Investing time to save food money

[Ross]

Early this week I was food shopping and found chicken legs in large packages for .48 per pound. They were up against the sell-by date. I bought them and put them in a large kettle with onions, carrots and celery and cooked them gently until the meat would slip of the bones. I separated the meat and bones and returned to bones to the kettle. Meantime I peeled and cut two large onions, six carrots and about half of a whole stalk of celery into small spoon sizes and steamed those for a few minutes. I chopped the chicken meat into spoon sizes then I loaded a cup of the veggies and a cup of the meat into quart jars and filled them with stock the the kettle full of bones. I was able to fill 8 jars and my pressure cooker/canner holds 7 so one went into the refrigerator and I processed the seven. This noon Nancy and I had soup for lunch. I added noodles and checked salt and pepper. The quart fed us generously and we put a pint back in the fridge. My total work time for making the 8 jars of soup including clean up was 3 hours. My time for fixing lunch today was about 10 minutes. The food cost for the soup is about 60 cents per quart.

 

[zeehag]

ok ross--look for the ugliest car in the world--i am coming over for lunch. might take me a couple of minuets to get there....... but i am on my way.......

 

[Ross]

I can keep it warm til you get here.

 

[zeehag]

ross--you cook the way i do-- we will have to have a cook-off when i get there and have a huge party of feasters..... i will be therein boat in a while....might wanna eat all first then make more ...

and even tho the wind blows all the way around the earth bfeore it gets here, i can smell yer cooking--yummmmmmmmy......

 

[sailormanbigd]

Eat Ur Heart Out Cambells

Ross, i have been cooking this way for years. I call it one pot wonders, whatevers handy or however I feel is usually what goes in the pot. Start out with chx soup and end up with southwestern chix n rice, etc. Throughout all this what i find is a neccessary ingredient is a product called "better than boullion". Just a tea-to-tablespoon in the end really kicks it up a huge not. they have beef, chicken, and veggie I think. Its pricey but oh man what a difference. Of course the main problem with doing this is you get very picky about your food. There is only one restaurant that I can eat at.

 

[zeehag]

Ross, i have been cooking this way for years. I call it one pot wonders, whatevers handy or however I feel is usually what goes in the pot. Start out with chx soup and end up with southwestern chix n rice, etc. Throughout all this what i find is a neccessary ingredient is a product called "better than boullion". Just a tea-to-tablespoon in the end really kicks it up a huge not. they have beef, chicken, and veggie I think. Its pricey but oh man what a difference. Of course the main problem with doing this is you get very picky about your food. There is only one restaurant that I can eat at.

i use what is called caldo del pollo and caldo del tomate and caldo de res for instead of bullion. is excellent and made by knorr. i buy it at mexican markets and in usa thieveries. (albertsons, safeway, etc)
makes an excellent base, when added to the soups i cook a la ross....

 

[Ross]

Almost all of what I cook I could grow but don't. My biggest complaint about the food stores is the trend to oven ready meats. It is very difficult to find bone in beef and you need the bones to make the best stock.
With winter coming on we can have time to prepare canned food for the next boating season. It can be put up in the sizes that work for each crew. Just for Nancy and me I put meat up in half pints, soups that get added to in pints and stand alone soup in 26 ounce jars. I can mushrooms in quarter pints and cracker spreads in quarter pints. Red sauce for pasta I do in pints and apples spiced and citrus fruit in half pints.
The benefit of these canned foods is they can stay on the boat without spoiling for the entire season and those that don't get used can come home.

 

[zeehag]

Almost all of what I cook I could grow but don't. My biggest complaint about the food stores is the trend to oven ready meats. It is very difficult to find bone in beef and you need the bones to make the best stock.
With winter coming on we can have time to prepare canned food for the next boating season. It can be put up in the sizes that work for each crew. Just for Nancy and me I put meat up in half pints, soups that get added to in pints and stand alone soup in 26 ounce jars. I can mushrooms in quarter pints and cracker spreads in quarter pints. Red sauce for pasta I do in pints and apples spiced and citrus fruit in half pints.
The benefit of these canned foods is they can stay on the boat without spoiling for the entire season and those that don't get used can come home.

go to ethnic markets-- do they have those where you are?? those have meats with flavor AND bones in!!!!!!
roflmao--cant believe how we have processed our foods out of having flavor.

adopt me.


oops--manners...PLEASE adopt me...LOL

 

[MJWarner]

"Throughout all this what i find is a necessary ingredient is a product called "better than bouillon". Just a tea-to-tablespoon in the end really kicks it up a huge not. they have beef, chicken, and veggie I think."

Awesome product that I use in soups, stews, casseroles, chicken ala King, etc. It also comes in ham (navy bean soup comes to mind) and lobster base. Try it once and you will never be satisfied w/ bouillon again.

 

[Ross]

"Throughout all this what i find is a necessary ingredient is a product called "better than bouillon". Just a tea-to-tablespoon in the end really kicks it up a huge not. they have beef, chicken, and veggie I think."

