Ready-to-use-homemade chicken broth

I'm weary of trying to quickly thaw homemade chicken stock when I suddenly need 1/2 cup or a greater quantity for a recipe.

Somewhere I read that one can keep homemade chicken broth in the refrigerator almost indefinitely by boiling it periodically or refreshing it with new homemade stock. The details escape me.

Is there a safe way to keep chicken stock handy in the refrigerator?

Rita

Rita, I'd be way more weary of holding homemade stock in the fridge for extended periods of time than of quickly thawing what you need. When I make stock, I freeze it in containers of various sizes...all the way down to ice cube trays. The small cubes of stock thaw very quickly in a pan on the stove and are handy when you need small amounts.

Rita,

I have heard that 3-4 days is the limit - don't know where I got this info however.

If I only need 1/2 cup I have used Goya dried packets to make up an emergency stock (or sometimes substitute white vino).

Ray

My memory was incorrect about the chicken stock article I read. It was not about refrigerating the stock; it was actually about leaving chicken stock out on the stove and boiling it daily. It was an article by Michael Ruhlman that raised my eyebrows. Apparently it caused quite a stir and he has since stood corrected. This article links to the original one; both are interesting looks at the debate and about toxins, etc.

http://ruhlman.com/2011/08/stock-clarifications/

Ray, I do keep some chicken base on hand but prefer to use my own stock.

Tim, I do freeze my stock in pints and quarts. The cubes have been too fussy for me and, if they are loose in a freezer bag, they tend to fuse together sometimes, trying my patience. I already have small cube trays of lemon and lime juices. If I put a standard-size ice cube tray in my fridge freezer my family will boot me out of the house. Yes, it's time to clean it out. I have a bad habit of tossing things in the fridge freezer after shopping until I have a chance to take them downstairs to my deep freezers, and then forgetting about them.

I might have to rethink the ice cube trays. Do you store the cubes in the trays or loose in bags? If trays, do you store them in bags or use the trays with lids?

Rita

Rita.
What about those small containers you get at take out places? You know the ones that have like hot-sauce, parm cheese or crushed red pepper.
My son makes Jello shots with ones he buys at GFS set on a metal sheet pan in the freezer. When ready he snaps on the lid, and stores in a zip-loc bag till partay time.

Tim

Rita, I haven't read your link yet, but why the heck would you even want to keep stock cluttering up your stove-top and then having to boil it daily? Yikes....I have better things to do. I especially have better things to do than take the risk of being holded up in the bathroom for hours on end counting floor tiles, if you follow me.
Anyhow, I just store the cubes in a zip-lock bag. Yea, they sometimes stick together, but it's never been a big deal to break them apart. I also do this method with cilantro...I always find myself with most of the bunch left when a recipe only calls for a 1/4 cup, so I just chop up the rest of the bunch and measure it out into ice cube trays by the tablespoon, then add a little water & freeze. Next time I need another small amount, I just plop the cubes into the (usually soup) pot and let it melt...works great & I'm not buying a whole bunch of cilantro just to use a little and throw the rest away. I suppose you can do that with any fresh herb for that matter.
When I first got my vac-sealer, I was sealing everything in sight...this works really good to keep cubes seperate, but is a pain.

Tim, I was in no way sanctioning the idea above. It startled me when I first read it, but I thought the debate was interesting.

It would be nice, though, to have chicken stock ready to use quickly and safely.

Maybe someone else will let us know how they handle the ice cubes.

Rita

Rita, I didn't think you did!!! It's all good...thanks for the link, I manage a restaurant & when I see stuff like that, I'm amazed....we have to jump through every hoop imaginable...I can only wonder what a health inspector would do if we did that!

I use base more often than homemade. I use a LOT of chicken stock, in frequency terms. I usually use homemade when I need a larger quantity, base (I am partial to Better than Bouillon organic) when I need smaller amounts.

When I make it I always make much more than I need. I freeze some in ice cube trays. The cubes then go into a large Ziploc - something much larger than needed, like a gallon-size - so that I can press the air out well and lay it flat. If cubes have stuck together when needed, I simply drop the bag a time or two on the floor.

I also freeze in 2 cup and 1 quart containers as those quantities, alone or in combination, are what I most often need when I need stock.

In Fla I have two large fridges; in Okla one of 'normal' size; in Vegas a small one. I have not had a fridge this small since San Francisco in the 70s. Something to get used to. I freeze less.

