....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?

Another MN thread where I'm baffled by what people think is "disgusting", "vile" etc.

Yep, me too. How anyone can imagine bacteria survive several hours boiling is beyond me.

If you are uncomfortable doing this, serve the meat off the bone. It's way better imo to not have to pick it away at the table. I'd much prefer to have just meat no bone.

Home made stock is a gazillion times better than a stock cube. In fact, it's not even the same thing is it. Stock cube is salt and fake flavour. Real stock is gelatinous and heavenly.

I keep the carcass with some meat still on then freeze.
When I’ve got a couple I throw them in the pressure cooker, )put them in the colander bit )and cover with water. Boil up.
Then take out carcass, remove meat, put back in pot with either veg or sweet corn for lovely soup.
Would NOT use bones from plates🤮

I suppose it's an example of the way the food industry has convinced us that a not very nutritious product is cheap and clean and convenient - while something else that we can prepare relatively easily and which is genuinely flavourful is 'skanky' and 'disgusting' and 'grim.'

(Yes, I know that there are some in the middle who will make stock, but only from the carcass rather than using the legs and wings that have been in people's plates.)

Presumably those who say boiling kills all the germs wpuld also include bones their dogs had finished with, on the off chance there was any meat left

Perhaps you can share your tasty recipes for chicken livers and hearts OP?
Or leftover lasagne scrapped from the plates?

I agree food waste in this country is appalling but not sure rinsing the gravy off Dads leftover slice of chicken for Johhnys sandwich tomorrow is the way to go.
Why not serve less on the plate and offer seconds?

but only from the carcass rather than using the legs and wings that have been in people's plates mouth.

DM used to use the giblets to make gravy, they would probably then be put in the stock pot too or given to the dog

Or head to KFC at the end of the day, raid the bins

it's disgusting...

On the dogs’ bones front, personally I wouldn’t have a dog in the house as I find that unhygienic. They don’t wipe their bums.

Happy to boil chicken bones leftovers though. We all have different things that disgust us.

Stock bones are simmered for two days, no germs. Include onions (with skins for colour) seasoning carrots celery, old nubs of parmesan. It is absolutely no work or effort, Costs little no chemicals, tastes great, no waste

Do you go to bed and leave the hob on? Or are you continually heating and cooling?

...I’m with you on this one. It’s not like we are collecting bones off the plates of strangers in restaurants.

There is no difference, one feels ok because you know and love your family. In reality bacteria is bacteria whoever's gob it comes from.

I love a good homemade stick which is why I rarely serve meat on the bone.

Do you go to bed and leave the hob on? Or are you continually heating and cooling?

Exactly - hob on for 2 days solid - think of the environment 👀 heating & cooling - think of the Salmonella 🤮

And if boiling kills everything it makes no difference if it comes off the plates of loved ones, out of the bins at kfc, or off the roadside surely.

Or maybe you and family take shifts to supervise the boiling. But it's no effort.

Meh, I think this is fine. Although I am the kind of person who used to get drunk and occasionally snog strangers in nightclubs at uni, and I didn't boil their mouths for 2 hours beforehand.
I shall also- if all goes according to plan- be squashing the face of a tiny baby with its neonatal immune system through my vagina at some point in the next few days.

More chance of getting ill from touching doors, phones and keyboards than eating soup made with stock bones from plates IMO.

OP you seem to be avoiding some questions.

1. Do you serve the stock to guests and if so do they know it was made from bones that have been sucked/chewed by your family?

1. What do you do with other half eaten meat products such as shepherds pie/lasagne/sausages/burgers etc that you scrape from plates?

If I’ve served someone a large bit of lasagna say...and they’ve eaten with knife and fork and dedcided to leave some....I’d probably put it in the fridge if enough left to bother with...

I’d also take bones that have been left....but we tend to eat chicken legs etc with a knife and fork.

I think home made stock is great...usually keep carcass in freezer till I’ve got two or three as you get a better flavoured stock.

Bendy carrot, nub end of celery, bay leaf, peppercorns simmer for 90 mins or slow cooker overnight (the only reasonable use for a slow cooker).

I make my own stock but would never use bones from people’s plates. But having said that I don’t intentionally put any bones onto plates anyway.

We actually eat a lot of vegetarian food and when preparing meat dishes tend to serve quite small portions of meat with a lot of rice and beg - so there are rarely leftovers. Children all pretty much grown up and with good appetites.

So I think it's mainly been chicken which has been recycled.

My closest friends are all keen cooks with similar views to my mine. They may have eaten soup with home-made stock when coming for lunch. I probably wouldn't do risotto when people come round, because all the stirring means it's not ideal when entertaining guests.

Recently when doing some bone-gathering while a friend was at supper, she commented approvingly.

'Oh do you that. So do we - but so many people don't.'

The only guest I'd been particularly concerned about serving food to from the point of view of being super-careful was my 97 year old father in law, because of his age and frailty. However, towards the end of his life he wasn't really well enough to leave his care home - so the situation didn't arise.

Hope that helps!

OH! I've been living dangerously and disgustingly for years, it seems

We keep all bones in the freezer and make stock that then gets used for gravy or soup, again kept in the freezer. As OP said you use old veg, cooked leftovers and anything to add flavour. So you use up all sorts of things that would go to waste.

If you put the finished warm stock in a jug in the fridge for half an hour the fat solidifies and you can pick it up as a solid disk, easy to put in the food caddy.

When we have it as soup it again uses up leftovers, bits of cooked chicken, odd bits if vegetables, chopped small, etc. So you get a second chance to reduce food waste.

We did much the same with soft tomatoes and peppers too. Keep all bits, cooked or raw in a bag in the freezer until you have enough then cook it down and freeze back the soup. Eat that with soda bread just out if the oven, or push the boat out and make a cheesy bread... we freeze heels of cheese for bread and sauces too.

I know that sounds OTT to many, but it is easy enough to have 3 large bags, freezer or carrier bags, permanently in the freezer ready for bits and bobs to be made into all sorts of meals later. Once you have 2 or 3 recipes for each bag you start to plan for it, reducing food waste even further.

That and it's fun trying to work out whether the food you are about to drop into the bin could have a second shot at hitting your plate instead.

I'll answer a couple if the 'yuck' questions...

Dog bones? No. Once the bones have been cracked, exposing the interior they become high risk for contamination.

And scrapings off plates are fair game for some dishes, depending on who will be eating them. DH and I will save anything we think worth it. But guests get 'first make' meals, so only gravy might include rescued food!

Except Dsis, who likes the soup... and doesn't care about the journey the bones made.

If I'd carved someone a couple of slices of meat and put them on that person's plate, but they'd only eaten one of them and left the other, I would certainly reuse that rather than binning it.

And what do you do with it? Does it get lobbed in with the bones or if taken from person A's plate, does it get served up as a treat to Person B the following day?

I doubt whether in my mother's youth - when food was rationed - everybody decided, 'Oh how grim, how disgusting' and swept nutritious uneaten food in to the bin...

I can't, of course, speak for your DM's childhood but I was a child in the late 1940s/50s when rationing was in place and while my DM had to be careful and very little food was wasted, I never once saw her remove bones off of our plates to put in the stock pot. Actually what little waste there was was never thrown away, it was given to my aunt and uncle to feed their pigs.