How to Can Homemade Broth or Stock
We cook the vast majority of our meals at home, from scratch, and one of the ingredients we use most is stock (or broth… We’ll discuss the difference in a minute).
I probably use a quart or two of chicken stock every week on average— sometimes more if I’m making a big pot of soup. Chicken stock is super versatile and can be turned into soups, stews, and sauces, used as a braising liquid for meats or as a base for gravy, or even as an extra flavourful cooking liquid for grains like pasta and rice. (Risotto is a prime example of a grain that wouldn’t be nearly as good without stock or broth!)
Likewise, I like to keep beef broth on hand for beef stew, French Onion soup and beef short ribs. (I’m salivating as I write this).
While I don’t use vegetable stock a lot, it’s also a great vegan alternative to chicken stock!
What’s the difference between stock and broth?
Before we go any further, let’s talk about the difference between stock and broth…
The terms “broth” and “stock” are often used interchangeably, and so are the ingredients themselves. For example, if a recipe calls for stock but you only have broth, go ahead and use broth. Same goes for the opposite: you can use stock instead of broth if that’s what you have on hand.
The real difference between stock and broth is that stock is typically made with the carcass or bones of an animal (ie. chicken or beef), that typically have little to no meat left on them. The bones are typically roasted to bring out more or the rich flavours of the bones and any bits of meat left on them.
Broth, however, can be made from bones or from meat, on or off the bone, and usually some veggies, herbs and seasonings for extra flavour. The meat/bones in broth are typically not roasted.
At the end of the day, they broth and stock are both very similar and can both be used interchangeably in most recipes.
* I use the terms “broth” and “stock” interchangeably throughout this articles as well.
I make my broth/stock with bones and carcasses with varying amounts of meat left on them, as well as veggie scraps, fresh and dried herbs, salt, and spices for lots of flavour.
Health benefits of broth and stock
Aside from flavour and versatility, broth and stock are both super healthy for you. There’s a reason why we’re told to eat chicken soup when we’re sick, and it’s all about the broth, baby!
Broth and stock are both loaded with the nutrients that are present in the ingredients used to make them, so if you add carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, etc. to your broth, you’ll benefit from all of the nutrients that are extracted from those ingredients.
Stock (aka. Bone Broth) is especially good for you, and has achieved superfood status in recent years due to its amazing health benefits. This is because stock/bone broth is made with bones, and animal bones contain all sorts of vitamins and minerals including calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorous (found in the bones themselves), glucosamine, chondroitin and collagen (found in the joints) and vitamins A and K2, zinc, iron, boron, manganese, selenium, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (found in the marrow). [Source]
While all of these vitamins and minerals are important for our overall health, collagen in particular has been touted for its health benefits, and is the main nutrient responsible for the rise in popularity of bone broth.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, and is essential for maintaining healthy skin, hair, nails, muscles, bones and joints.
Collagen supplements have been popping up in health food stores everywhere, but you can get collagen in its most natural (and delicious) form by enjoying it in some bone broth. Plus, you’ll get all of the nutrients from the addition of vegetables and herbs.
You can see the gel on this homemade beef broth. This is what it typically looks like after being refrigerated and is a sign of high levels of collagen.
Why make and can your own homemade stock?
While you can easily buy broth or stock at the store, there are a few reasons why you should make your own (and can it too!)
First of all, by making your own broth, you know exactly what’s in it and how much of each ingredient there is. Some popular commercial brands of broth contain additional ingredients like inflammatory canola and/or soybean oil, artificial flavours and flavour “enhancers,” and excessive amounts of sodium. By making your own, you can use healthier, all-natural ingredients and keep the salt to a healthy minimum.
Second, making your own broth or stock at home is much cheaper than buying it from the store. This is especially true if you’re buying the good stuff (ya know, the organic brands without all of the added junk I listed above).
Good quality store-bought bone broth can be pretty pricey. Making your own is not only cheaper, it also makes use of animals parts that would otherwise be discarded.
I try to always buy whole or bone-in chicken, so we get a meal out of the meat and then I just toss the bones/carcass into the freezer until I’m ready to make a batch of broth. I also use veggie scraps instead of whole vegetables (which I’ll talk about in a minute), so my homemade chicken broth is practically free.
