Cheese rinds, heels of bread, onion trimmings, celery leaves, ....

[Seafog]

What's in your freezer for stock? Am I the only one saving all the bits?
Sometimes I feel like a weirdo saving all the trimmings, but I use them up with sauces and stocks.
Is it just me?

Frozen veg, ice cream, oven chips ....it might be you!

If I had room in my freezer I would save all those bits and bobs (not bread tho).

I freeze up fruit but don't make stock ever that often so compost all the veg trimmings. Your post makes me think twice about that - maybe I will start a large bag for stock stuff and put it all in one bag. Interesting idea.

I have bananas, pears, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, that's what I freeze. Usually for smoothies. 🍓 🍓🍓

I save stuff. Carrot tops, tattie peelings, carrot hearts, bones. Just fling everything in a bread bag and then tip the whole lot into the slow cooker.

Bread goes in stock?

My feeezer has pizza, icecream, frozen veg, frozen veggie burgers, some frozen meals from bulk cooking.

Really no room for random bits (and Id forget about them.)

Would love to know how you use them!

@OutlookStalking - no, no bread in stock. It would make it cloudy and gloopy. But old bread can be used to thicken sauces (or final soups), make stuffings, breadcrumbs, etc.

I used to store up old chicken carcasses after roasts in the freezer and when I had a few make chicken stock from them. Never seem to do it at mo though. Freezer is chock full and needs a good sorting out.

I whiz old bread into breadcrumbs and freeze those, very useful to have to hand. I also freeze parmesan rinds to flavour soups. But veg peelings go into the compost bin.

I freeze bread ends, mushy bananas, bits of uncooked pastry from baking until there's enough to make something with. The allotment chickens get all the veg trimmings.

Bread heels, once I have enough, get seasoned and put on a baking sheet for a quick toasting, then food processor to make seasoned crumbs, or stuffing.
Cheese rinds to go in pasta sauces or tomatoes based soups.
Veg trimmings and bones go for soup stock.

There are all the usual fruits and veg and meats as well, but I do have a whole section for , well, odds and ends.

No I don't but I'm going to start now.

I did take out two bread rolls the day before yesterday that I had frozen. They were defrosted for dc burger yesterday and I felt very proud of myself for using them up. I go through stages of freezing things to cut food waste and money, and then forget about them and end up chucking it out when freezer burn occurs.

The ends of the veg make great salad leaves, at this time of year. Put them in a splash of water so they start to grow. Plant them up outside in a pot.

They'll bush up with leaves, and tart up your summer salads.

Carrots, parsnips, celery, onion... just use as cut and come again.

I think boiling up stock from these bits is a false economy. The lengthy heat you need for a chicken carcass etc will cost far more than buying a cube or using bouillon powder. That's why I just don't bother.

For me it's not about cost, it is about avoiding food waste.
Plus making it yourself you know what is in it, you can make it less salty (as I do) and it smells so good when it's on the simmer!

Don't bother with veg peelings, but chicken carcasses, ham bones, bits of bread and random bits and pieces like a slice of ham or bacon frozen before use by dates - there's always enough odd stuff in the freezer to make soup or a pasta sauce.

Stock is made in the pressure cooker so it doesn't take long.

I hate food wastage

@halfsiesonapotnoodle

I think boiling up stock from these bits is a false economy. The lengthy heat you need for a chicken carcass etc will cost far more than buying a cube or using bouillon powder. That's why I just don't bother.

False comparison. There's barely any chicken in "chicken" cubes as a look at the ingredients list will tell you assuming you can't tell by taste alone. I do use them occasionally but only ever to add to bean or lentil dishes or similar, not for soups or braising veggies. In contrast, good quality demiglace or ready-made stocks are quite pricy - not living in the UK but they're €3.00 a glass where I am or €2.00 when I buy them discounted.

Bread - when it's not rock-hard yet it gets cubed to make croutons, or use for dumplings when I can be arsed. (Marrow dumplings, with old bread, egg, rendered beef marrow and seasoned with parsley and nutmeg are a particular delicacy in my home region.) Breadcrumbs when too hard for anything else. Parmesan rinds - boil in veggie soups for extra flavour.

Scraps go mainly to our chooks (though there are some things, like onion, they can’t have), chooks lay yummy eggs for us. There is something satisfying about the cycle and of course it massively reduces food waste.

I feed the worms, so it goes back on the garden.

Potato peelings make great crisps in the air fryer!

Fermenting the scraps makes good vinegar.

Thing is, although you get every last scrap of use out of things, there is still waste. The bones and soggy cooked veg still need disposing.

It does feel good to get the goodness/value out of everything before binning it, and anything you make yourself saves on transport and manufacturing of the things you buy. My own vinegar for cleaning means no plastic bottle, no transport, and no manufacture costs of vinegar bought at the supermarket.

I don’t have much freezer space, but any veg that are looking a bit sad go into one of my signature 😉 ‘dustbin’ soups - that leek, once manky outer leaves are stripped off, sprouting potatoes, limp carrots, etc., usually bulked up with red lentils, pearl barley, a bit of orzo pasta, etc.
Any last lonely, dried up rasher of bacon or bit of ham, will be snipped and added.
Sod all ever gets wasted in this house.

Any chicken carcass goes to make stock, with onion, carrot, celery, black peppercorns, etc. I dare say it’s not cost effective, but the stock is worth it.

Veg scraps usually go to our guinea pigs.

@LaWench

Veg scraps usually go to our guinea pigs.

Just came on here to say the same thing! Great for most veg ends!

i have a couple of broccoli stalks - good intentions

i put two crusts in the freezer but rarely make bread crumbs so i expect they will live there until i chuck them out

I keep meaning to save the veg scraps but they do tend to go straight in the compost bin. Yes to bread for breadcrumbs and parmesan heels for something.

Chicken bones always make stock, I do it in the pressure cooker.

Leftover herbs of any kind from the freezer, bones from roasts, carcasses, sad limp carrots, onions etc. bay leaves and allspice berries.

There are always a few super ripe bananas lurking too!