When I make chicken stock I reduce the ever loving heck out of it, like 70% or greater reduction over low heat. In this way one stock pot fits in two normal ice cube trays.

I freeze the resulting glace in ice cube trays. The cubes I either use directly out of the trays or save in gallon plastic bags like Kevin mentions above.

By my estimation one reduced cube is approximately one half cup of stock. In this way I can use it very flexibly: I can add one, two, or three cubes to any recipe. If I want to add the flavor without adding all the extra liquid, I just add the ice cubes. They melt fast enough that it's never an issue. If I need the liquid like for risotto for example, then I just reconstitute the cubes in hot water.

I've fiddled with freezing non-reduced stock and imo it just takes up too much room. You can always add water, but there's no need to store all that frozen water if you can boil it off and store the essence (flavor, gelatine) of the stock without any loss in quality.

Tim, that's why I was so surprised. From someone so well-known, too. If you had time to read the whole article, at least he owned up to learning something he should have been familiar with some time ago.

Kevin, same here. I freeze in pint and quarts as well. I'll try cubes and see how they work for me. I do have some BTB organic chicken base. Sometimes I feel that the 1 teaspoon base per cup water is a bit weak, and then there is the salt issue when adding more.

Has anyone tried the Penzey's bases?

Dave, I used to reduce my stock to a rubbery glaze, but it takes too much time and it darkens, even when reconstituted, and despite a new exhaust fan, it smells up the house. Right or wrong, my instincts tell me that some flavor is lost in the steam. I hear you, though, that stocks do take up a lot of space in the freezer. Maybe we're not using the stocks enough? Remember, we're getting into soup season (although all seasons are soup seasons, IMHO).

Rita

I havent tried the penzeys bases but I use Better than Bullion in a pinch.

I've been known to use the Knorr cubes especially the italian mushroom cubes, but I think that they're mostly salt bombs so I tend to avoid them.

Hi Rita,
I freeze in 1 C and 3 C disposable containers. If I need less than what's in the container, I thaw it for a bit in the microwave. I find that the entire thing gets soft enough so that I can use a knife or spoon to cut the mostly frozen block up to get what I need. The rest goes back into the freezer. This is relatively concentrated broth and maybe that explains why it seems to soften a bit before it thaws completely.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">This is relatively concentrated broth and maybe that explains why it seems to soften a bit before it thaws completely. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Correct.

Rita- As often as I find Ruhlman sometimes annoying I wouldn't blame him much. Despite the 'omigod' nature of the article the information is not quite accurate. If you read carefully, you'll see that no one really has a problem with Ruhlman's former practice, at least on key levels. Much is along the lines of 'if he didn't reheat it first to boiling and served it as is...' and other similar stuff delivered in the typical scare-the-pants-off-them breathless tone.

I am only a little surprised at Pete Snyder's comments. (I have for some time been a member of the listserv Pete and many other microbiologists and food safety people are on and have learned MUCH from him and them, much of which is reflected in my food safety posts on this board.) The thing is, I am sure he new he would be quoted and publicly at that.

As Pete well knows, the chance of C. botulinum in a stock that was cooked then sat out is vanishingly small. So is the chance of B. cereus. He also knows that C. bot toxin is destroyed almost instantaneously at 85C (185F) - boiling not needed, though he states this. It's a CYA approach, much like ServSafe and the Feds use. Very unfortunate.

There is a reason why Ruhlman has done this for years without an issue. It is because the odds of an issue are minuscule as long as rather mindless precautions are taken. Simply covering the pot would pretty much do it, preventing contamination from airborne S. aureus (a toxigenic bacteria) and reheating before use.

Am I advocating Ruhlman's practice? No. But not because of any (mis)perceived or, in the case of the article, nearly contrived, danger. I've had stock that's been left out like this on numerous occasions. It plainly sucks. The quality goes downhill pretty quickly. That's what surprised me. That someone like Ruhlman would not have immediately noticed this and instantly abandoned the practice. How difficult is it to cool then chill or freeze stock?

Hi again Rita,
I should have mentioned that I frequently have a tupperware container in the freezer labeled "soup starter". I put extra chicken broth and leftover veggies (with appropriate flavorings) and use this when I am making a big pot of soup. I do not follow any particular recipe for the soup, just taste and adjust with whatever I have.

Just another thought for you to consider.

Ray