This week for my Kitchen Day I roasted a big fat turkey. It was delicious! More about that later...Here's the real story you'll all want to know. The good news is: we didn't kill anyone.
So, after you cook and debone an enormous turkey, there is a huge pile of bones, skin, fat and broth left behind. I decided to not let it go to waste and turn it all into a vat of broth I could use for other recipes (like the Jambalaya I'm making this week!) I lovingly prepped it with more spices and another gallon of water and left it to simmer all night in my crockpot. The next morning the house smelled like Thanksgiving! I half hoped to find my mother in the kitchen with a big pan of her cornbread dressing. Instead, there was a steaming pan of turkey broth. It was perfect! So, I set up the kitchen for canning and got everything ready to go. I washed and boiled my jars, lids, and rings and pulled out my best funnel. I even enlisted the help of my teenage daughter thinking "This will be such a good experience for her! How many teenagers today get to learn how to make and can broth?"
Haha. Well, the jokes on me.
We ladled the broth into hot jars and I decided to pull out my book on canning just to be sure I did this right. Hmmm...now where'd I put that book? No idea! It's no where to be found. Now, this is the moment when I would normally shrug and say, "Oh, well. I know what I'm doing. I was just going to double check anyway."
Thank you, Lord, that you did not let me do that!
Instead, I pulled out my ipad and typed in a google search How to can broth. That's when it all fell apart.
Did you know that the only proper way to can broth or meat products is in a pressure canner? I bet you did! Well, guess who was going to just put them in a hot water bath? That's right. This idiot right here. Even after the first four or five websites all insisted that I use a pressure canner, I still kept searching for those hot water bath instructions.(Because I'm stubborn in my idiocy!)
Then, I read this statement posted in response to a simpleton canner (like myself) daring to suggest that she can broth in a hot water bath (like myself.)
"NO! Absolutely NOT!!! Botulism spores are documented to survive more than 100 hours of boiling. You CAN NOT kill them the way you are suggesting. You are likely going to kill either yourself or a loved one by doing this!"
Well, that pretty much sums it up. I was about to do something both stupid and dangerous. It doesn't get much worse than that. Oh yeah, it does. I had my teenage daughter standing there watching me with her big round beautiful eyes like she KNOWS I'm about to have to save face. Ugh!
So, What do you do with 8 quarts of turkey broth perfection when you don't own a pressure cooker? You FREEZE it! We worked fast to clean up our mess and pour all of the cans into freezable containers. We labeled them with freezer tape and shoved them into the last remaining freezer space I had left. Then, I made up a huge batch of Jambalaya just to make myself feel better. It did. It really did. (watch for the recipe coming soon!)
So, there you go. I'm an idiot. But, on the bright side I didn't kill anyone :)
So, after you cook and debone an enormous turkey, there is a huge pile of bones, skin, fat and broth left behind. I decided to not let it go to waste and turn it all into a vat of broth I could use for other recipes (like the Jambalaya I'm making this week!) I lovingly prepped it with more spices and another gallon of water and left it to simmer all night in my crockpot. The next morning the house smelled like Thanksgiving! I half hoped to find my mother in the kitchen with a big pan of her cornbread dressing. Instead, there was a steaming pan of turkey broth. It was perfect! So, I set up the kitchen for canning and got everything ready to go. I washed and boiled my jars, lids, and rings and pulled out my best funnel. I even enlisted the help of my teenage daughter thinking "This will be such a good experience for her! How many teenagers today get to learn how to make and can broth?"
Haha. Well, the jokes on me.
We ladled the broth into hot jars and I decided to pull out my book on canning just to be sure I did this right. Hmmm...now where'd I put that book? No idea! It's no where to be found. Now, this is the moment when I would normally shrug and say, "Oh, well. I know what I'm doing. I was just going to double check anyway."
Thank you, Lord, that you did not let me do that!
Instead, I pulled out my ipad and typed in a google search How to can broth. That's when it all fell apart.
Did you know that the only proper way to can broth or meat products is in a pressure canner? I bet you did! Well, guess who was going to just put them in a hot water bath? That's right. This idiot right here. Even after the first four or five websites all insisted that I use a pressure canner, I still kept searching for those hot water bath instructions.(Because I'm stubborn in my idiocy!)
Then, I read this statement posted in response to a simpleton canner (like myself) daring to suggest that she can broth in a hot water bath (like myself.)
"NO! Absolutely NOT!!! Botulism spores are documented to survive more than 100 hours of boiling. You CAN NOT kill them the way you are suggesting. You are likely going to kill either yourself or a loved one by doing this!"
Well, that pretty much sums it up. I was about to do something both stupid and dangerous. It doesn't get much worse than that. Oh yeah, it does. I had my teenage daughter standing there watching me with her big round beautiful eyes like she KNOWS I'm about to have to save face. Ugh!
So, What do you do with 8 quarts of turkey broth perfection when you don't own a pressure cooker? You FREEZE it! We worked fast to clean up our mess and pour all of the cans into freezable containers. We labeled them with freezer tape and shoved them into the last remaining freezer space I had left. Then, I made up a huge batch of Jambalaya just to make myself feel better. It did. It really did. (watch for the recipe coming soon!)
So, there you go. I'm an idiot. But, on the bright side I didn't kill anyone :)