Cook Can Spin Dye » broth http://www.cookcanspindye.com time-honored hobbies Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:13:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Canning Beef Stew http://www.cookcanspindye.com/posts/153 http://www.cookcanspindye.com/posts/153#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:11:40 +0000 admin http://www.cookcanspindye.com/?p=153 With the weather being cold and crappy here in Chicago, there are many nights when I want dinner to be warm and comforting after trekking around outside in the snow.  I can think of no better dinner than beef stew with a side of fresh bread.  Admittedly, beef stew is somewhat a pain in the neck to make [...]]]> With the weather being cold and crappy here in Chicago, there are many nights when I want dinner to be warm and comforting after trekking around outside in the snow.  I can think of no better dinner than beef stew with a side of fresh bread.  Admittedly, beef stew is somewhat a pain in the neck to make individually with all of the steps that need to be taken to make it successfully.  However, canning beef stew is done in very large portions at one time, so it can be for several night’s worth of dinner.  One Saturday afternoon is worth the time and effort saved during the week in my opinion.  Below is the ingredients being ready for stewing.  I unfortunately don’t have pictures of the braising of the beef – I will make sure to take some the next time.  I love how colorful it looks!

The recipe that I use is from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving which if you are even halfway serious about canning, you should purchase.  Trust me, it was worth the 15 dollars.  I have used this book about twenty times now.

The best part is that I had leftover bones from the roasts so I was able to make beef broth, too!  This recipe is also out of the Ball canning book.

I can’t wait for dinner!

]]> http://www.cookcanspindye.com/posts/153/feed 0 Turkey Everything http://www.cookcanspindye.com/posts/9 http://www.cookcanspindye.com/posts/9#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:55:00 +0000 admin http://www.cookcanspindye.com/?p=9 Three nights ago I was feeling overly ambitious and made homemade (from scratch) turkey pot pie from our Thanksgiving leftovers. I also used the remaining ingredients to make turkey soup and turkey broth.  I say overly ambitious because this was after working a full day and trying to do it all within one night.

The [...]]]> Three nights ago I was feeling overly ambitious and made homemade (from scratch) turkey pot pie from our Thanksgiving leftovers. I also used the remaining ingredients to make turkey soup and turkey broth.  I say overly ambitious because this was after working a full day and trying to do it all within one night.

turkey small

The turkey pot pie was modified from the original recipe which can be found at Serious Eats.  Instead of using store bought pie crust, I made my own wheat pie crust from scratch.  I didn’t have any carrots unfortunately, but I did add in peas, corn, and a little garlic powder instead.   I also cut the milk in half and used heavy whipping cream for the other half.  It probably wasn’t the healthiest but damn, did it taste awesome!

The best piece of advice that I can pass along is to cook the crust by itself for ten minutes before applying the turkey/veggie /cream mix to it.  I read this on a post about apple pies where people were complaining about soggy bottom pie crusts.  The result was a very nice bottom for my turkey pot pie that wasn’t soggy, didn’t leak, and even held together through the serving process.

turkey pot pie small

I found that as I was canning the turkey soup that there was a LOT of broth and not a lot of turkey due to the turkey used in the pot pie.  So, I packed four quart jars with lots of turkey and strained the rest of the left-over broth through cheesecloth to make three quarts of turkey broth.  I actually don’t recommend using quart jars for broth as such large quantities have a habit of being partially used and the rest going bad in the back of the refrigerator.   Or, at least they do in my house.  But, since I went on a recent canning binge and didn’t have any pint jars available, quart jars would have to do.   I will make an effort to freeze any partials later.

turkey soup small

The cats were circling below like sulking vultures, causing me to trip a couple of times.  Never mind that they are fed three times a day from an automatic feeder.  If it smells good, they will come and yowl at us even though we never willingly give them human food.  Silly kitties.

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