Bones

Honestly, for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would buy boneless meat of any kind.    To me, bones are a true gift.  Yes, you pay for bones in the price of the meat but you also pay more for boneless cuts of meat.  If you hunt or fish, those bones are basically free too.

Bones are the basis of stocks and broths.  Both are nutrient dense, must have pantry staples.  I have a bone-in ham bought on sale.  About half will be canned, half will be spread over a couple of meals and the bone will be tossed into a crockpot with celery, carrots, onions, beans and seasonings for a lovely soup that will feed us over a few days.  An alternative to actually making the soup using the bone, is to simply make stock or broth something I routinely do.  The stock can be used within a few days or froze or canned.  I prefer to can my stocks because I have limited freezer space.  Home canned stock can later be used as the base for soups and stews or the liquid for canning meats or the liquid for cooking rice/beans/pasta.  Finally the spent bones from making stock can be further cooked then ground into bonemeal for the garden.  

Stock is ever so simple to make - bones, onion with skin, carrot, celery, peppercorns, bayleaf and the magical ingredient to help release calcium from the bones into the stock, vinegar.  I prefer using a pressure cooker but long, low simmer on the stovetop works well too.  I have also used a stem juicer to make absolutely gorgeous stock. 

Garden Gnome
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