How to use Bones in Soups?

Question

I have now a pile of chicken bones and I have heard they can be useful in making some food. How should I preserve them and where can I use them? Should I cut them into pieces and throw them into a new soup? What is their purpose in the soup? Flavor or something else? I am always looking for ways to cut my costs so any budget-cooking ideas welcomed!

I will outline here ways how I can cut my costs with bones:

1. According to Wikipedia, bones are a good source of calcium with acid boiling:

A study determined that "prolonged cooking of a bone in soup increases the calcium content of the soup when cooked at an acidic, but not at a neutral pH".

so putting some acid there (lemon juice or something else?) I can cut my milk costs, sounds great.

1. more ideas like this? How should the internals be handled?

Answer

Notice how dogs enjoy gnawing on bones? Ever been to a restaurant where they serve bone marrow?

Boiling bones in water draws flavor out of them. Most canned broth and stock you buy--beef stock, chicken stock, etc--is just this--water boiled with bones for hours.

Most literature I've read suggests using raw bones, but some recipes call for roasted bones--the ones I've seen most often involve roasted veal bones.

With all that said, I have to disagree with rumtscho. I have made stock from roasted chicken bones. The stock does still take on flavor. I'll half-agree with him: it's easier to get good flavor from raw bones.

Additionally, I've found another pitfall. I've tried to make stock from the leftover bones of bbq'd ribs. This was not a good idea. The broth had a savory flavor, as intended. Unfortunately it also had the background taste of bbq sauce. Now, when I do make stocks, I'd consider using leftover bones, but

• there have to be enough bones leftover (otherwise I get very little stock for my time or it's weak on flavor)
• the bones can't be "tainted" by other flavors (like bbq sauce)

To answer your original question, try this:

• start with a pot of plain water
• put about 4 lb of bones in per gallon of water while it's still cold, add ~1 tsp of vinegar per gallon of water
• Once the water comes to a boil, lower the heat so that it's just simmering
  • this keeps the stock from getting cloudy/white (which doesn't taste bad, just looks worse)
• leave boiling for about 6-8 hours, minimum. Longer is fine, but you won't get too much more at this point.
• turn off heat, allow stock to cool fully, strain it for the bones, refrigerate
  • you can speed up this step by putting the pot in a sink full of cool water
  • do NOT put a hot pot in your fridge. It will heat up the fridge significantly and just make the food in there go bad.

Use this to

• make soups
• make sauces (reduce it first)
• as a substitute for water in savory dish preparations (i.e. make rice with stock instead of water. Be creative here)

The main benefits here are flavor and nutrients, but I just do it for the flavor. Cutting bones up does improve the extraction process, but if the marrow is exposed already (most beef/veal bones will be) you're fine. If you save old bones, freeze them until you have enough. Don't bother trying to make stock with the bones from one chicken.

Check more discussion of this question.