How To Make a Rich Homemade Broth

I have been making a good bit of broth lately since I drink so much of it. So since I have been making it I thought it would be good to share with my readers on how to make a really rich bone broth. Bone broth is great for adding lots of micronutrients to your diet. It is also a great pick me up on a cold day or even after a hard days work. For me it is a great start to my day. For loads of information on the health benefits of bone broths you can check out the Weston Price Foundation website. Here is how I make my broths.

Take a large stock pot and fill it 1/2 to 3/4 of the way with cold water. Then add your bones. If I am doing a beef or venison broth then I roast the bones for about 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Just to brown them a bit. This gives a nice rich color and flavor to the broth. After adding the bones I add about a cup and a half of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar will pull calcium from the bones into your broth. I let that sit for a couple of hours then I place on the stove and slowly bring it to a simmer. You don't really want a rolling boil, just a very slow simmer will do nicely. After it has been simmering for about 2-3 hours, I add a couple of carrots chopped up, a stalk of celery chopped up and an onion along with salt and pepper. These things deepen the flavor of the broth. Then it simmers some more. For beef, venison and pork I let the broth simmer for about 8 hours after adding the veggies. For turkey, chicken or rabbit I let the broth simmer for about 4-6 hours after adding the vegetables. The next step is to remove all the veggies bits, bone bits and meat bits from the broth. Let it cool then place it in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will congeal at the top after this and can easily be scooped off. This is a personal preference, I like my broth to be clear. You can leave it and jar it up right away if you don't mind the fat. After getting rid of the fat then heat the broth back up on the stove, jar it up and can at 10 lbs. of pressure for 20 minutes for quarts and 15 minutes for pints. That is all there is to it and you can drink it by itself, use it in soups and casseroles or even cook your rice and pasta in it. Broth is such a wonderful addition to the pantry and your diet. Blessings, Kat

Pears, pears and more......pears!

I have a friend down the road who said she would give me some pears in exchange for some recipes for pears. I took her several recipes and came home with a 5 gallon bucket and grocery sack full of pears. A week later she called and told me to come and get the rest because she didn't have time to do anything with them and they were going to waste. I came home with 3 5 gallon buckets full of pears. I also took her several jars of pear sauce that I had made from the first batch. I am now making pear butter, more pear sauce, canning pear halves and whatever else I can think of. The only drawback is that her pears are small...some are very small. They are very good pears though. I usually get pears from my mom but her trees didn't do so well this year and we need to figure out what is wrong. If anyone knows why the pears would literally rot while hanging on the tree please let me know. Most of mom's did just that. I got a few that only had small rotten spots to check them and the rest of the pear was funky looking. Those pears went to the horses. Speaking of...all the critters are loving this gift of pears as they are getting they peels and the cores. She doesn't spray her trees so they are pesticide/fungicide free and safe for everybody to have. So here are my recipes for pear butter and pear sauce.

Pear Sauce
1 gallon peeled and sliced pears
Cinnamon to taste (I use about 3-4 tablespoons
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Place all of this in a stock pot with about 1 cup of water and simmer until the pears are mushy. You can then use a stick blender or potato masher to mash them up. Fill jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Water bath them 20 minutes for pints and 30 for quarts.

Pear butter:
Prepare the pear sauce as above then place in crockpot on high until reduced in volume to half. I also at nutmeg to my pear butter. I usually use about 1 tablespoon of the nutmeg. Fill jars and process pints 25 minutes and quarts 35 minutes in a hot water bath.

Both are delicious and the pear butter makes a great gift item. Needless to say my friend will be getting some more sauce, butter and a pie for her gift. I know she has more pears, but I am getting kinda tired of looking at pears. not to mention the peeling and slicing. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Home Canning Safety

Home canned goods are safe if properly processed. One thing I have noticed lately is that there is some very bad advice being given over the internet that would lead to potentially very unsafe food. So I thought I would give my little tips on how I ensure, to the best of my ability, the safety of my homecanned food.

Tip #1- Select the best quality food and wash well before beginning to process. Even organic food has potential bacteria all over it. The key to safety is to remove as much of that bacteria as possible.

Tip #2- Always double check what anyone tells you with the USDA manuals and don't rely on outdated canning guides. Canning guidelines have changed over the years and old canning directions/manuals are just that....old. Just because someone's grandmother canned something a certain way and never got sick doesn't mean that was safe to do. I saw someone give the advice of water bathing green beans which is a huge NO NO. The current USDA canning manuals (with recipes) are available free online. They are always my #1 source for guidelines and I always double check other advice with these guidelines. I even double check myself at each canning session with these guidelines.

