When I corned and subsequently cooked the biggest brisket ever, I had to put it in our most capacious stockpot and then fill it with a LOT water to cover the meat. This resulted in about two gallons of broth.
Now. I don't know about you, but in the past when I've cooked store-bought corned beef, I've just thrown away the salty, nitrate-laden cooking water. It's too salty even for the dogs. But with the home-brined beef, the water it was cooked in wasn't too salty. It was . . . tasty.
IMAGINE THAT.
The MiL used half the broth to make a potato, onion, and beef soup. I used the other half to make an Asian beef and noodle soup. These two soups not only used up the broth, but also put a small dent in our enormous supply of beef soup bones.
The thing about buying beef a half or whole cow at a time is that you end up with a lot of random, time-consuming pieces. Like shank soup bones. They have quite a bit of meat on them, but they also have quite a bit of bone. Obviously. And they have to be cooked a long time to make the meat tender and easily released from the accompanying fat and cartilage.
And then, of course, I have to strip the meat. You know how much I love that.
The other seemingly inexhaustible cow product that we end up with far too much of is suet. We hang some outside for birds in the winter. I make some into tallow for cooking. We still have far, FAR too much suet.
We won't even speak of the quantities of liver. It's alarming.
The reason I've been dealing with soup bones and suet (and studiously ignoring the liver) lately is that I inventoried and reorganized our two big chest freezers yesterday. I found we don't have much beef left, except the soup bones and a ton of ribs. Plus, of course, the never ending boxes of suet and liver.
I also found a lake trout and a salmon that I thawed and presented to A. for filleting and eventual smoking. Fish that have been frozen never taste very good to me upon thawing and cooking, so I figured smoking would be the best way to use them up.
Oh! AND I found half a gallon of sweet cider that was hiding at the bottom of one of the freezers, which made Cubby happy. He does love cider.
I just never know what prizes might be found as a result of freezer organization. But I can always count on finding suet. And liver. Gross.
5 comments:
For the record.....dogs luv liver. Just sayin','
I guess A could grill the liver....'cause me...I hate the smell of it cooking , let alone eating it.
I would check a British web site for uses of suet in cooking.
More snow coming your way so the birds could use it. Beth
Dogs also love beef fat. Every time Hagrid goes out the door, he runs over to the pole with suet tied on it for the birds to see if any has fallen on the ground - for him. He's been known to stand on his hind legs to try to reach the fat. I always hand my beef trimmings to the dogs before the drool gets too deep.
If I had the suet I'd use it to make soap. The liver.... dog food?
Liver - I never liked it, either. I tried feeding some to our cat, when we had a cat. That didn't work well. Does liver contribute to a decent soup stock? Well, if you have soup bones, there's no need to use liver for that purpose.
Pardon my babbling. I'm really suffering from spring fever this year.
Yeah - there's a bunch of random business left over from the split halves of beef and halves of hog we've gotten. But thanks to you I will now go use up those shank bones to make soup and, you know what, the dog gets the weird stuff like liver. Blech. She loves it and I will not have it in my house, so fair's fair as long as she eats it outside.
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