Awesome product that I use in soups, stews, casseroles, chicken ala King, etc. It also comes in ham (navy bean soup comes to mind) and lobster base. Try it once and you will never be satisfied w/ bouillon again.

I think that I have some bouillon on the shelf somewhere but I haven't use it for years. Roasting beef bones with carrots,onions,yellow turnips, and celery until all are well browned and then simmering the whole works for several hours produces a fine stock. For ham stock I use smoked ham hocks and smoked neck bones simmered until the meat falls off the bones. Chicken backs make good stock when simmered with carrots, celery and onions and perhaps a little garlic. Never add salt or pepper to your basic stock, add it to you soup as it is needed near the end of cooking. If you use basic stock when making gravy and there was salt on the meat there may be enough salt in the drippings.

 

[zeehag]

bouillion gives a slightly different flavoring to soups than does bone in meats--- there is no comparison.

 

[shemandr]

So how about giving up a recipe for a good beef broth. Try as I might mine always comes out tasting weak. Actually, I have recipes. What I need is a technique. I love a mug of broth with my lunch in the winter. It warms me up but doesn't make me fat. Most commercially made have too much salt.

 

[Ross]

Beef short ribs are best but pricey, bone in beef chuck is next in my book. Remove the "eye" for steak and some of the meat for stew beef, completely cover the bottom of a roasting pan with meat, bones and veggies. Don't trim out the fat you can skim that later. When everything is a nice brown at 350 degrees transfer the bones meat and veggies to a pot large enough to contain them. Pour about a quart of boiling water into the roasting pan and scrape out all of the baked on juices and add to the pot. allow a couple if inches of water over. On a low heat almost boiling but not, cook everything for about six to ten hours. Lift out the solids and discard the veggies. Pick all of the meat from the bones and discard the bones. Allow the liquid to cool and skim off the fat. Save the fat, there is a lot of flavor in that stuff. Use it to brown your stew meat.
Back to the broth. Determine how much you want for sipping and how much you want for future soup from the meat you picked off. For the sippy broth add some garlic, bayleaf, rosemary and salt and black pepper.
I grind my own red peppers and add a good pinch of those.
My ground red peppers are a blend of all of the kinds of dried chillis that I can find in the food stores. Dried further in a 250 degree oven until they are as crispy as potato chips. Then I seed them and grind them in the food processor.

If your broth is weak just reduce it (boil it down) before you add the seasonings.
If you get it right with the right bones it will jell in the fridge.
Neck bones are very hard to find because of mad cow disease and the spinal nerve, but they make excellant stock..

 

[ffaubert]

Ross,

You said you used a pressure cooker for your canning. Is this a regular pressure cooker or is there a special one for canning?

Your broth sounds yummy!

Thanks

 

[Ross]

Any pressure cooker with a gauge or a 10 psi dead weight will work but anything less than eight quart size is too small for practical purposes. I can process 7 26 ounce jars in my 12 quart cooker/canner. http://www.pressurecooker-outlet.com/mirropressurecanner.htm

 

[ffaubert]

Mine's just 8 quarts. For $60, I'll pick up the 12 quart.

Thank you.

 

[sea_to_see]

I've been using a tallish 6Q pressure cooker for a number of years. It's my go-to pot when making soups, stews, chili, sauces, or canning. I'd like a bigger one but they won't fit on the stove burner as nicely.

 

[Ross]

A 12 quart pressure canner is an at home tool unless you are a live aboard. You can process about 7 wide mouth pints in a 12 quart cooker. That is enough to can about eight pounds of raw boneless meat.

Edit to add: my 12 quart cooker is 12 1/2 inches across the widest part of the lid, the handles add a bit more. It crowds the second burner on the same side of the stove. On my boat I think it would fit on the largest back burner but I would probably just use my 8 quart cooker.

 

[Ross]

On Thursday this week Nancy said that she wanted sea food for dinner Friday night.
yesterday I bought a half pound of cod and a half pound of shrimp and made a chowder.
Dice a piece of salt pork and fry it slowly and carefully until it is crispy but not scorched.
Lift that out and save it for garnish.
pour off all but 3 tablespoonsful of the fat and saute an onoin and a little celery until the onoin is transparent.
add a diced potato as large as your fist and a cup of water and boil until the potato is half done and add the diced fish and shrimp and a half cup of whole kernel corn. continue until the potatoes are done and add a pint of whole milk. Heat carefully and watchfully until it just boils and take it off the fire. Add salt and black pepper to suit your taste.

 

[zeehag]

bbq beef roast

i find tri-tip is good for this--i dont know the east coast name for it--is a triangular clod of beef.
i place this in a container with beer to cover, cider vinegar, a splash, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, garlic, pinch of sugar, salt to taste, serrano chiles sliced and let sit overnite.
bbq over mesquite, slowly to desired doneness. slice as london broil. should be seared outside and perfect inside.