Bison Stock

Last Friday we received some grass-fed bison that we had purchased.  Along with all the steaks, roasts, ground bison, etc., we got 35 pounds of soup bones.  That takes up a lot of freezer space, and while we had room enough (barely) to fit all 35 pound of them, I decided to go ahead and make use of them.  There was a total of 15 packages, so I used 7 of the biggest. 

The Lovely Bones

I looked for a few recipes and finally decided to make up my own by combining several ideas from the recipes I had found.  Here is basically what I did:

About 1/3 of the bones,which had quite a bit of meat left on them, I put straight into my pot.  The other 2/3 I cooked in the oven until nicely browned.  Then I added these to the pot.  Next went the veggies and spices: carrots, onions, celery, garlic, pepper corns, bay leaves (theses were huge-from a friend in Trinidad), and salt.  All this is then covered with water.  Then I brought it to a boil, reduced to a simmer and let it go all night.

Raw

Cooked

Veggies and spices

Cooking

The next morning I awoke to a wonderful smell, broth not coffee.  I removed all of the veggies, bones, and meat from the liquid.  I needed to let it cool enough to solidify the fat.  There was a lot of fat.  I was able to skim off 1 1/2 soup cans of fat before I chilled it.  There was a problem here.  I couldn't fit my pot into the fridge.  Not a big problem though, we still had quite a lot of snow on the back deck, so I just buried the pot in it.

Nature's Fridge-very green

Some of the skimmed fat

Gelatinous goo

After it chilled, I took the rest of the fat off and had a gelatinous glob left.  I reheated it until it was liquid and strained it three times, twice through several layers of cheese cloth.  Then I brought to a near boil and pressure canned it.  At this point I could have frozen it, but freezer space is now at a premium and since I ended up with 15 pints, it made more sense to can it.  We also tend to loses electricity several times a year.  We have never lost food due to extended outage, but just in case.

Finished product!

I still have 8 packages of bones to do.  The next batch I may cook down much more to have a concentrated stock.  It will take up less space and with garden season coming up, I'll need it!