Why peacocks and chicken don’t mix
16th February 2008
I make my own chicken stock. It’s not hard (although pretty grody): Boil up a chicken carcass along with some onion, carrots, celery, salt, pepper and a bay leaf. Drain hunks of chicken and soggy veggies, and you’re left with stock so yummy you’ll never buy it in a can or powder again.
The first time I did this, I was a bit of an idiot and froze all the stock in a giant freezer bag. So when I needed just a small amount of it, I had to defrost the entire bag. Duh. This method is great for soup, though.
This past time, I decided to be smart: I measured a cup of stock into a bunch o’ little sandwich bags, zipped ‘em up, put them in a giant freezer bag. So that, like last night when I needed one cup of stock to make the best ever Shepherd’s Pie, I could just whip out a bag. I even labeled and dated each bag. Seriously, I patted myself on the back when it was all done, proud as a peacock over my ingenuity.
*sigh*
Day 16: 29 Days of the Everyday
Do you know that when you put a bunch of small bags of liquid into a bigger bag and smoosh them all together, they freeze into a hard puzzle of bags THAT WILL NOT COME APART?
Now you do.
Possibly related posts:
haha … oops
Lay the individual bags of your stock on a cookie sheet leaving a space between each one. Insert into freezer and leave there until the baggies are frozen. Then you can store them in one large bag, and I think that they will not all be frozen together. Give it a try next time you make stock.
From your loving Aunt
Ha, you’re funny! I guess you’re making lots of shepherd’s pie!
This sounds uncannily similar to the bags of breastmilk I used to keep in my freezer, except I never made Shepherd’s Pie with it. Actually, come to think of it, I have never made Shepherd’s Pie. Ice cream pie maybe. But not Shepherd’s Pie.
I freeze mine in an ice cube tray and then when they’re frozen, I transfer all the cubes to a big freezer bag. Works well if you just use a bit at a time.