So I spent about six hours making chicken noodle soup yesterday. Whenever there’s leftover bones from fried chicken or rotiserrie chicken, I throw them in a bag and freeze 'em. I finally had enough to make a stock, and spent about 4 hours slow cooking them. I strained the stock, and started boiling about 4 pounds of leg quarters in it and slow cooked them for just under an hour.
Anyway, it was completely delicious, transcending anything you’ve ever eaten in its deliciousness, etc, and has been refrigerated. But I woke up this morning and it’s turned into this weird congealed paste. Does this mean my stock has too much fat in it, or is this normal? I’ve never made real stock before, and this is my first experience with it.
As a weight loss tip, I have heard that you should put canned soup in the refrigerator. Then when it cools, you can skim the fat off the top.
The other issue would be the evaporation of water in the refrigerator. If you add back some water and reheat, I think it would be fine. In future, you should cover it.
since you are removing the gelatine from the bones and connective tissues …
the cloudy is probably the protein - when you boil bones and meat, you get a foam, and protein in the stock.
The jello consistancy is the connective tissues contribution to the soup. When hot, it gives a silky mouthfeel to the soup, when cold … well congrats you have chicken noodle jello=)
heat it up and you are good to go.
If you want your soup to be clear, make it ina 2 stage process.
1 - never bring it to a boil, a gentle simmer is the way to go. Add your aromatics and the bones. Simmer gently WITHOUT EVER ADDING SALT. When you see the veggies are all ikky looking, take the pot off the stove and filter through a couple layers of cheesecloth, and toss the bones and dead aromatics. [i like a whole onion cut into quarters, 2 or 3 peeled carrots cut in huge chunks, 3 or 4 ribs of celery with leaves, cut into huge chunks and a bayleaf, and about a tsp of italian herbs, maybe a largish pinch of black pepper to the equivalent of 2 chickens worth of bones and 3 quarts of water.]
2 refrigerate the broth that has been filtered. When the fat congeals on top, skim it off.
Now you are ready to use teh stock to make soup or stew, or rice, or polenta or beans …
Just to be clear – congealing in the fridge is normal – in fact if your chicken soup made from animal protein and bones didn’t congeal you should be concerned.
No, the connective tissue is all protein. The only fat in the soup, if it exists, will be in a distinct yellowish layer at the top after refridgeration. The soup below is virtually fat-free.
My homemade soup from turkey and chicken does this, too. It’s never bothered me, but my husband doesn’t want to see it in the chilled state! Wiggly soup.
Question about cheesecloth for straining: do you wash and reuse the cheesecloth? Or is it a one-time use thing?
I tend to use it and toss it, now my muslin cheesemaking cloth is different=)
The cheesecloth in question … <rummages around online> http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?select=C51&byCategory=C60&id=4212 is more of a loose gauze, and can be bought relatively cheaply. HEck, to be perfectly honest, I have actually lined a collander with paper towels and filtered soup through it when I needed to get the soup finished off and couldnt find the roll of cheesecloth=) Coffee filter paper is too fine for filtering soup.
Q: Why has my soup congealed in the fridge?
A: 'Cause you did it right!
If your soup/stock doesn’t gelatinize, you can try to save it the next day by putting it back on the stove to simmer for another hour or so and increase the gelatin:water ratio by evaporating off some water. Of course, if you’ve already put veggies and noodles in it, they’re going to become mushified, so stick a colander over the pot and pour the soup through it before heating, reserving the solids for the fridge, and put them back in after you’ve reduced your stock.
I agree with **aruvqan **about the importance of a low, low simmer for good stock making. Most people think a simmer means lots of teeny tiny bubbles, but it doesn’t - it means one to five bubbles come to the surface every minute. 180-185 degrees is perfect. If you have two probe thermometers, this is super easy: set one for 178 and one for 188. If either one goes off, you’ve got to adjust your heat. If you have just one thermometer, set it for 188; most people aim too high, not too low.
If you want clear stock, you can skim the excess congealed protein off the top of your stock every 15 minutes for the first hour, and every 30 minutes after that. Just scoop off the tan sludge and any bubbles you see.
