....to gather up the bones?

[marvik]

Spin-off from another thread.

I buy whole free range chickens which I either roast and carve - or joint for casseroles. When the meal is over I've always gathered up the bones from people's plates to add to the carcass which is then boiled up for stock. The stock is used for soup or risotto.

Was baffled to learn - on another thread - that many people feel this is 'rank', 'disgusting' etc.

I think it's about good cooking and good household economy.

(In the old days the cat used to get the left over boiled chicken from the stock pot too..)

Your thoughts please?

If people have been touching / licking / chewing on the bones I would imagine there are possibly hygiene issues. Though I suppose boiling would kill any germs anyway.

Mum would carve up the bird and pick off the meat, then use the carcass to make soup.

She was brought up during the war - she wouldn’t have picked the bones off plates and used them!

Sounds very normal to me. Ditto beef/lamb etc

Presumably though the bones have traces of salt/gravy/sauce from the rest of the leftovers? And I would also see it as a bit of a hygiene issue - as pp said likely the boiling would sort any germs, but I'd still feel a bit icky. Thing is, once plated the food is no longer controlled, and people do what they like with their dinner. Go to a pub on a Sunday, and you'll see the toddlers who sneeze over their dinner then carry on eating, the older men who blow their nose on their napkin then put it on the plate, the people who chew their bones, drop their fork on on the floor then put it on the finished food, etc.

There probably isn't any solid reason not to, but I wouldnt be comfortable with this.

I think the licking, gnawing and touching is a little over-exaggerated.

Don't people use a knife and fork to remove the meat from the bones and then eat it if the meat is part of a roast, or mixed meal like a casserole or paella etc?

YANBU OP.

I would be happy to use the bones of a chicken from which I had removed the meat but would not use those remaining on people's plates at the end of a meal. WeirdAndPissedOff has given some excellent reasons.

Bones left on the carcass, fine. Bones retrieved from others plates makes me feel a bit queasy.

Nigella says she does it.

Urgh! By all means use the bones from the carcass, but not off people's plates! Disgusting. They could have licked and chewed the bones!

Oh god no, not if they've been on people's plates and in their hands and mouths.

Homemade stock from bones is overrated anyway imo. Once you've added a shit tonne of other ingredients so you've actually got some flavour there, you might as well have just bought stock cubes/stock pots.

It's not using the bones that's weird (although buying stock cubes etc is probably a lot cheaper than paying for the energy needed to make your own), it's bragging about it to someone you've just met.

Yes, I'm not sure how boiling bones for 3 or 4 hours is 'good household economy' anyway.

It does seem to be one of those jobs that people do simply to prove that they are the type of person that does these kind of jobs.

It's a waste of time, energy and money and it tastes like greasy crud when it's done.

I've vowed to never make stock again because it doesn't taste of anything unless you stick a load of salt, pepper and herbs in it, which negates the point of not using stock cubes.

Plus it's messy, time consuming and costs a fortune compared with cubes, for the energy and stock vegetables that are also needed. Seems like a totally pointless endeavour.

Surely there are enough bones left on the carcass without have to pick off people’s plates. It does sound a bit unpleasant, and I would want to eat something made from table scraps.

My DP likes nothing more than sucking on bones. He disgusts me every time. Even more so when he also takes my discarded bones and sucks on them with relish and lip smacking noises. He only does it in the house, he knows I hate it but he doesn't use those bones for stock.

Commercial stock is cheap but it's very salty and doesn't have the gelatious quality of home-made stock. (This comes from collagen)

The ingredients listed are:-Wheat Flour (with added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Salt, Dried Glucose Syrup, Flavour Enhancer (Monosodium Glutamate), Yeast Extract, Flavourings, Chicken Fat (3%), Potato Starch, Sugar, Concentrated Chicken Extract (2%), Colour (Ammonia Caramel).

So yes, it does have flavour - but the sources of that flavour are a bit dubious.

I'll put old veg in the stock - an onion or carrot that are slightly past their best, a celery stick, a few herbs and a peppercorn.

So it's household economy not in the sense of being the budget option but in terms of a) making use of whatever's around and b) meaning that the next meal - which will be rice or vegetable based - will have depth of flavour.

Arguably too - though energy is used in keeping the stockpot boiling, that is offset by making use of leftovers, not supporting the food processing industry, not trekking to the supermarket. So it's economical in the sense of being 'green' - lowering one's carbon footprint...

Oh and you skim off the fat. (If you buy a cheap chicken, there may be a lot of fat. With a free-range chicken, there'll be less of it.)

I'd agree that if you're buying a value chicken, probably less point in making the stock.

I use the carcass not the bones from people's plates !

Homemade stock is liquid gold. Get all the bones you can. And who the hell chews chicken bones anyway?!

No-one's said anything about using value chicken. I buy free range chicken and the stock still taste of nothing.

I buy low salt Kallo stock cubes that cost 20 pence each and the stock from each cube contains half a gram of salt

www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/kallo-very-low-salt-organic-chicken-stock-cubes--gluten-free-x6-48g

I use the carcass but would never use the dregs from someone’s plate. Realistically it would be okay if boiled for several hours but it’s quite stomach turning and unless it was that it starve then nope.

I don't think anyone actually chews the bones, but they'll obviously be chewing/stripping the meat off them with their mouths.

It does make me feel a bit queasy tbh and even after reading the OP's updates, I still think homemade stock is a massive waste of time and effort.

But ultimately if you and your family are happy to eat it OP, that's all that matters.

Of course you should do this! I always do & any leftover wine in glasses, it goes straight in the freezer! No germ issues, it'll be boiled away, some very squeamish folk on here.

Yeah, we use the low salt Kallo cubes, which are brill because they're gluten free and ds has coeliacs. I've never looked at the other ingredients beyond that though