Tip #3- Store your home canned good with the rings off. Don't leave the rings on your jars when you put them in storage. If you have a seal that breaks because of spoilage often times the ring can hold the lid tight so that it appears sealed. If you take the rings off then the lid with pop off if the seal breaks. Also, the rings can hold moisture and rust over time which can cause a broken seal. It is best to take those rings off before storing.

Tip#4- It is best to boil any low acid food for at least 5 minutes after opening a jar. This will help to kill any botulism spores that might have survived pressure canning. This would be for things like meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. Jams, jellies, pickles, and fruit are typically canned in a high acid environment and so that is why they are safe with a water bath method and can be eaten from the jar with no additional cooking.

Those are my 4 most important tips for canning safety. Botulism is what worries me and so I take as many precautions as possible to ensure that I don't kill my family. Yes, I said kill because that is what botulism does. Most other food borne illness simply makes you very sick and feel like you are dying, but botulism will kill you. Botulism spores are everywhere and they can survive in anaerobic (no oxygen) environment. In fact they can thrive without oxygen. Botulism is odorless and tasteless so there is no way of telling whether the food is bad or not. However, gases produced by botulism will break a seal (hence taking off the rings). Botulism is also killed by high heat (hence pressure canning not water bathing) and an acidic environment.

Follow these tips and stay safe this canning season. Blessings, Kat

Canning Apples and Pears

I don't like my apples and pears to be canned in a heavy syrup. The fruit to me is sweet enough and doesn't need any added sugar. However, using plain water will sap some of the goodness from the fruit and they just don't taste very good if canned in plain water. So, I use apple juice to can both of them. It also gives me a good way to preserve some juice for later. Once we open the jar, then we can drink the juice when the fruit is eaten. I do add a minimal amount of lemon juice to preserve the color of the apples and pears, but it is so minimal you really can't taste it. Trust me on that. So with one canning day I have preserved two items that are important to my family...food and juice. Now any apples or pears that are being canned for pies or tarts are canned in a syrup, but the juice is saved for those to be eaten right from the jar. Enjoy!

More on Citrus Products

As I said in my last post I love citrus...oranges, tangerines, grapefruit doesn't matter because I simply love it. So do my children and were it not for thinking ahead we would go through some serious citrus withdrawals here until the Florida season got underway. So I have already mentioned that I can tangerines/mandarin oranges. I also can oranges and grapefruit. I prefer to can navel oranges with Ruby red grapefruit as those are our favorite and the navel oranges section better than the Valencia's. But those Valencia's will never be left out in our home. We eat Valencia's all winter long until we are about to turn into a Valencia. And then well what is the best use of a Valencia? Juice....homesqueezed fresh off the tree sunshiny taste. However, if you can this fresh homesqueezed juice you change the taste. So, I save up my plastic mayonnaise jars and freeze it. Then, during the off season I simply pull out a jar and voila....I have that wonderful homesqueezed Valencia goodness. So just thought I would share these few tips with you folks so that you too can enjoy the deliciousness and many health benefits of citrus fruit all year. Enjoy!

The Scoop on Tangerines

I was born in Florida and although I did not reside there in my youth my grandparents had a home there that they spent the summer. Yes, I know this is opposite of what most people do. My parents were divorced and my dad lived in the home all year. I have a loyalty to Florida citrus farmers for this reason I guess. I won't buy California citrus products, sorry California. So I patiently wait until about this time of year when the Florida citrus starts coming in. I am getting to the tangerines, just in my roundabout kind of way. My kids love mandarin oranges, but they are quite costly for those tiny little cans. However, do you know something? Guess what tangerines are? That is right.....tangerines are mandarin oranges, but they are called "tangerines" because that is the type of mandarin orange they are. So, instead of buying mandarin oranges in the can at such a costly price. Especially when my kids can eat 1 to 2 cans per day each. I can my own tangerines when they start coming in. It is really easy to can up a bunch of pint or in our case quart jars and then you have them for the year until the next fall. We do the same with oranges and grapefruit, which I can together because for some odd reason the grapefruit preserves the fresh taste of the orange. I know strange, but I don't question it...I just know it works. So if your family is like mine then consider getting some of those wonderful Florida tangerines (ok, if you have no choice California will work) and canning them up so that your family can enjoy them at low cost all year round.

Online Canning Course

The ladies over at the Pantry Panel blog have taken this free online course from the University of Georgia (best school in America by the way) and highly recommend it. I thought I would pass on the information to my readers. The course is free of charge and even gives you little quizzes to test your knowledge. It took the ladies about a day to complete so doesn't take up much of your time, but they said the information gained is invaluable. So those who are looking to start canning or expand their knowledge of canning check it out. I might be taking the course myself this weekend. Here is the link.