Healthy Bullion? (Read 1533 times)

Can you make your own? Very easy and very cheap. Go to the meat department at your local grocery and ask them for beef bones or use leftover chicken bones. If you prefer veggie, that is easy too. Just simmer the bones and meat cutaways in water and salt to taste. After a few hours (you can ignore it), you will have awesome and CHEAP stock. You may be able to get the bones for free. No trans fats AT ALL.

we make our own sometimes (just made some last night in the crock pot with several chicken carcasses we'd frozen), but usually we use Swanson's Organic low-sodium. It doesn't have any transfat, but it does have msg -- i htink it's labelled as 'yeast extract' which is health-food doubletalk for MSG. But it tastes fine, and works fine, and isn't too unhealthy.

I've yet to find anything bullion-like that's not full of nastiness. You can get ones that don't have hydrogenated oils, but I've yet to find anything that doesn't have MSG or related things. I make my own. Whenever we have bones they go in the freezer. Once there are several carcasses in there I make a big batch of stock and freeze it in various small containers. It's dead simple, and takes very little hands-on time. If we run out, I will buy the relatively expensive liquid stocks at Whole Foods (though even there you can often find them on sale if you're patient). I think my average cost is quite low, given that the homemade stuff is essentially free. And of course if you're cheap, you should be buying your chickens whole. Speaking of which, I have a free-range chicken in my crock pot at home right now, which I bought for 50% off. Seared in a hot oven this morning, and now slow cooking over parsnips & carrots with rosemary. Tis the season for chickens and parsnips.

If you are using just veggies in your broth, pop for a anise bulb and add it to the broth, it adds some nice flavor.

I make my own. (Sometimes). I keep a ziplock in my freezer and whenever I have veg peels I toss them in. Carrot and green-bean ends, potato, onion and garlic peels, brocolli stalks, fresh herbs, etc. I usually add extra garlic. I do not recommend adding mushrooms - that one came out really bitter! I have some cabbage and chick-pea juice that I plan to try this round. If you steam vegs and dump the juice you can add that too. Also, dont forget to add spices! Bay leaf, pepper corns, tumeric, etc. Mine always tastes a little different, but usually comes out pretty good. I freeze it in small containers.

Thanks for the help. I think I may try Trent's method and that better than bullion stuff. The idea of buying fresh stuff just to make stock is kind of foreign to me. I am such a cheapass with food (which is why I am so excited about getting left over meat bones possibly for free).

I think you might have missed a critical point, for some of us at least. We're not buying stuff "just to make stock". We're using leftover pieces/parts (chicken carcass, ends of carrots we chopped off) that might have otherwise thrown away in order to make stock. That's the beauty of stock. As for spices, many of us have dried spices hanging around doing nothing. Adding them to stock... actually, using weird combinations in stock just to see what will happen... is fun and uses up spices that just kind of sit there. Even the anise.

Right. Use leftovers and cutoffs.