I had recently read on the internet that you can cook a turkey breast in your crock-pot and that it will turn out moist and just as good as cooking it in the oven. This post is NOT about that because my experience produced a dry turkey breast. Before I tout the benefits of your crock-pot over the oven for a turkey breast I will need to do a little more trial and error.
What I do want to talk to you about is how entirely easy it is to make broth in your crock-pot out of items you would have thrown away. I had saved the bones from two (whole) chickens in a gallon sized bag in my freezer for this very purpose but knew I did not have enough bones. So after the turkey fiasco of 2012 I had more bones to use. (I did not save the skin as it will produce a fattier broth.)
I simply returned the turkey bones to the juice in the bottom of the crock-pot, added the bones of 2 chickens, the washed tops and pieces of celery I did not deem worthy of a veggie tray, and topped off the crock-pot with water. I left this in my crock-pot on low until Thursday mid-morning when I turned it off so it would cool enough to handle. After it had sufficiently cooled I strained the contents of the crock-pot into a large bowl (using a colander with small holes) and threw out everything I strained out. I then placed the bowl of broth into my fridge to cool. After the broth cooled the fat had collected at the top and was easy to remove. Lastly I transferred 1 pint (2 cups) of the broth into quart sized freezer bags and froze them flat. This provided 13 cups of very flavorful, brown, low-fat broth. I will use this broth in recipes in the future and smile knowing I didn't pay a penny for it!!!
What is something you make that turns what would be discarded into a usable product?
I swear by home made broth. I will often buy a rotisserie chicken from the commissary. Use the meat in a chili and/or soup then boil everything that is left over {skin and all, the flavor it provides is great and I always skim off the fat that it adds} with some celery, onion and carrot pieces {the parts I normally throw away, I keep in a bag until I've collected enough}. It's the best $7.95 I spend at the comm and the flavor of the broth is just as good/better than what you'd buy at the store!
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