to think making stock by boiling a chicken carcass with onion, carrot, bayleaf, whatever, is a pointless waste of time?

[Mintyy]

I did it once a couple of years ago and vowed never again.

Honestly, a Knorr chicken stock cube does the job better, cheaper and quicker. With no washing up.

Well it just tasted like slightly chickeny water I'm afraid Biwi .

But then what do I know? To me delicious = toasted cheese and marmite sandwich. Stock is not really in the same ballpark.

Trust me, no unhappy chicken gets cooked in this kitchen

Making stock is pretty much the opposite of poncey bollocks?

I used to think this too, but I now do it for risotto - there's a definite taste difference.

I do it (in the slow cooker.) But this is only because I have shitty health conditions and no money. I think the jelly stuff you get from the carcass is full of collagen & things that might be good for me.

When I could afford the stock you buy in cartons, I used that. It tastes reliably superb, unlike my haphazard efforts.

Dandy

Hahaha you actually made it
That's so funny

The problem with stock is after all that work I barely got any . Enough for a 'one is fun' soup

I was talking to my mum about this recently after another disappointing attempt at magic chicken.

She said that neither of my grandmothers (who were both amazing cooks) would have used a chicken carcass for stock. They bought boiling birds which were older birds, useless for roasting but good for boiling for stock & making soup and other dishes from the poached meat. Apparently you could buy them in supermarkets up until the mid 80s.

Anyway, I poached a couple of chicken breasts for something else during the week and the stock that came off that was gorgeous, so I reckon you need to have a decent amount of meat on the bones for it to be any use.

I do it in the slow cooker.

But a pressure cooker you say?

I just bung the carcass into the slow cooker overnight with a carrot, a halved onion and some herbs from the garden. Takes no time. Why waste it?
Stock concentrate tastes really odd: artificial and a bit like generic Chinese takeaway brown sauce (is it MSG? haven't really investigated why). Stock cubes have wheat in so I can't have them anyway. And the amount of power used by the slow cooker to make the stock is pennies. I use it for loads of things, as well as ham stock, beef stock, whatever.

YABVU. I know I sound a bit woo etc but I want the fact that that chicken died so I could eat not to be forgotten. I'm going to use every little last bit of it.

Also, I do not have a lot of money, and this is essentially a free meal, which I'm not going to turn down.

YYY, sleepy, this is true. Broiler fowl. They were old cocks & hens. God knows what they do with them now - cat food?

Pressure cookers are better for this sort of thing, if only because your house doesn't fill with the pong of gently collapsing skeletons for 8 hours.

I never have any money when Aldi gets theirs in!

You can still buy broilers. In Neasden.

... that's where we get the expression 'old boiler' to mean an individual who's past their physical best. I do hope no-one here ever says it!

Human or hen,Moving?

I roast chicken wings and bones from butcher £2 for 20 mins then pop in slow cooker for 12 hrs. Cool skim off excess fat, delicious and easy. Full of goodness as well. Great for soup.

Stock cubes are salt with bits in

Stock from a chicken carcass is actual food

Well worth the minimal effort imo

I was virtuously making chicken stock last week and ds came running downstairs shouting "aw Mum chicken dinner- brilliant" felta bit crap then
BTW I use 2/3 carcases to make good strong stock

I can see it might not taste good on its own, Mintyy – only in something like a soup or risotto. But I am trying to wean myself off a deep seated love of salt too, so I sympathise.

Ballroom, I think you are supposed to use cold water to get the most goodness out of the stock. Apparently the jelly is ace for zapping free radicals.

Well I make chicken stock but I don't add Carrots other veg or anything. ..that would be chicken and veg stock wouldn't it? I literally just put the chicken carcass in my slow cooker with some water and turn it on overnight. Then put it through the collander in the morning and freeze in pots. When I need stock I take one pot out and defrost in the microwave. Done. Not difficult at all and far less salt than bought stock cubes!

I only make it when I have bones leftover (I do the same with lamb for instance ) and if I don't have any I will use a stock cube instead.

marigold low salt does the job perfectly.

the one time I tried to make stock I forgot about the pan on the hob...

You need to use a boiling fowl, and one that still has the feet attached. You will only ever get chicken flavoured water from a carcass, even if it is an organic one that was fed Michelin starred food cooked by Michel Roux. You put parsley root, carrots, an onion and some peppercorns in with it.

It has taken me 7 year to get DH to eat the chicken soup I make with the leftover roast. He had said that it was like eating road kill.

The kids and I love the chicken noodle soup though. Great comfort food, and prefect when DS has had his braces tightened.

Quick and easy to do after lunch. I do add marigold stock to mine too.

GIBLIETS . Thawas wot we used to use. I used to love the neck once it had been boiled. Cat never got a look in.

Why did they stop doing them. Time for a relaunch now we are all back to basics.

Chicken stock takes no time at all.

If anyone wants to post their noodle soup or risotto recipe i would be very grateful.

Well I just use the chicken carcass no veg or herbs or anything and the stock tastes nice enough ! I add it to other dinners like casseroles and nobody has ever commented that it has less flavour than when I used a stock cube. Can't tell the difference.

Re: where have the stewing hens gone. And for that matter, fryers or roasters.

Modern chicken farming is more specialised. Used to be, a farms flock was sold at different times for different purposes. Now, farms specialise, some do eggs, with a sideline in chickens of older, lesser quality. Others do meat birds.

So, egg farms just dont let their birds get that old. Laying hens only live long enough to get through their youthful burst of reliable daily eggs. Once they start tailing off, they dont get to stick around just to help make up the numbers and be sold as stewing hens, as in the old days. Nope, they are out, replaced by a younger girl. They are butchered and sent along to value range brands or for the making of ready meals, canned products and, yes, pet food. Chickens meant to be sold as meat live long enough to make weight, without being expected to lay eggs for a living. Essentially, they are all what we used to call fryers in the US, young birds, but fattened up to different levels. Really large burds labelled as premium roasting types are larger breeds but still quite young birds.

Capons, which used to be a sideline on chicken and egg farms, arent seen as worth the effort to keep them from fighting each other on their way to premium price and hardly anyone needs cocks for morning wake up calls, so few boy chickens live long after being determined to be boys. They are killed so soon they arent even worth anything for pet food. Just out with the garbage. Some very fancy farms might raise some to sell at posh shops, bit few of is are going to pay the price to make it worthwhile.