While I do purchase beef bones specifically for making broth, they’re still cheaper than it would cost to buy beef broth from the store.
And of course, if you raise your own meat animals, you’d be crazy NOT to make your own stock!
Finally, while you can make your own broth/stock and preserve any excess in the freezer, I prefer to can it so that I have it ready to go in liquid form whenever I need it. I’m just not great with planning ahead and remembering to take things out of the freezer well before I need them, so having canned stock ready to go is a huge help for me in the kitchen.
Just be aware that broth and stock are low acid and therefore MUST be pressure canned for safety reasons. Instructions on how to do this can be found in the recipe below.
* For more information on pressure canning, click here to learn how to use a pressure canner safely.
How to make broth or stock at home
Now that you know WHY you should be making your own bone broth/stock at home, here’s how to actually do it…
First of all, you’ll need to gather your ingredients. The recipe I use is very flexible and doesn’t use set amounts of anything. You can add as much or as little of the listed ingredients as you like.
The first thing you’ll need is bones or meat.
If you’re making chicken stock, either start with one whole chicken carcass or a couple handfuls of bones. If using beef bones, I usually get two batches of stock out of roughly 5 lbs. of beef bones.
You can use “fresh” bones (ie. bones that you’ve just picked clean from a meal) or frozen bones. I like to toss all my chicken bones into the freezer in Ziplock bags until I’m ready to use them.
Next, roast the bones. This is a super important step that is crucial for beef broth and will improve the flavour of chicken broth too.
(One time I tried making beef broth without roasting the bones first and it was flavourless and gritty. I ended up tossing the whole batch. While roasting isn’t necessary for chicken stock, it improves the flavour and richness of your broth).
Preheat oven to 450ºF. Place bones on a baking tray (no need to thaw, you can do this while they’re still frozen), drizzle with a little olive oil and roast for about 30-40 minutes, until bones and any meat left on them have browned.
Transfer roasted bones to a large stockpot, slow cooker or Instant Pot (cooking instructions for each method follow).
Then, add a handful of chopped vegetables, herbs and spices for flavour. Onions, garlic, leeks, celery, carrots, rosemary, thyme, sage and bay leaves are all popular choices for adding flavour to stock, as well as some peppercorns and a generous pinch of salt.
You can use either fresh or dried herbs for flavour, just remember that dried herbs are more concentrated in flavour than fresh herbs, so use a bit less.
Add a splash of apple cider vinegar if you have some on hand. The ACV helps draw out more nutrients from the bones!
* Take caution if using sage as too much can make your stock taste bitter once canned.
** This recipe also works for vegetable stock too — just omit the bones/meat. **
Frugal kitchen tip…
I save a bunch of my veggie scraps in freezer bags for making stock, which makes this recipe extra frugal! I toss onion and garlic ends and peels, as well as (washed) carrot peels and celery ends in the freezer and then toss in a couple good handfuls with my bones when I’m ready to make stock!
Stovetop/slow cooker method
Cover bones, vegetables, herbs and seasonings with water, cover and bring to a simmer on the stovetop over medium heat, or set your slow cooker to low.
If cooking on the stovetop, reduce heat to low once simmering.
Cook on low for 8 to 12 hours (up to 24 hours).
Strain out the bones, veggies and other solid, reserving the liquid. You may need to strain the liquid twice and/or use a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth to filter out any little bits.
Refrigerate bone broth before canning
Instant Pot method
If using an Instant Pot, cover bones, vegetables, herbs and seasonings with water (make sure not to fill past the max. fill line). Place the lid on and make sure the vent knob is closed. Set Instant Pot to high pressure and cook for two hours.
Once time is up, allow Instant Pot to depressurize naturally. Remove lid after about 30 minutes and strain, reserving the liquid.
Refrigerate bone broth before canning
Allow bone broth to cool in the pot or transfer to a container or divide between quart-sized Mason jars. Once cooled, place in the fridge and refrigerate overnight.
It’s important to refrigerate for at least 8-12 hours before canning as any fat will float to the top and harden so you can easily skim it off.
