Making Schmaltz And Hst's

 I'm ahead of schedule for the first time ever. The plan was to have the 364 Hst's completed by Friday.  Here it is Tuesday and would you look at this!  

That is 360 Hst's.  The last four will be made from the scraps produced so far.  The hard part is over for this quilt, the rest is smooth sailing.

What makes this so amazing is it's been so busy around here the last few days.  Yesterday, I was up and running at 4 a.m. with a long list of things to be done.  Laundry, stripping the beds, cleaning and reorganizing the freezer to make room for the deer meat Mr. Podunk brought home over the weekend. I also had to run into town for a few things and ship a box to my grandkids, just a few little things for them since we can't be together for Thanksgiving.  Then it was back home to can the chicken bone broth and fat.  Chicken fat is delicious.  It's great for frying, making gravy or using like butter.  I also render and can my own lard and beef tallow.  Lard makes the best pie crust and frying french fries in beef tallow takes the french fry to a whole new level.

Chicken fat or as they call it Schmaltz it's consider liquid gold in some of the finer restaurants.  The only thing better is duck fat.  I've never had duck or the fat from a duck but hope to someday.  Rendering fat from chicken is easy. I save the chicken skins and bones.  Simmer them with onion, celery, salt and a little vinegar for at least 24 hours.  Strain off the broth, cool for about 24 hours, then skim the fat off the top of the broth.  

A good bone broth will be thick like jello.  If I were freezing it, I would melt it, add it to containers and freeze.  Freezer space is limited right now so this batch will be canned to make shelf stable. 

Once the broth melted, it's added to quart jars and pressure canned for 25 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure.  The chicken fat is a different process.  If you're interested you can watch this video.  I need to get moving this morning.  There's lot's to get done because the next two days I'll be doing a lot of cooking.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!