Chicken Broth

[abgstat]

Using thighs, backs, necks and legs, I start with cold, salted water and bring it up to a gentle simmer. While it's cooking, I skim the top. After a while, I add celery, carrots and onions and cook it longer.
This is how my mom taught me to make chicken broth, but lately I'm ending up with a very cloudy, gray, unappealing broth.
What causes that? How can I get a lovely, clear broth, just like Mom's??

[cookie jim]

sounds like you have the right technique.I never use salt add egg shells to the broth.look up making consume for the egg addition.been to long for me to remember but I'm sure it will help with your clarity. good cookin...cookie

[greenawalt87]

yes egg shells will help clarify the broth and no salt

[DC Sunshine]

Originally Posted by greenawalt87

yes egg shells will help clarify the broth and no salt

Ditto that - can also add the egg white. I bring the water and chicken up to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for an hour before adding the vegetables - also try adding a tomato to help the clarity. Make sure to strain thru cheesecloth afterwards. Good luck

[paul.d.]

I would place all my ingredients into a suitable sized pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil as fast as possible, this will bring all the residue to the surface skim then reduce to the heat to a simmer, do not add salt at this stage.

if your still having problems you could always quickly blanch your chicken carcass etc in boiling water for a few seconds refresh with cold water then do as normal

[Mezzaluna]

I'm a home cook. Until I was a member here, I thought a raft was just something on which Tom Sawyer drifted down the Mississippi.

My method is to strain the broth after the chicken parts have simmered for about an hour. Then I strain the broth through a few layers of cheesecloth. This gives you something short of the clarity of consomme, but then it's homemade chicken broth.

[foodpump]

Start off with the chicken. Chicken that is old,(been slaughtered over 3 or 4 days) will have more dead protein than one which has been slaughtered a day ago. The dead protein will cloud the stock. You can place the chicken in a pot and run it under cold water,changing the water until it becomes clear, and then start the cooking process.

I like to bring the stock to a full boil, then turn it down to a bare simmer. By this time all of the protein will have coagulated, and by placing a ladle in the center of the pot and agitating it, it will force all of the scum to the sides of the pot, which I can easily scoop off with the ladle.

I tend to stay away from salt. If you add 2 tbsp of salt to a 5qt pot and reduce the 5 qts to 3 qts, you will still have 2 tbsps of salt, just saltier stock, that's all.

[abgstat]

Wow! Thank you all for the great replies! Now my next question is......what does the egg shell do and how many should I use??
I've never heard of that before but I'm gonna give it a try. I'll also hold off on the salt.

[shel]

Originally Posted by paul.d.

if your still having problems you could always quickly blanch your chicken carcass etc in boiling water for a few seconds refresh with cold water then do as normal

That's somethging I've done in the past, and am doing with more regularity now. It seems to help in terms of making the final result a little "cleaner" both in terms of clarity and taste.

Shel

[abgstat]

Well, I will try that, refreshing with cold water.......but I'm still curious as to what the egg shell does and how many to use.
Do you just crack open an egg and throw out the white and yolk and just put the shell in the broth??

[paul.d.]

the egg white takes the impurity out off the broth it's the same way as if you were to make a consomme, there is one more thing that you can do if your broth is cloudy, you could mince up some vegetables add some egg whites and the shell mix this up with a couple of handfuls of ice. Add this to your cloudy broth whisk very quickly for a couple of seconds then just leave it alone bring back to the boil and then simmer gently.
The ice will stop the egg cooking instantly giving it time too take all the impurities out of the broth