Venison Broth is on the menu today
Waste not, Want not! it’s an adage we have all heard. And although I think most of us have the best of intentions it’s a skill that usually needs some practice for most of us.
When we harvest animals I want to make the most of what we have harvested. It seems wasteful to leave anything behind. I have not yet gotten into tanning hides yet, but someday I may try it. but I really do try to use as much of the animal as possible. Last week while I was at football practice with our youngest. Hubby went hunting and harvested a weak yearling buck.
When I think of ribs, I love a good batch of spare ribs in the smoker. Yum! But a roe dear especially a yearling really doesn’t have enough on the ribs to really make it worth smoking up. We would need several animals to get enough meat to feed the family. That doesn’t however mean that the rib meat should get tossed in the bin.
This week I took all the left over bones, ribs, neck etc and decided to make up some stock. Here’s how I made it.
First I coated the bones with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven for an hour.
When I took them out I put them in my pressure cooker with all the juices on the bottom of the pan with 5 carrots, a chunk of leek, about 1/4 of a head of celery root cut into large chunks, a head of garlic just cut in half, a handful of fresh parsley and an onion. It all went in the pressure cooker and added water to cover about 5 Quarts.
I closed up the pressure cooker and let it cook for several hours at about halfway between low and high pressure settings. (Honestly I forgot about it while I was working) I turned it off and let it come down to room temperature naturally and strained it thru a mesh strainer. I put it in the fridge over night and let any fat solidify on top. Then I strained it again thru cheesecloth.
I reheated it again tasted it, added some more salt and then put it into quart size canning Jars. Which I processed in the pressure cooker for 25 minutes to seal. Now I have several quarts of yummy venison broth/bullion/stock whatever it’s supposed to be called for cooking.
When it was all done the bones were so well cooked I could smoosh them between my fingers. A sure sign that I got all their tasty goodness out!
