Ah, meat stock, you elusive siren. I find many of my clients feel like achieving that perfect, thick, jiggly meat stock is like chasing down an elusive siren. I, too, was once beguiled. But once you try your hand at making meat stock and begin to work through the kinks, it is actually quite an easy thing to make. There are some parameters that certainly help you achieve that “sexy jiggle”, as I like to call it, the gelatin. This is what we want to see in our stock once it cools – it should shimmy and it should shake!
- The 1:1 ratio should always be your starting point. For every 1 pound of meaty bones you want to add 1 cup of filtered water. This is not a lot and confuses many. What I find most is clients telling me they have put a 4-lb chicken in a pot and tried to cover it fully with water. This is what you don’t want to do. I almost always have parts of my meaty bones sticking up from the water and that is okay.
If we are using the 1:1 ratio the 4-lb chicken should have 4 cups of water. But here is where an exception comes into play. Some cuts of meat have more connective tissues than others. For example: a chicken thigh, bone-in, skin-on, does not have very much connective tissue compared to say a drumstick or a wing. So when you are using the whole bird, which is a great option, you are dealing with a lot more connective tissue throughout the entire bird because it has wings, back, maybe neck, thighs, legs, and all the joints the body connects all these parts together. So when you are making a stock with a whole bird you can increase your water in the ratio.
When I am using a whole bird I will typically increase by 2-3 cups. So if I have a 4-lb bird I will use 6-8 cups of water. This will insure I get some of that visible gelatin – that ‘sexy jiggle’ in the product. This amount of water will not cover my bird fully and that is okay.
One of my best tips is to play around with ratios but start with the 1:1 rule. If you are using chicken thighs only you will likely need to stick fully to the ration. If you are using a mixture of cuts like thighs, legs, quarters, necks, backs, feet – any variation of these – you will likely be able to increase your water ratio. I find that when I toss feet into stock I can always increase my ratio by 2-4 cups and get a lot of really great gelatin.
2. Crack the bone. This is another lesser-known tip to making a higher quality meat stock. More collagen is released from the bones when they have been cut or cracked. This will also help your stock gel more. This practice will also allow more minerals to get out of the bone and into the stock.
I like to spatchcock a whole chicken and then typically cut into the wings to crack the bones open. You just need a good pair of kitchen shears and it’s easy.
3. Stove top is my preferred method. This isn’t always possible with busy lifestyles but I find I get the best stock out of cooking on the stove. It is the shortest cooking time – slow cookers and ovens are 6+ hours – and it allows you a bit more control.
When you cook on the stove you have the ability to bring the stock to a boil and remove the scum from the top. The white, frothy junk that rises is full of impurities and it is great to be able to skim this stuff off and remove it so it doesn’t mix back into the stock. It certainly is not the end of the world if it cannot be removed but its an additional step that, I think, makes the stock better nutritionally and in flavor.
4. Don’t make bone broth! If you are new to GAPS or considering starting you want to make sure you are making meat stock. Here is a good read on the difference between meat stock and bone broth and why we begin with stock and not broth.
Meat Stock is what we want to be consuming on GAPS. Bone broth is an advanced GAPS food or the maintenance food for when we come off GAPS. I still make both on a regular basis. I do prefer the flavor of meat stock over bone broth.
If you are ready for bone broth here is my personal recipe and way I make it.
If you are new to making your own stock go easy on yourself if you make mistakes and end up with a batch that is watery with no visible gelatin. It happens. Also, don’t toss it! You can still consume it, use it in soups, or use it to steam veggies. There will still be beneficial minerals in it.
If you have any questions please feel free to leave them below. I hope your every batch of stock is fully of that sexy jiggle! 🙂
