Bone Broth Disaster!

[Vian]

I made the most amazing bone broth a couple weeks ago. I roasted a whole chicken, picked the meat off, and put all the drippings, bones, and skin into the crock pot with celery, onions, carrots, garlic, whole pepper corns and parsley, then covered it with water and let it simmer. I made soup with it when it was done (24 hours later) and it was slightly sweet and SO FLAVORFUL. I strained the rest and put it in glass mason jars and then into the deep freeze.

 

Every jar broke...

 

I almost cried...Not about the jars, I have more jars, who cares? I almost cried over my amazing stock now being contaminated with glass shards.

 

I put the quart mason jars into my large stock pot and set the stock pot on top of my gas heater and let them thaw overnight. In the morning, i picked out all the large pieces of glass, then poured the stock through a coffee filter.

 

The moral of the story... Leave enough space for expansion if you freeze your bone broth in glass jars (like, way more than 1/2 inch)

[Bet]

I was going to say, how did you ruin bone broth? Too much salt.

 

Well, lesson learned. Lucky you could save most of it.

[Elizabeth!]

it is like spilling breast milk, a tragedy 

[Applegirl]

I know glass is best for food quality, but I no longer use it to freeze anything for that reason.  So glad you saved most.  

 

On the rare occasion that I have used glass, I fill only 2/3 of the way, put on a cookie sheet in freezer and freeze without the lids.  Once everything is frozen I put the lids on.  The worst that can happen is that it spills a bit onto the cookie sheet and you have that bulgy mound on the top of the container, which can be chipped off and eaten.

 

Love making broth!!!! 

[XIIxOveR]

Oh man, that stinks! Glad you thought to strain it rather than chuck it though, what a loss that would have been!

 

It's probably not the most popular way to do it but I just use ziplock bags which I lay flat on a baking sheet in the freezer so they freeze flat and stackable. Maximizes storage space in my constantly overflowing freezers and I can break them up between sandwich bags for single servings or gallons for when I need a larger batch. I do this with broth, soups, chili, sauces, etc.

 

Also, I have been known to suck the extra air out of the bag with a straw before zipping up that last quarter inch lol. May not be vacumn sealed but it's pretty good!

 

Xii