Chicken Broth as a Sign of What's Wrong with the World

It seems quite sadistic to write about making chicken broth after we've written so many posts about hatching baby chicks. Still, this is the farm, where life comes and goes and where cute fuzzy babies eventually grow up and become someone's dinner.

Anyway, my problem with chicken broth started yesterday when I realized that I had the remains of a roasted bird in the fridge that needed to be dealt with in one way or another. I decided stock was the way to go, but I'd never actually made broth before. I had a vague notion that it involved covering a chicken carcass and some vegetables with water and boiling the whole thing until it magically transformed into soup. Still, I thought I would see what Martha Stewart had to say about the subject, since she is my go to mentor for complicated-recipes-I-want-to-make-despite-my-better -judgment.

However, Martha's chicken broth, astounded me, not with its inclusion of one and a half pounds of chicken "backs", but with it's specification for 12 cups of canned chicken broth. I've included the link here, if you don't believe me.

Why would you endeavor to make homemade broth if you were in possession of twelve cups of the canned variety? I know, I know . . . I'm sure stock made with stock is one heck of a potent brew, but surely it's completely counter to the point of broth.

For eons, people have simmered the bony remains of their dinners, drawing out the last traces of nutrients from the inedible gristle of a carcass. Isn't broth a sort of culinary alchemy? A something from almost-nothing that's sustained countless cave people and frugal housewives? Making broth from broth seems about as wasteful as buying a new dress only to rip the seams and sew yourself a new one. Perhaps you would make one heck of a gown, but wouldn't it have been more ultimately satisfying to pull a Scarlet and use the curtains?

I rejected Martha's recipe with disgust, opting instead to rely on intuition and the ghosts of several food network shows that had been imbued into my brain. Here's my broth recipe:

Ingredients:

• One chicken carcass (having some meat still attached is good)
• Two carrots hacked into barbarically uneven chunks
• Three stalks of celery, cut up (if you have any stalks with leaves, throw them in too)
• One onion, peeled and quartered
• Some herbs (fresh parsley, springs of rosemary and thyme, whatever you have)

Throw everything in a pot, add water to cover and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for three hours or until everything falls apart and it tastes good. Skim off any nasty foamy stuff as it boils and add salt to taste. Separate out the chicken and veggies, strain the broth through a fine sieve (or a tea strainer, whatever) and add any chicken meat back to the broth.

Here's the chicken and escarole soup I eventually made with my broth. With some buttered french bread it was even good enough for Martha.



Love,
Wilful