This is especially true for beef stock as this produces a thick layer of beef fat (tallow). For safety reasons, you shouldn’t can fat. Although it’s okay if there are a few tiny pieces of fat floating around still, so long as you remove the majority.
Once cooled in the fridge, remove stock and skim off the fat. At this point you will likely notice that the stock is thick and more like gelatine than liquid. This is a GOOD sign!! The thicker your stock, the more collagen it has. And don’t worry: once you heat it again or can it, it will turn back to liquid form.
You can clearly see the hardened fat on top of this refrigerated beef stock. This must be skimmed off before canning. Chicken stock typically has a much thinner layer of fat on top after refrigerating.
How to can homemade broth or stock
Prepare your pressure canner, jars and lids. For more information on how to do this, click here.
Transfer stock to a large, stainless steel pot and bring to a boil. Ladle boiling hot stock into prepared jars, leaving one inch headspace at the top.
Wipe jar rims to make sure there is no residue from the stock on the rims as this can prevent a good seal. I recommend using a paper towel or rag dipped in white vinegar as the vinegar will cut through the fat/oiliness of the stock and will ensure there’s no reside left behind.
Place new lids on jars and screw bands down to fingertip tight.
Process pint jars for 30 minutes and quart jars for 35 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure (increase to 15 pounds of pressure if canning at over 1,000 feet above sea level).
- You may come across other bone broth/stock canning recipes that say to process for 20 minutes for pint jars or 25 minutes for quart jars, however this is only safe if you’re using exact amounts of ingredients according to a safe and tested recipe. Since this recipe calls for a handful of this and a handful of that, increase your processing time to 30 minutes for pint jars and 35 minutes for quart jars. This is because the vegetables in this recipe require a longer processing time than meat, so I go by the processing time for vegetable stock rather than meat stock.
Once processing time is up, allow canner to depressurize completely, then remove lid and let jars rest in the canner for another 10 minutes before removing.
Remove jars from canner and let cool completely on a towel on your countertop before storing.
Canned stock should be stored in your pantry out of direct sunlight and should be used within a year (this is an overly cautious precaution for all home-canned foods, however I’ve used home-canned stock that was up to two years old and it’s been fine).
How to store homemade bone broth/stock in the fridge or freezer
If you don’t want to can your stock, it will last in the fridge up to one week.
Alternatively, you can freeze your homemade stock for up to a year (for best quality). If freezing, remember to leave ample headspace at the top of your jar(s) or container to allow for expansion. I like to leave at least two inches of headspace when freezing.
How to use homemade broth/stock
There are so many ways to use your homemade broth or stock. Use it as a base for soups and stews, sauces and gravies, as a basting liquid for braised meats or use in place of water when cooking grains like rice and pasta for added flavour.
You can also heat up a mug or a bowl and sip your homemade broth on its own to benefit from all of the nutrients. This is especially recommended when you’re feeling sick or like you’re coming down with something.
How do you use broth/stock at home?
As always, I’d love to know your favourite ways to use broth or stock at home. Do you have any favourite recipes or ways to use broth/stock that weren’t listed above? If so, let me know in the comments below!
Notes
This is a very flexible recipe with no set amounts. As long as you pressure can it for 30 minutes (pints) or 35 minutes (quarts), you don't have to measure your vegetables out.
Ingredients
- Beef or poultry bones
- Veggies/veggie scraps (onions, garlic, celery, carrots)
- Fresh or dried herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaves, peppercorns etc.)
- Salt (a generous pinch)
Instructions
- Roast the bones/carcass in a 450 degree oven for 30-45 minutes for a richer, more flavourful broth.
- Add roasted bones to a stockpot, slow cooker or Instant Pot. Toss in whatever veggies or veggie peels you happen to have on hand. Onions, garlic, celery and carrots work well.
- Add a handful of fresh herbs or a spoonful of dried herbs such as rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and sage. * Take caution when using sage as too much can make your stock taste bitter.
- Add a generous pinch of salt and cover with water. Slow cook stock/broth on the stovetop or in a slow cooker for 8-12 hours (up to 24 hours(, or in the Instant Pot on high pressure for 2 hours.
- Strain out the solids and discard, reserving liquid. Once stock has cooled sufficiently, transfer it to the fridge and let cool until the fat on the top solidifies.
