Instead of calling it ‘poultry goo’ or ‘chicken jello’, you could be more elegant and call it ‘demi-glace’, which is what it is.
My Hero Alton Brown did a whole show on stocks and I can’t remember his full explanation of the chemical and physical process involved, but he sums it up in I’m Just Here for the Food:
From what I do remember from the show, long slow cooking of the bones (and ligaments and cartilage and the skin if you’re using it) leaches all the collagen out of the tissue. Once all the marrow and other connective proteins have been leached out of the bones, you’ll find they’re quite crumbly.
The collagen molecules, when mixed with water and heat, split apart and the resulting pieces clump together to form gelatin. They clump more at lower temperatures, so at soup temperature you get a rich liquid with a silky mouthfeel, and at room temp and below you get jello.
I just made a deeeelicious lamb stock from a lamb shank and hip earlier this week. Last night, I brought the pot out of the fridge, took the layer of fat off, chopped up the oh-so-tender meat & made a fabulous lamb stew. Man oh man, it was good.
Everyone else was right- if you’ve got demi-glace (meat jell-o) you did it right. The stock was chock-full of flavor and had real body to it. Yum. We had happy tummies last night.
By the way, what you made is called a “white” stock. If you wish to make a “brown” stock, just roast the bones and vegetables before simmering. The two names have nothing to do with the color of the liquid, just the method.
Also, if you ever decide to make stock using your leftover carcass or roast bones, make sure you remove all obvious fat. It adds nothing to the stock flavor and creates a huge removal headache. Skimming of fat is critical to stock success, as is a low simmer heat. Boiling emulsifies the fat into the liquid and you end up with greasy soup, as it won’t fully separate out when cooled.
You can dry or freeze the leftovers - some freeze better than others, but they should all freeze pretty decently if you make them into herb butter. Herb butter will keep in the freezer for months. Plus it makes great garlic bread. 
This has been a really informative thread. Thanks for all the great advice, and Merry Christmas, Happy Channuka and everything to else that we celebrate this time of year!
Another cool thing to do with your stock is to reduce it to the point where it becomes a glace de viande. It might seem like a waste to go from a huge pot of stock to basically a jarfull or so of glace de viande, but it’s seriously potent stuff. It’s the pure essence of meat, basically, a bullion cube, but without all the nasty crap that goes into one.
All you do is take stock, boil it down until it reaches the consistency where it can coat the back of a spoon, and you’re done. Jar it, put it in the fridge or freezer, and whenever you need just an extra jolt of meatiness to your sauces or stews, spoon in some glace de viande.
If I’m making a lot of stock, I usually end up freezing about four liters for future use, and boiling down the rest to the concentrated stuff.
Top chefs do exactly this, boiling down 50 gallons to about a pint or so.
I hope to put a small herb garden in my backyard this spring. That should take care of things.
How long does that take?
BTW, I ended up with about a gallon of stock after I cleared off the fat the next day. Does that sound right? (I started with 5 lbs of bones/meat and 1 1/2 gallons of water.)
Beware of mint. I love mint, but it’s extremely invasive. Also, many cats LOVE mint of any kind.
Absolutely true; I solved that by planting it in a 2’ diameter planter. When we planted mint at the house I grew up in, it took over the whole yard.
Oh, baby, I got one for my birthday. I planted rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, dill, parsley, and cilantro. The sage died, but the rest of the herbs took off like gangbusters…the cilantro alone got to be about three foot high.
In fact, I was looking at it yesterday (it’s in the backyard) and noticed some white flowered plants growing. I thought they were weeds, until I got out there to pull them and realized my cilantro was blooming!
Ivylad cut off some oregano, thyme, and rosemary for pizza sauce yesterday, and I plan to do the same for some herb bread. I also cut back the cilantro…it doesn’t do for the herbs to get too big, the essential oils and flavor get too diluted.
I used to have my herbs in a window box, but they’ve done much better outside in the full sun.
Mmmm…fresh herbs…
I keep my chocolate mint outside, but in a window box. That way it stays tamed.
I will now that I know! I would’ve planted mint (summertime is *mojito *time!), but I have enough trouble already keeping the neighbors’ cats out. Maybe I’ll do the mint inside in a planter, if I do it.
Probably several days, but I’ve never done that amount myself.
What’s right is what is good for you. I would have reduced your lot by about half, but it really depends on what you’re going to do with it.
Yeah, I guess that was kind of a dumb question. But If I just want to make soup, to if I want to use it in a recipe for Chicken Stew that calls for “2 cups of chicken stock” (or borth), what would be a good range? I know there isn’t a single answer since it’s probably a matter of how strong you want something to taste or maybe how thick you want the consistency to be… but what would you do? I assume by your username that you have some experience with this subject.
I really need to change that username, as I often have to hasten to assure people that I am not a professional chef. I’ve had some training and consider myself an above-average and creative cook, however.
I would say that for the example given, the stock you made would be perfect. More concentrated stock requires more dilution before using. I generally make mine a bit more concentrated so that I can freeze it and not take up huge amounts of space. I’ve never made a glace de viande, but it’s because of time constraints more than anything else.
So, if I decide to do a serious reduction does it matter if I leave all the ingredients in the pot, or do you at some point just want the stock to boil by itself?
Well, your gelatin turned out fine, and now what to do with all that. Earlier posts have explained how to use it like a boulion cube, and even to freeze it. Here is a neat trick that works well.
Freeze your gelatin in an ice cube tray instead of a single container. For most soups, cooking, one “Ice Cube” of gelatin/Stock for every 2 cups of liquid in your culinary creation. (YMMV).
Bon Appitie!
FML