amount of
scum will come to the top, and it is important to remove this with a spoon.
After you have skimmed, reduce heat and add the thyme and crushed
peppercorns.

Simmer stock for at least 12 and as long as 72 hours. Just before finishing,
add the parsley and simmer another 10 minutes. You will now have a pot of rather
repulsive-looking brown liquid containing globs of gelatinous and fatty
material. It doesn’t even smell particularly good. But don’t despair. After
straining you will have a delicious and nourishing clear broth that forms the
basis for many other recipes in this book.

Remove bones with tongs or a slotted spoon. Strain the stock into a large
bowl. Let cool in the refrigerator and remove the congealed fat that rises to
the top. Transfer to smaller containers and to the freezer for long-term
storage.

Fish Stock

3 or 4 whole carcasses, including heads, of non-oily fish such as sole,
turbot, rock fish or snapper
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, coarsely
chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
several sprigs fresh thyme
several
sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry white wine or vermouth
1/4 cup
vinegar
about 3 quarts cold filtered water

Ideally, fish stock is made from the bones of sole or turbot. In Europe, you
can buy these fish on the bone. The fish monger skins and filets the fish for
you, giving you the filets for your evening meal and the bones for making the
stock and final sauce. Unfortunately, in America sole arrives at the fish market
preboned. But snapper, rock fish and other non-oily fish work equally well; and
a good fish merchant will save the carcasses for you if you ask him. As he
normally throws these carcasses away, he shouldn’t charge you for them. Be sure
to take the heads as well as the body—these are especially rich in iodine and
fat-soluble vitamins. Classic cooking texts advise against using oily fish such
as salmon for making broth, probably because highly unsaturated fish oils become
rancid during the long cooking process.

Melt butter in a large stainless steel pot. Add the vegetables and cook very
gently, about 1/2 hour, until they are soft. Add wine and bring to a boil. Add
the fish carcasses and cover with cold, filtered water. Add vinegar. Bring to a
boil and skim off the scum and impurities as they rise to the top. Tie herbs
together and add to the pot. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for at least 4 hours
or as long as 24 hours. Remove carcasses with tongs or a slotted spoon and
strain the liquid into pint-sized storage containers for refrigerator or
freezer. Chill well in the refrigerator and remove any congealed fat before
transferring to the freezer for long-term storage.

Please leave a comment.  What homemade soups do you like to make?