Pressure Canning Instructions
- Prepare canner, jars and lids.
- Remove stock from the fridge and use a spoon to scrape the fat off the top and discard. Add liquid stock to a stockpot and bring to a boil.
- Ladle hot stock into jars, leaving 1” headspace at the top. Wipe rim with a towel dipped in vinegar (the vinegar will help remove any fat that may prevent a seal on the top of the jar). Place lids on and screw bands on to fingertip tight.
- Place jars in pressure canner and process pint jars for 30 minutes and quart jars for 35 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure (increase to 15 pounds of pressure if canning at over 1,000 feet above sea level).
- Once processing time is finished, turn off the heat and allow the pressure canner to depressurize completely, then remove weighted gauge and wait another 2 minutes. Remove lid and wait another 10 minutes before removing jars from canner. Let jars sit on a towel on your counter top for at least 12 hours before moving them to your pantry.
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First of all, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU for all of the support during this difficult time.
(See my last post from yesterday if you're not sure what I'm talking about).
Second, despite the lows of the past week, it does bring me joy to announce that I've opened up the doors to my Yes, You CAN! home canning course once again, and for a limited time only, I'm offering an additional $20 discount off the total cost of the course.
(Just use code TAKE20 at checkout).
Over the course of 12 video lessons, I'll walk you through everything you need to get started canning food (safely) at home.
You'll learn about canning safety and equipment, how to operate a water bath canner and a pressure canner, and I'll show you in detail how to can everything from jams and pickles to stocks and vegetables.
You'll also get some pretty awesome bonuses, including my Jams and Jellies 4-Part Mini-Series, my brand new Home Canning Handbook (complete with 30 of my favourite canning recipes), and access to our private Facebook group, where you can ask questions and get ongoing support.
Plus, if you enroll before midnight tomorrow night, you'll also get a free copy of my Herbal Infusions Masterclass and eBook, so you can preserve your herbs by making your own extracts, tinctures, oils and herbal medicines.
I hope you'll join me in putting up the harvest this preserving season.
While we may not have control over most things in life, this is one area where we have complete control, and that's a good and comforting feeling.
Click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/yesyoucan to learn more.
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We lost a baby last week.
We’ve now lost 4 pregnancies in a row, and every loss is heart-wrenching.
I still don’t have the words to describe what we’re going through, nor the heart to share everything right now. It’s tough to be a content creator whose job revolves around sharing your life with the world when your own world comes crashing down, over and over again.
While I’m in the very unlucky 1% of women who lose three or more pregnancies in a row, I know I’m not alone and that there are many more grieving mamas with broken hearts and unconditional love for their unborn babies.
We don’t talk enough about pregnancy loss and its impact on families. I hope to change that in my own small way as our own family continues to navigate this journey together, but right now we’re healing.
And today we’re celebrating our beautiful Earth Angel’s 5th birthday. I truly don’t know how or if I’d be able to cope with all of the losses without her, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
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I get a lot of questions about how to know if a canning recipe or method is safe.
Often times these messages come from people who have been handed down old canning recipes and cookbooks from their parents and grandparents, or have fond memories of old recipes but want to know if they’re safe to can according to today’s standards.
The fact is, many of the canning recipes and methods that our grandparents and even our parents used are no longer considered safe. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to make them safe!
Join me this Saturday, July 24th for my free live training, How to Stock Your Pantry Like A Pro: 6 Simple Rules for Safe Home Canning.
I’ll teach you what you absolutely MUST know and do to ensure your home canned food is safe to eat, as well as how to safely adapt canning recipes and even how to take favourite recipes and make them safe for canning!
Plus I’ll be answering your canning questions live at the end of the training!
Click the link in my bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to thehouseandhomestead.com/safecanning to save your seat!
In the meantime, leave your canning questions below👇 in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them all on Saturday!
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Sometimes when I look at our pantry full of home-canned food, even I find it hard to believe that I started canning just six years ago.
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When I canned my first batch of applesauce, I was so afraid that it would make my baby daughter sick that I refused to feed her a single spoonful, and I ate the rest with my fingers crossed that I’d live to tell the tale!
