Taking Stock

Or rather, making stock. I have made our stocks since forever (chicken, vegetable & beef & sometimes seafood). I save up cut off pieces of all the vegetables I use. I put them in a plastic bag & add to them until the door to our freezer is bulging & husband starts to complain that it will hardly close. I then will put them in a large stock pot & boil/simmer for several hours. If I have chicken bones, beef bones or shells from lobster or shrimp, I will add to the vegetables to make that appropriate stock. I then strain through a sieve & then again through a very thin cloth.

I used to freeze all that stock by putting in plastic containers or ice cube trays. But, that takes up a whole bunch of room in the freezer as well.

So, recently I had enough vegetables amassed to make it again. But, I still had a couple of containers in the freezer & didn't want to freeze this time, I wanted to can it! As some of you know, I have been looking to purchase a pressure canner. Well, I finally broke down & bought one!

It's an All American, the 921 model. Isn't she pretty? Expensive, so she better be pretty & she better work. But, I think the investment will be worth it, if for nothing but my piece of mind of a very sturdy piece of equipment. Plus, it's made in America!

We had a roasted chicken on Satuday night so I decided to make chicken stock. I got up Sunday morning & put everything on. While I was taking the vegetables out of the freezer I noticed a baggie full of london broil clippings I had saved the last time we made beef jerky. So, I decided to also made beef stock as well. I had two large pots of chicken stock & one large pot of beef stock. I let them all boil/simmer for about three hours. I strained them & put them back on to bring back up to simmer.

I had washed my jars & had them keeping warm & the lids were keeping warm in a pan on the stove. Everything was ready, I had read the directions at least 100 times. I was a nervous wreck!

So, I filled my jars & put them in the canner. Then I read the directions again. Started the canner & read the directions again. While it was heating up to be able to let it vent, before actually starting the pressure canning, I read the directions again. When it came time to put on the pressure gauge, I wasn't sure I could do it, I was still a nervous wreck. But, I got my courage up & put the gauge on. While waiting for it to come up to pressure, I read the directions again. I so wanted to make sure I hadn't missed a step! After the gauge started rattling I turned down the flame to low & kept an eye on it like a hawk. I had my stop watch to make sure it kept rattling every 1-4 times per minute, just like the directions said.

After 30 minutes I turned it off & waited about 20 minutes for the pressure to come down to 0, like the directions said. I was again nervous (actaully had never stopped being nervous) when it came time to remove the lid & inspect what was inside. Here's my bounty!

 

 

16 pints of chicken stock (only 1 didn't seal, I think I forgot to wipe the ring before placing the lid on that one). We have hard well water here in the city so I always get that film on the jars & lids. The regular jars in the back were on the top rack so very little film on them.

 

And, you know what? It worked like a charm just like the directions said.

 

Note: I put the rest of the chicken stock & beef stock in the fridge & canned it on Tuesday. I was too tired to do a 2nd batch the same day. When I canned on Tuesday, it was a breeze! In the future, I'll definitely make my recipe the day before actually canning.