I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen with Randa. On Monday, we pulled a bag of neck and back bones from my freezer, and put them into a pot to thaw. Once they were thawed enough to break apart, I added water until the pot was full. We were using a 20 quart stock pot. Then, I set it to simmer. On Wednesday, I added whole carrots, an onion chopped in have and some celery, then let it continue simmering until 4 AM on Thursday. Randa arrived at 9AM, and we began the final work of getting the broth into the jars. First we pulled out as many bones as we could with tongs. Then, we strained the remainder through a colander, into another large stock pot. This was set aside, in a cool spot, to allow the tallow to rise to the top, so we could skim it. While some tallow in the broth is good, too much makes for greasy food. This was 100% grass fed beef, so the tallow is good for you, but still, I don't like to eat greasy food.
Then Randa got the yuckky job of finding the edible meat among the mess that we strained out. That has always been my least favorite part of making soup, so I am happy to be the teacher. Hands on learning is always best, so the student gets to do the real work. Meanwhile, we ran her quart mason jars through my dishwasher, so they would be ready.
We took a break for lunch, then I skimmed the excess tallow off the broth. Since it was all backbone pieces in there, it did not have as much tallow as some other batches of broth I have made. I then filled seven quarts with pure broth. I know many people strain their broth through cheese cloth, so they have crystal clear broth like you buy in the store. Personally, I think that is a waste of good food, and Randa agreed. We skipped that step and just filled the jars. I showed her how to set up the pressure canner, including all the appropriate warnings, and then we left Garth to keep and eye on it while we did chores.
The first batch was done when we came back, and the second batch, that was only 5 quarts was prepared. In these jars, we put back the meat that Randa had salvaged that morning, then filled them with broth. I put them on to cook, and Randa had to leave. A good days work, all the more fun for doing it together. I know that Randa is going to enjoy having the broth in her pantry, and feeding it to her family, knowing exactly how it was made and where it came from.
While I was feeding Lady Leche, I did notice the swelling on her teats is coming down. It looks like the mastitis is reduced to just the first teat that showed the problem. Buttercup was being a real sweety, giving me kisses and letting me scratch his chin. He hasn't been like that for months, so I think living off mom again, has him thinking he is a calf again.
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