Historically-Inspired Recipes: Chicken Broth

People are very interested in how their ancestors ate.  Look no further than the popularity of "paleo" diets, based on the idea that humans were designed to eat certain things in certain ways.  American history is riddled with tales of poor nutrition, epidemics, starving times, and people possibly eating their friends on the Oregon Trail.*  In spite of these problems, most people in America did find ways of making do with little, producing basic but nutritious food.  Bone broth was one of the most common, and I will experiment with this today.  While a bit time-consuming, it's not actually difficult, and tastes loads better than store-bought broth.

Soups and stews were extremely popular foods in the American past.  They can be made with a variety of types of bones -- whatever was available.  Chickens were commonly-kept livestock and reproduced quickly.  Stews and soups were warm and filling, could be stretched to feed a crowd, and made with minimal ingredients if necessary.

Step 1:  Put in chicken & water.

It begins with a chicken and water.

Put a chicken, whole or cut up, into 4 quarts of water in a large pot.  Bring the water to a boil. then turn it down to a simmer.  That's it:  chicken in water.

I usually let it go about an hour to an hour and a half.  The historical cook would probably go chop firewood or begin another load of handwashed laundry.  But you can put on an episode of Law and Order.

Step 2:  Skim off the foam.

Keep checking on the broth.  Skim off the foam at the top and give the pieces a stir so they don't stick.  If you have cats or small children, cover partially.  Historically this would have cooked slowly over fire.  The boiling step was critical to cook the meat and disinfect the horrid water they were likely using.

After the hour and change has transpired, remove the chicken from the pot, and keep the broth simmering.  With two forks, shred the chicken into a bowl.  You won't have to work very hard to get the meat off. (I am not showing a picture of the carcass-y broth at this stage.  This blog has some dignity.)  This is also the stage where any pets around you will start to lose their ever-loving minds.

Step 3:  Profit.  No, wait. Taste.

Now comes the real old-timey part.  Put the (relatively) cleaned bones back into the pot.  The broth should have a nice golden color.  If you taste it, it will have a strong chicken flavor but still be quite thin.  I usually like to add a few peppercorns at this point.  Put the lid back on the pot and let it go another hour.

More Law and Order?  Don't mind if I do!

After that's done, turn off the pot.  Note:  you can let it go for more than an hour.  It'll boil down and get thicker.  Here's where we'll diverge from the historical recipe.  Past cooks would allow a fat layer to form and solidify at the top.  This would let the broth last longer, if they weren't making a soup right away.  They'd simply peel back the fat layer, take some of the broth, and set the fat back down.  This protected the broth from bacteria.  But, because we're hungry and because we have refrigerators and freezers, this isn't strictly necessary.  Be sure to strain carefully so no small bones remain.

The ingredients of your broth are chicken, water, and perhaps a few peppercorns.  But it tastes pretty darn good!  There's also a ton of it -- people in the past weren't making soup for one!  You can season the broth -- turmeric, white pepper, parsley, thyme, sage, and garlic salt are all good choices.  You can add the shredded chicken back to it with some carrots, celery and pasta, give it a quick simmer and have a traditional chicken noodle soup.  You can use it as a base for other soups, for braising vegetables and other meats, or you can freeze it in Ziplock bags or tupperware for use later, like when you're sick and hungry for comfort food.  Or you can just invite everyone over for a historical meal!

If you try the recipe, leave a review in the comments!  And I promise the next recipe will be bone-free and vegetarian.  *No Donners were harmed in the making of this meal.*