Brothing Mr. Roo

I've been working overtime getting food stored up lately.  The impending inflation has gone a long way toward motivating me.  Oh I know.  Inflation is very low at the present.  Electronics and durable goods are barely up over last month.  So if you need an MP3 player, now is the time to buy Buy BUY!!!  Unfortunately, MP3 players don't go too far on the dinner table.  They're tough and gamey and at $50 a serving, a bit on the costly side.

Even here in the heartland, we're seeing food prices on the rise.  Most notably dairy products and meats.  Milk is up to $3.00/gal and the beef prices are horrifying.  Thankfully chicken is still quite reasonable, with a family-pack of boneless-skinless chicken chests going for $1.89/lb.   So yeah, I'm stashing food whenever and however possible.  Yesterday I added sugar, lots of sugar, to the stores and a goodly amount of homemade chicken broth.  We had 3 lanky, skinny roosters in the freezer that had to be used before they went bad and broth was the obvious way to go.

Here's what I did.  Throw the aforementioned lanky, skinny roosters into the pressure cooker with a couple wilty stalks of celery, the last of 2010's onions, bay leaves and a couple carrots.  Pressure cook for 45mins to an hour and allow the pressure cooker to come to room temperature.  Strain the solids out of the broth, allow it to cool and skim as much fat as possible off the top.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and then ladle the broth into hot canning jars.  Cap 'em and can 'em at 10 pounds of pressure for 20mins/pints or 25mins/quarts.

I can't tell you how pleased I am with this broth.  It's so dark and rich....not like that see-through stuff you pay $2/pint for at Walmart.  You can actually taste the onions, carrots, celery and herbs and I know that the broth is chock full of vitamins from the veggies and free range roos.  And did I mention it's delish???  What a great use for those scrawny ol' roosters!