Then came my first batch of green beans. I hid around the corner as the pressure canner hissed and rattled, afraid it would blow up my kitchen. And after all was said and done, I was so scared to eat the beans that I had lovingly grown from seed and preserved that I ended up tossing every single jar in the garbage. Talk about a waste of food! (Not to mention time and effort).
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You know the drill 😉
Contest ends Wednesday, July 14th at midnight PST. Winner will be announced on July 15th.
In the meantime, if you haven’t yet subscribed (for free) to receive new issues of Modern Homesteading Magazine straight to your inbox, head to the link in my bio to subscribe OR become a member and get access to all past issues right away! (If you win and you’re already a member, you can either choose to get your next year free once your membership is up for renewal, or you can gift your membership to a loved one:)
And if you wanna get your hands on the 7&7 Set (or any other Plant Therapy set), now is the time because right now you can save 20% on all Plant Therapy sets for a very limited time. Just enter code SETS20 at checkout OR enter code HOMESTEAD to get 10% off everything else site wide!
Links in bio @thehouseandhomestead to check out all of the above ☺️
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour!
🍒 July is synonymous with cherries, and that means CHERRY PIE!!!
But there’s only so much cherry pie one can eat on hot summer days. So instead, why not preserve some cherry pie filling to enjoy all year long!
This recipe for cherry pie filling includes full waterbath canning instructions so you can have your pie and eat it too, at any time of year!
Recipe link in bio @thehouseandhomestead or go to https://thehouseandhomestead.com/can-homemade-cherry-pie-filling/
Summer pie season (and canning season) has officially arrived 😉
🍔 It took me 33 years to try making my own hamburgers from scratch.
I know, I know… I preach about making everything from scratch, and burger patties are like, entry level.
But if I’m being really honest, I never liked homemade burgers patties growing up. They were always dry and flavourless. My mom would bulk hers up with breads crumbs and huge chunks of onion, hardly any seasoning and then she’d cook them until they were charred and very well done. So when I grew up I found a grocery store brand that I liked and we always just bought those, along with some store-bought buns and called it good.
But as I started making my own mayo and BBQ sauce and pickles and relish and started topping our burgers with homegrown tomatoes and lettuce, I just couldn’t come to terms with the fact that I was using store-bought buns and patties.
Now, don’t get me wrong: we use store-bought burgers as they’re good in a pinch, but we’ve also perfected our homemade burger game, from the patties to the buns to the condiments and everything else in between!
The secret to our homemade patties is using grass fed beef and BACON. And no extra filler, other than seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and Worcestershire sauce).
But what really makes these next level are freshly made homemade hamburger buns! There is nothing like homemade bread of any kind, and hamburger buns are no exception. Plus they’re quicker and easier than you might think to whip together!
Click the link in my bio to get the full recipes for both my homemade Beef & Bacon Burger Patties AND my Homemade Hamburger Buns. You’ll also find links to my Homemade Mayo and Homemade Rhubarbecue Sauce to top your burgers with:)
To BBQ season! And to replacing store-bought everything, one simple recipe at a time;)
I read somewhere that adding salt to the bones can cause toxins to leak from the bones. So as a pre auction I add salt after I have strained the broth.
I have not heard that salt will do that when cooking bones. The only thing I have heard is to use caution when adding salt to anything you will be canning as it becomes more concentrated and can ruin your food, making it too salty.
I personally, don’t add salt at all in most of my canning recipes so I have more control of the final product when cooking. I can always add salt when reheating or cooking while making the meal.
I like reading your emails and clicking onto some of the links which interest me. One thing that really bothers me is all of the pop ups which disrupts my reading. I know you need ads, but please minimize the pop ups which overtake the reading. It makes me bypass your blog when it gets too annoying (and I refuse to buy those products)
Hi Karen,
I understand the frustration as I too get really annoyed when there are too many pop-ups on websites. I do have a couple pop-up options to sign up for my resource library or to follow me on social media, but otherwise I try to keep it to a minimum (I hate those pop-up video ads, for example). Thank you for understanding why they are necessary for me to run my business. And once you’ve visited my site once or twice, so long as you haven’t cleared your history on your computer, you shouldn’t see those pop-ups every time.