Turkey or Chicken Broth

I use a lot of chicken broth in my cooking.  I use it in soups, cooking rice, cooking beans, cooking noodles, and lots of different casseroles or one dish meals.  I don't like buying broth because I don't know how much salt or other additives are in it.  This is one of the things I really looked forward to making and storing when I bought my pressure canner.

Broth is one of those things that every home cook should have on hand.  The best news about this, is that broth is SO EASY to make!!!  Make your dinner, put all the bits you don't want to eat in a pan, fill it with water and let it simmer.  This works with chicken, turkey, beef, ham, and vegetables.  I'll tell you my whole process for turkey broth.

Cook a turkey dinner for your family.  Enjoy the dinner of slow roasted turkey and all the fixings.

Once your done eating, pick all the meat off the carcass.  The meat will go into your freezer, jars, or whatever you want to do with the leftover meat.  While you are picking the meat off, put ALL THE REST into your crockpot or stewpot.  I mean EVERYTHING.  Skin, fat, bones, all of it.  Fill the crockpot up right to the rim with water and set on low.  I let mine cook over night.

The next morning, take a skimmer or slotted spoon and take out as much of the bones and bits as you can.  Then put the crockpot into the refrigerator for at least a few hours.  The reason I do this is because I like to skim off the fat.  When it's cold, the fat all floats to the top and you can skim it off easily.

Once you have skimmed off the fat, it's time to heat it back up.  After you have heated it back up, you want to put it through a wire mesh strainer to get all the bits out of it.  The finer the mesh, the more clear your broth will be.

After the broth is heated back up to boiling, put it into your clean/hot jars for processing.  Quarts are processed at 10 pounds for 90 minutes. 

The only issue I have run into is that the ham broth came out very salty.  I am sure this had to do with the smoking process or other chemicals used in the ham.  I still use it, I just water it down and use it with things that taste better with salt (beans, potatoes, etc.)